Game 22 - Nola Flounders; Phillies Bolster Bullpen with Trades

2019 Bowman Heritage
#53P-122

Braves 11, Phillies 2
Game 22 - Friday Night, August 21st in Atlanta
Record - 9-13, Tied for 4th Place, 4 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Aaron Nola had his first rough outing of the year and the offense  stayed mostly quiet again in this 11-2 shellacking by the Braves.

What It Means:  At least help is on the way for the bullpen.  The Phillies acquired David Hale (rhp) from the Yankees before the game and then Brandon Workman (rhp) and Heath Hembree (rhp) from the Red Sox during the game.

What Happened:  Nola was chased after 2 2/3 innings, and his final line wasn't pretty - 6 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, 2 home runs.  Costly errors from Alec Bohm at third led to three more unearned runs.  Reggie McClain and Cole Irvin contributed to increase the bullpen's ERA with a combined 3 2/3 innings, allowing 7 runs (4 earned).  Scott Kingery made an acrobatic leaping catch in center in the second to save a few more runs.

Featured Card:  JoJo Romero made his impressive big league debut in the bottom of the 8th, striking out the side on 12 pitches.  Adam Duvall, Austin Riley and Johan Camargo went down in order.

Transaction:  The Phillies made a few bullpen moves prior to his game.  First, and more painfully, Jose Alvarez (lhp) was placed on the injured list with a testicular contusion suffered in Sunday afternoon's debacle.  Romero (lhp), the 29th man from the double header remained on the roster.

In the first of hopefully a few trades, the Phillies acquired Hale from the Yankees for Addison Russ (rhp).  It's tough to see Russ go, and we first met him back at a BlueClaws game in 2018.  He's been pitching in Lehigh Valley at the team's alternate training site since July.  He appeared in 55 games last season for Double-A Reading, all in relief and as the team's primary closer, and had a 2.54 ERA with 22 saves.  Russ has exactly 200 minor league strikeouts over 152 2/3 innings pitched.

2019 Grandstand Reading Fightin Phils #30

2014 Topps #363

Hale has pitched for the Braves, Rockies, Yankees, Twins and Yankees again in parts of seven seasons dating back to 2013.  He had appeared in five games for the Yankees so far this year, and had a 3.00 ERA over 6 innings, with 7 strikeouts and 3 walks.  He was designated for assignment on August 17th, who needed his roster spot for the recently activated Aroldis Chapman.

To make room on the 40-man roster for Hale, Austin Davis (lhp) was designated for assignment.  I'll write about the Red Sox trade in a separate post.

2020 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2020 Season Summary Index / 2020 Chachi Set Checklist

15 Prospects Coming to Camp as Non-Roster Invitees

2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #1

2019 Grandstand Reading Fightin Phils #10

2019 R-Phils Phillies Top 25 Prospects #5

2019 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #10

2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #7

Right on schedule, the Phillies released a list of 15 prospects invited to camp as non-roster invitees.  These 15 join the list of the prior four (officially) announced invitees.  For this next batch, instead of listing out their last major baseball card appearance, I've listed their most recent card added to my collection as most of these guys are still waiting for their first major baseball card appearance.

For me, the two most interesting names on this list are Alec Bohm and Spencer Howard, as both have a realistic chance of contributing to the 2020 Phillies.  Bohm could be the team's regular third baseman at some point this upcoming season while Howard could find himself in the starting pitching rotation.

2019 Topps Heritage Minor League #27

2018 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #13

2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #12

2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #13

2019 Grandstand Clearwater Threshers #6

Player (position) - 2019 Organization - Last Major Baseball Card Appearance

1.  Phil Gosselin (inf) - Phillies - 2017 Topps Heritage #135 (Diamondbacks)

2.  Josh Harrison (inf) - Tigers - 2019 Topps Heritage #552 (Tigers)

3.  Mikie Mahtook (of) - Tigers - 2019 Topps #477 (Tigers)

4.  Matt Szczur (of) - Diamondbacks - 2018 Topps Heritage #528 (Padres)

Player (position) - 2019 Organization - Last Card Added to Collection

5.  Alec Bohm (inf) - Phillies - 2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #1

6.  Connor Brogdon (rhp) - Phillies - 2019 Grandstand Clearwater Threshers #44

7.  Kyle Dohy (lhp) - Phillies - 2019 R-Phils Phillies Top 25 Prospects #5

8.  Tyler Gilbert (lhp) - Phillies - 2019 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #10
9.  Darick Hall (1b) - Phillies - 2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #7
10.  Spencer Howard (rhp) - Phillies - 2019 Topps Heritage Minor League #27
11.  Damon Jones (lhp) - Phillies - 2018 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #13
12.  Henri Lartigue (c) - Phillies - 2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #12
13.  Austin Listi (1b-of) - Phillies - 2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #13
14.  Nick Maton (ss) - Phillies - 2019 Grandstand Clearwater Threshers #6
15.  Mickey Moniak (of) - Phillies - 2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #15
16.  Ramon Rosso (rhp) - Phillies - 2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #19
17.  Addison Russ (rhp) - Phillies - 2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #20
18.  Zach Warren (lhp) - Phillies - 2019 Grandstand Clearwater Threshers #33
19.  Luke Williams (inf-of) - Phillies - 2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #23

2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #15

2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #19

2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #20

2019 Grandstand Clearwater Threshers #33

2019 Choice Reading Fightin Phils #23

6th Annual Lakewood @BlueClaws Outing #BluePaws

At some point during the offseason, I received an e-mail from the Lakewood BlueClaws asking fans to submit pictures of their dogs in connection with the team's 2018 Bark in the Park promotion.  The pictures would be featured on a special jersey to be worn by the players and coaches for the game, and I immediately e-mailed the team a picture of our dog Chewbacca.

Fast forward to last night, and we made the 90 minute trek to Lakewood to watch the BlueClaws play with a collage of dogs, including our very own Chewbacca, on their uniforms.  Chewbacca officially becomes the first member of our family to appear on a jersey in a professional baseball game.  He has promised not to let this go to his head.


The BlueClaws lost the game, 4-2 to the West Virginia Power, but we once again had a blast.  Doug went to work before the game scoring autographs while Ben was happy to just get his picture taken with some of the players.  Both boys came away with baseballs with Doug getting tossed a ball from catcher Rodolfo Duran and Ben getting a ball of his own from coach Milver Reyes.

The BlueClaws auctioned off the special dog jerseys during an in-game silent auction, and we bid on and won three of the jerseys.  (As an aside, I probably got a little over ambitious and paranoid with my bidding as we wanted to make sure we brought home at least one of the jerseys and of course we ended up with three.  My initial paranoia aside, I was happy that proceeds from the auctions went towards BlueClaws Charities.)  We won the jerseys of outfielder Josh Stephen (#8), infielder Daniel Brito (#21) and coach Tyler Henson (#9).


Following the game, we were invited to the indoor batting cage area to pick up the jerseys, meet the players and get even more autographs.  The entire team was seated at tables circling the room, ready and willing to sign anything handed to them.  When all was said and done, both boys came away with baseballs autographed by the entire BlueClaws team and Doug also managed to get the players to sign a BlueClaws mini bat.  What an amazing experience and the ride home in a torrential thunderstorm gave all of us plenty of time to reflect on the cool night we had just shared.

For posterity's sake, I've created several limited edition Chachi insert cards and I also wanted to list the full roster below to help the boys identify the autographs they gathered on their team balls (and bat).  Thanks again to the BlueClaws and Bark in the Park!

2 - Marty Malloy MG 3 - Randy Alcantara 4 - Luis Ramirez 5 - Dalton Guthrie 7 - Danny Mayer 8 - Josh Stephen 9 - Tyler Henson CO 10 - Quincy Nieporte 11 - Brad Bergesen CO 13 - Yahir Gurrola 14 - Jake Scheiner 15 - Addison Russ 16 - Luis Carrasco 17 - Rodolfo Duran 18 - Jonathan Hennigan

20 - David Parkinson 21 - Daniel Brito 22 - Spencer Howard 23 - Gregori Rivero 24 - Julian Garcia 25 - Colby Fitch 26 - Kevin Markham 27 - Will Stewart 28 - Milver Reyes CO 31 - Kyle Dohy 33 - Zach Warren 44 - Connor Brogdon 54 - Ramos Rosso 55 - Damon Jones

Memory Lane 
2013 BlueClaws Game
2014 BlueClaws Game
2015 BlueClaws Game
2016 BlueClaws Game
2017 BlueClaws Game