Nick Pivetta, Vince Velasquez turning things around with Phillies

The last two days have seen Philadelphia Phillies pitchers Nick Pivetta and Vince Velasquez find new light in what has been a rough 2019 season.

A few weeks back, the Philadelphia Phillies had two of their more promising pitchers in rather unfavorable situations.

While Vince Velasquez had a stint on the injured list, Nick Pivetta was smack in the middle of a near month-long stint in Lehigh Valley.

Neither pitchers were in a favorable situation, and neither knew what their future held in Philadelphia. Would there be a role for Velasquez when he came back? When would Pivetta get recalled back to the majors?

Those questions would soon be answered, but there was still plenty of uncertainty. Velasquez would be shifted to the bullpen, and Pivetta would regain his spot in the starting rotation, although it was with a short leash nonetheless.

The early returns in the bullpen for Velasquez were inconsistent, to say the least. Regardless of that, he will now be looked at to fulfill a much larger role, especially late in games. Thanks to the injury to Seranthony Dominguez, Velasquez will be looked at to get big outs late in games moving forward.

We got the first glimpse of what Velasquez’s new role may look like on Friday night when he came in and made quick work of the Cincinnati Reds hitters. The Phillies needed and will continue to need Velasquez to be big.

In his first go-around in the setup role, the results were favorable.

Move to Saturday afternoon, and another one of those formerly disgruntled pitchers were on the mound. Pivetta looked good in his last start against the Los Angeles Dodgers after a rough first inning and looked to build off of that against the Reds.

Pivetta was not just dominant, but turned in the best start of his big league career. After surrendering one first-inning run, Pivetta cruised to the first complete game of his big league career.

The Phillies are going to need more of that from Pivetta, the once pegged breakout candidate who was quickly demoted after failing to meet expectations. Now back, early returns show the Phillies may be getting the Pivetta they were hoping for prior to the season.

Obviously, a lot can change moving forward, but a more consistent Pivetta can go a long way in paving the way towards a division title. The starting rotation has been wildly inconsistent thus far, so some sort of stability will for sure be welcome.

Pivetta’s now bullpen counterpart in Velasquez is going to have to be big as well. No position group in baseball has been more decimated by injuries than the Phillies bullpen, seeing seven relievers in total now on the injured list.

Having Pivetta pitch well will be more of a luxury, Velasquez pitching well has become more of a necessity at this point. The Phillies are limited on options in the bullpen and will need Velasquez to get big outs down the road as they get set to enter another tough stretch.

It has been a long and winding road for both Pivetta and Velasquez these last two months. Now, with both back and in prominent roles, the time is now for them to step up since it may be their last shots to make an impression at the big league level.

But most importantly, the Phillies need these two to be very big in order to keep pace in the National League since things are heating up fast heading towards the middle of June.