Philadelphia Phillies: New-look bullpen the silent heroes from Opening Day

While Jean Segura’s late-game heroics ultimately stole the show, Thursday’s Opening Day victory for the Philadelphia Phillies was one that actually highlighted their biggest weakness from the year prior.

The bullpen.

Aaron Nola was solid enough in his first start of the new season, allowing just two runs in 6.2 innings of work. However, his impromptu exit from the ballgame following a pinch-hit HR from the likes of Pablo “Panda” Sandoval left Joe Girardi in a bit of a tight spot. He was going to be forced to turn things over to his bullpen for the remainder of the game, without a lead, going up against some of the best hitters in the National League.

If this was 2020, and the likes of Brandon Workman, Heath Hembree, and Adam Morgan were the ones trotting out of the ‘pen to pitch the 7th, 8th, 9th, and ultimately 10th inning – the Phillies would almost be guaranteeing themselves a loss on Opening Day.

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However, the Philadelphia Phillies – guided by new president Dave Dombrowski – made a conceited effort to improve their bullpen this past offseason, and some of their newer faces did exactly what they were brought in to do.

Archie Bradley closed out the 7th inning on just seven pitches, Jose Alvarado pitched a rather stressful but scoreless 8th inning, Hector Neris pitched a perfect 9th inning, and Connor Brogdon shut the door on the Braves in the 10th.

Brogdon was particularly impressive, as he recorded outs against the likes of Freddie Freeman and Marcell Ozuna with a runner in scoring position. The young right-hander walks away with a much-deserved win this afternoon.

It wasn’t a *perfect* outing by the Phillies bullpen today (specifically when looking at Alvarado and his lack of pitch control), but it was a stark contrast compared to last year’s bullpen and how they usually fared. The group of Bradley, Alvarado, Neris, and Brogdon combined for 3.1 innings of scoreless work going up against an offense that was a few outs away from making the World Series last year – that’s impressive.

There was also a sense of excitement, as opposed to pure dread, watching guys like Alvarado and Brogdon pitch. The former Tampa Bay Ray cracked 100 MPH on a few occasions during his first outing as a Phillie, and Brogdon’s changeup was dancing all over the place.

The Philadelphia Phillies bullpen combined for 3.1 scoreless innings.

Despite getting to Max Fried early, the Phillies offense only managed to put up three runs this afternoon, which is definitely less than what they’d typically expect considering how much talent their lineup boasts. The team’s pitching staff likely won’t be asked to be this effective regularly, but it’s refreshing to know that they can handle the pressure (to an extent) when occasionally asked to do so.

We’re 0.006% of the way through the 2021 season, so it’s obviously way too early to make any sort of declarations regarding the Phils’ new-look bullpen. However, they showed a sense of “life” this afternoon that we haven’t seen in quite some time. At the very least, this revamped relief room has the potential to succeed moving forward.