Category: Phillies/MLB

The Phillies’ 11-4 win over the Yankees on Sunday ended a four-game slide, and it also provided a needed reset for the bullpen heading into this week’s road trip.

Cristopher Sánchez turned the ball over to Tim Mayza for the seventh inning on Sunday, and Chase Shugart pitched the last two innings. The Phillies’ 11 runs were crucial, because several of their higher-leverage relief arms were on the shelf.

José Alvarado and Jonathan Bowlan were unavailable Sunday after appearing in two consecutive games. The bullpen was stretched even thinner as Orion Kerkering was down for four days with flu-like symptoms, but the righty is back to full health and was available on Monday, according to interim manager Don Mattingly.

“He played catch, but we weren’t willing to use him [Sunday],” Mattingly said. “But now he’s back, so that helps, too.”

The unit will be closer to full strength as they meet a scuffling Marlins team that entered Monday on a 12-game losing streak, which has them three games back of the final wild-card spot. But even so, the Phillies know they can’t afford to take any team lightly.

“We’re not exactly on fire,” Mattingly said. “And I think our guys understand that we got to win games, and Miami’s a tough team. They do a lot of things. They run, they mix and match you. Before that streak, they were one of the hottest teams in baseball. So those things cannot be part of the equation, right? Our thought should be to jump them early and try to keep them down, right? Make them not ride that, get a wave going their direction. We’re trying to create our own wave.”

After dropping three straight series at home against the Mets, Dodgers, and Yankees, posting a 3-6 record, the Phillies have a more forgiving schedule coming up. As of Monday’s standings, the Phillies’ next 10 series are against teams out of playoff position.

Fifth starter spot

Mattingly maintains that he doesn’t want to use Thursday’s off day to skip the fifth spot in the starting rotation, even though the Phillies have lost 11 consecutive games started by that spot.

The Phillies are expected to go with a bullpen game on Friday at Baltimore, and Brian Keller is expected to play a role in it after making his long-awaited major league debut on Saturday.

“He threw strikes, got outs, gave us three innings. Kind of what we were looking for that day. … It was one of our better bullpen games, I think,” Mattingly said of Keller.

Schwarber to start at first Tuesday

Kyle Schwarber took ground balls at first base again Monday. He is expected to start there on Tuesday, while Mattingly will give Bryce Harper what he described as a “half day” by starting him at designated hitter. Schwarber played 10 innings at first earlier this season and made five putouts in five chances.

Schwarber moving back into the field for a day will give Harper a chance to reset at the plate. He has a .156 average and .607 OPS in nine games since the break.

Harper has particularly struggled against left-handers of late. In 34 plate appearances against lefties in July, Harper has recorded just two hits. He has drawn five walks but has struck out 13 times.

Extra bases

Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs (left wrist inflammation) is eligible to come off the injured list on Tuesday. Since Rafael Marchán was placed on the injured list with patellar tendinitis in his left knee on July 23, J.T. Realmuto has started four straight games. His bat has heated up after the All-Star break with a .379 average in 29 at-bats. “For me, the biggest thing when J.T.’s good, he’s in his legs, and the leg kick’s not quite as big,” Mattingly said. “J.T.’s kind of getting back to looking like himself.” … Aaron Nola (3-8, 5.82 ERA) is scheduled to start Tuesday against Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara (10-6, 4.01).

Alec Bohm fouled off back-to-back two-strike pitches. He took a close pitch to work the count full and got a piece of another to extend the at-bat.

Then, at last, on Pitch No. 9, Bohm dropped a two-out, three-run double past the diving left fielder, the Phillies’ biggest hit Sunday night in a sweep-averting 11-4 victory over the Aaron Judge-less Yankees.

Eureka!

Hallelujah would’ve been an equally appropriate word. Because no team has gotten less production from its right-handed hitters, even prompting Yankees manager Aaron Boone to call for an intentional walk to load the bases to get to Bohm.

“It’s happened a lot to me in my career,” said Bohm, who often bats behind Bryce Harper. “But, yeah, that time it kind of [ticked] me off.”

Why this time? It seemed sensible that the Yankees preferred a righty-on-righty matchup over Will Warren facing lefty-swinging Brandon Marsh. And Bohm was 20-for-104 over his previous 27 games.

“Honestly, I just feel like I’m kind of the type of player that, through most of my career, you haven’t really wanted to come up in those situations,” Bohm said. “So, I’m just kind of tired of people thinking that I’m an easy out.”

Fair enough. Bohm is a .333 career hitter with the bases loaded, but was only 2-for-9 this season coming into the game. And, in general, Phillies right-handed batters have a worst-in-the-majors .278 on-base percentage and .637 OPS.

It’s no wonder, then, that the Phillies continue to seek even marginal help before next Monday’s trade deadline, according to officials from multiple teams. But given the scarcity of right-handed hitting and the state of their farm system, a marginal upgrade is all they might find.

It’s incumbent, then, upon Bohm — Trea Turner and J.T. Realmuto, too — to balance out a lineup that is disproportionally dependent on Harper, Kyle Schwarber, and Marsh, each of whom bat from the left side.

Another left-handed hitter, Bryson Stott, came up big against the Yankees. He homered and singled against Warren, tacked on a three-run double, and matched his career-high with five RBIs.

But given the state of things, Bohm’s duel with Warren in the third inning in sold-out Citizens Bank Park (credit an assist to the Yankees fans who showed up) turned a two-run game into a low-stress giggler to snap a four-game losing skid.

On a night when Cristopher Sánchez lacked his sharpest stuff, to boot.

“Yeah, it definitely feels good,” said Bohm, batting .221 with a .650 OPS after a brutal start to the season. “I mean, it’s not like I’m mad at them for doing it, or mad at anybody in particular. I know what the numbers say. But I don’t feel like I’m an out going up there. And I think, in those situations, you want to make them feel like they made a mistake.”

Earlier this week, Bohm said he was pleased with his swing and his approach at the plate, even if the results didn’t line up with how he was feeling.

“I’m hitting the ball hard, I’m swinging at the right pitches for the most part, and I’m doing all the things that should be leading to success,” he said. “And it’s kind of been hit-or-miss with the result.

“The process, I guess you could say, has been good more often than not. It’s just not showing up as much on the numbers’ side of things.”

Bohm’s approach against Warren backed that self-assessment.

In a 2-2 count, he fouled off a sweeper and a fastball, then didn’t chase after a fastball that nearly clipped the outer edge of the zone and fouled off another sweeper.

Warren came back with a down-and-away sweeper, and Bohm reached out and stroked it to left field, where Max Schuemann dove despite not having a chance to catch it.

“I wasn’t sitting on a sweeper,” Bohm said. “I was just really trying to fight off anything I could. I was just trying to find a way to hit one forward, really. And then I finally got there with the sweeper.”

Already missing Judge, the Yankees played without left fielder Cody Bellinger, too, after he went on the injured list earlier in the day with a strained left hamstring. The Phillies capitalized on poor outfield play, not only on Bohm’s double. Center fielder Trent Grisham took a poor route to a leadoff triple in the first inning from Turner, who scored on Schwarber’s sacrifice fly.

Stott homered in the second inning to push the lead to 2-0 before Bohm broke it open in the third. The Phillies claimed it was more indicative of their offense than the previous four games — all losses, in which they scored a total of seven runs.

“I think that it obviously shows that we can do it, and that we’re not just talking about it. We have it in us,” Stott said. “We know that. It’s just, trying to swing at our pitches and get guys on and move them in.”

Don Mattingly put it more simply — no less than four times in eight minutes after the game.

“It’s what we’re capable of,” he said.

Yet the Phillies went only 3-6 on their post-All-Star-break homestand against the Mets, Dodgers, and Yankees. They will spend the next week in Miami and Baltimore. Their next home game coincides with the trade deadline.

By then, maybe they’ll have another right-handed bat.

Either way, it would help if Bohm keeps producing.

A half-hour after the final out, Brian Keller still hadn’t peeled off the uniform.

There wasn’t time. Not between taking photos on the field with family and talking with reporters in the middle of the Phillies’ clubhouse. Besides, after 10 years, two countries, and multiple surgeries — one of which he paid for out of pocket — he didn’t know if he’d ever get to wear it.

And so Keller was still decked out in red pinstripes, No. 48 on his back, when he poked his head into the office where pitching coach Caleb Cotham and assistant Mark Lowy were packing up for the night.

“I hope I get to do it again,” Keller told them.

Hey, why not?

Look, the Phillies didn’t make any guarantees when they called up Keller, age 32, 10 years after he was a 39th-round pick in an MLB draft that has since been curtailed to 20 rounds. But they’ve searched for a No. 5 starter since demoting Andrew Painter to triple A last month and haven’t won a game from the fifth-starter spot in 11 tries since May 18.

They didn’t win this one, either, not after the Yankees broke a tie in the sixth inning to send the Phillies to a 3-1 loss, their fourth defeat in a row. But Keller did his part, following lefty opener Tim Mayza and delivering three solid innings that were tainted only by a two-out homer from Austin Wells.

Keller might’ve kept going, too, except interim manager Don Mattingly wanted a lefty to face a left-handed pocket of the Yankees’ lineup in the sixth inning. Kyle Backhus walked the leadoff man, who scored on Cody Bellinger’s two-out single against Seth Johnson.

But don’t let those details rain on the parade of a righty from Wisconsin, 18 miles northwest of Milwaukee, whose long shot to reach the majors got even longer a few years ago.

It was 2023, and Keller was pitching in Japan when he blew out his elbow. He had Tommy John surgery and missed two seasons trying to come back. When further issues arose, he paid “12 grand maybe, something like that,” to undergo a nerve transposition.

“I wasn’t with an organization, and it wasn’t a medically necessary surgery, technically,” Keller said. “It was necessary from the viewpoint of getting back to playing professional baseball, so, hey, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, right?

“Luckily, I made a little bit of money in Japan to basically buy me a little bit of time to be able to go through that rehab process. … Took a little hit, but we’re here. So we’re all right.”

Keller always pictured what it would be like to reach the majors, but if he’s being honest, the image in his mind had dimmed.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” said Keller, who signed with the Phillies in May and had a 2.23 ERA in triple A. “During rehab, it was like, I don’t know if you’d call it a setback, but somewhat setback after setback to the point where, yeah, I just didn’t know if it was ever going to happen, pitching again professionally, much less playing in the big leagues.

“But, yeah, here we are.”

Indeed, there was Keller, running in from the bullpen to begin the third inning in front of a personal cheering section — “I think 20 people, total,” he said — and striking out Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a slider.

Keller sidestepped a one-out single by Paul Goldschmidt in the fourth inning and struck out Chisholm again on another slider and José Caballero on a fastball to end the fifth. He threw 39 pitches, 29 strikes.

“He handled himself fine,” Mattingly said. “Threw strikes. He went after them. He was on the attack. He wasn’t walking people. So, that part of it I like.”

Enough to get another chance next Friday night in Baltimore?

“It’s something we’ll talk about as we get there,” Mattingly said. “But he did fine.”

Just in case, he left on the jersey to make the most of his first night in the majors.

“Nobody can take that from me, right?” he said. “Proud of that.”

Nine days before the trade deadline, the discussions continued on the executive level of Citizens Bank Park about the Phillies’ most advisable strategy to improve the roster.

The debate surely got more robust Saturday night.

Go ahead and take your pick of the Phillies’ most pressing need: a back-end starting pitcher, a right-handed bat, another late-inning reliever. The answer is there aren’t any wrong answers. Not after each shortcoming was exposed again in a 3-1 loss to the Yankees.

In losing their fourth consecutive game — and falling to 2-6 since returning from the All-Star break (slumber?) — the Phillies were silenced again by a left-handed starter. They lost their 11th game in a row from the No. 5 starter spot. And struggling lefty José Alvarado gave up a late home run.

Oh, and for good measure, they backed the statistical evidence that they’re the worst defensive team in baseball with two errors from third baseman Alec Bohm and a pivotal two-out pop fly to shallow left field that went through shortstop Trea Turner’s hands.

“I tried getting there as best I could,” said Turner, who couldn’t come up with a back-to-the-infield basket catch that preceded Cody Bellinger’s go-ahead single. “It’s just kind of an awkward angle. You don’t want to overrun it or start judging it when it’s kind of behind you. But, yeah, I thought I had a shot. Just couldn’t come up with it.”

Once the Phillies fell behind, they couldn’t come back. They managed only seven hits, six against Yankees lefty starter Ryan Weathers despite loading the lineup with right-handed bats.

(Side note: The Phillies are tied for last in the majors with a .278 on-base percentage from their right-handed hitters.)

At 56-49, the Phillies remain in position for the second National League wild card. But they have the look of a team that needs the kick-start that an active trade deadline can provide.

Tick, tock, Dave Dombrowski.

“Yeah, it hasn’t been our best,” Turner said. “We know that we want to play better. I think it’s just kind of going back to what Donnie [Mattingly] said early on when he got the [managerial] job: ‘It’s just three hours of competing, and don’t let your foot off the gas.’

“I don’t think it’s a lack of effort, but I think we need to get that back a little bit.”

The Yankees took the lead in the sixth inning against the underbelly of the Phillies’ bullpen, which followed 32-year-old righty Brian Keller after three innings as a bulk pitcher in his major league debut. (More on Keller shortly.)

Mattingly called on lefty Kyle Backhus, just back from triple A, to face a left-handed pocket of the Yankees’ order. Backhus walked Austin Wells, then struck out Ryan McMahon and dangerous Ben Rice.

On came Seth Johnson for a righty-on-righty matchup with Paul Goldschmidt, who hit the bloop into shallow left field.

“When it went up, I thought it was going to be an out,” Mattingly said. “It was deeper than I thought. It’s a player making an over-the-shoulder catch, so it’s not a routine play or anything like that. I felt like Trea was there. But I think it’s a play Trea probably thinks he can make.”

The Phillies are now 5-21 from the No. 5 spot in the rotation. In their latest attempt to solve the fifth-starter riddle, they opened with lefty Tim Mayza for two innings before bringing in Keller.

It actually worked.

Well, kind of.

Mayza retired six batters in a row, then handed over a 1-0 lead. And although Keller gave up a game-tying two-out homer to Austin Wells, he acquitted himself well by allowing just the one run on two hits in three innings.

Keller’s story is improbable. A former 39th-round pick (the draft is only 20 rounds now), he kicked around the Yankees’ farm system for most of seven years in the minors before going to Japan, where he made only three starts before blowing out his elbow. He had Tommy John surgery, missed two seasons, and hooked on with the depth-deprived Phillies on a minor league contract in May.

And now, this.

“It was amazing,” Keller said. “Dream come true. You picture it over and over. You picture it going well; you picture it going poorly, unfortunately. But I’m glad it turned out all right. I was surprisingly calm out there. Yeah, just really happy.”

If only it ended as well for the Phillies, who haven’t won a series against team with a winning record at the time since June 22-25 in Washington. Their last winning series against a team currently in playoff position was June 5-7 against the White Sox.

At least they will have Cristopher Sánchez on the mound Sunday night to try to avoid a sweep.

“When you hit a stretch where you’re not playing good, you’re running into some good teams and you’re not scoring, it makes it tough,” Mattingly said. “It doesn’t mean we can’t beat them, right? It just means we got to get going again.”

Brandon Marsh started the All-Star Game last week.

Now, he’s longer starting every day for the Phillies.

Marsh wasn’t in the lineup Saturday night against the Yankees, the second time this week that he sat out against a left-handed starting pitcher. It could be an uncomfortable situation, so interim manager Don Mattingly met with Marsh to explain his reasoning.

“Honestly,” Mattingly said, “you have to look at the numbers at some point.”

And these are Marsh’s numbers against lefties: .233 batting average, .645 OPS.

So, Marsh insists he will do what he’s done for most of his career and set aside his ego for a manager who wants to play the matchups. In this case, it meant staying ready to replace righty-hitting Edmundo Sosa in left field or Bryan De La Cruz in right once the Yankees lifted lefty starter Ryan Weathers.

“The way I look at it is I’m a baseball player, and I play for Don Mattingly and for the Phillies,” Marsh said. “I’ve got nothing but love and respect for him. I’ll ride for him. I’ll die for him. And if he wants De La [Cruz] to go run out there and take the nod in left field, then that’s what’s going to happen. And I hope De La Cruz hits three homers tonight.”

It’s imperfect to run three platoons in the outfield. But for now, and unless the Phillies acquire a righty-hitting upgrade before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, Mattingly seems intent on mixing and matching.

Against righties, Marsh will play left field, with rookies Justin Crawford in center and Gabriel Rincones Jr. in right. Against lefties, Mattingly is using Sosa in left, Derek Hill in center, and De La Cruz in right.

Clearly, though, there’s room for an upgrade. Entering the weekend, the Phillies had a .302 on-base percentage against left-handed pitching, tied for 26th in the majors. Collectively, their right-handed hitters were reaching base at a majors-worst .276 clip.

If the Phillies can add a right-handed bat, they may be better able to tolerate Marsh’s struggles against lefties.

“I do believe that he’s going to be a guy that can be an everyday guy,” Mattingly said. “Something we talked about is understanding how to hit lefties and what you need to do. Understanding ball movement, what do you want to hit, where does [the swing] have to start. He’s a guy that, honestly, at the big league level has really not had the opportunity to continue to do that.

“But at some point, we’re trying to win games. We need to be better against lefties. Again, I do feel like he’s going to be that guy that could play every day, but right now, it’s just not showing up in the numbers.”

Marsh was showing some improvement against lefties early in the season. Through June 25, he was 21-for-77 (.273) and slugging .429. Since then, he’s 3-for-26 (.115) and slugging .231.

In the ninth inning Tuesday night, he huddled with Kyle Schwarber before facing Dodgers lefty Tanner Scott. He wound up cueing a ball to third base, which led to a game-ending double play after bad baserunning by J.T. Realmuto.

But Schwarber, who had little success against lefties earlier in his career, has been a resource for Marsh, who said he has gained a better understanding for how lefties want to attack him.

“He’s able to relate to players like me, guys who are following his footsteps,” Marsh said. “He can tell us everything that’s going on in his head to help us out.”

It hasn’t translated into better overall numbers, but Marsh said he’s confident that his approach against lefties is improving.

“I feel more comfortable against them for sure, just with the reps that I’ve gotten this year and the work we do in the cage and stuff like that,” he said. “Definitely a lot more room for improvement. Really just got to keep the head down and grind, but definitely a lot better than years prior.”

For now, though, it seems he’ll be watching most lefty starters from the bench.

Bullpen shuffle

Although injured reliever Brad Keller will fly to Texas on Monday for a second opinion from orthopedic surgeon Keith Meister, Tommy John surgery remains the likeliest outcome.

The Phillies will continue to seek a late-inning reliever before the deadline to replace Keller.

In the meantime, Kyle Backhus was recalled from triple A to give Mattingly another lefty in the bullpen against the Yankees and next week in Miami and Baltimore. Hard-throwing Alex McFarlane and fellow righty Max Lazar were optioned to triple A for Backhus and righty Brian Keller, called up to make his major league debut after an opener on Saturday night.

Extra bases

The Phillies placed lefty reliever Tanner Banks (forearm strain) on the 60-day injured list to clear a 40-man roster spot for Brian Keller. … The Phillies acquired lefty-hitting outfielder Kam Misner from the Royals for cash and optioned him to triple A. Misner, 28, is a .206 hitter with five homers in 253 major league at-bats. Switch-hitting outfielder Steward Berroa was designated for assignment to get Misner on the 40-man roster. … Mikal Bridges, NBA champion with the New York Knicks and notable Phillies fan, was on the field and in the clubhouse before the game. … Cristopher Sánchez (12-4, 2.71 ERA) is scheduled to start the series finale on Sunday Night Baseball against Yankees righty Will Warren (7-4, 4.00).

Tyler Spangler will never forget the life-changing day when he signed his first pro baseball contract.

Never mind, then, that LeBron James upstaged him.

In the other big signing in Philadelphia sports Friday, the Phillies agreed to a deal with Spangler, their first pick in the draft two weeks ago. The 18-year-old shortstop received a $3.25 million bonus, a source confirmed, $491,200 more than the MLB-listed slot value for the No. 36 overall pick and 42% of the Phillies’ $7.773 million bonus allotment.

Spangler will report to the Phillies’ training facility in Clearwater, Fla., within the next few days to begin the yearslong climb to the majors. First, the team invited him and his family to watch batting practice on the field, tour the clubhouse, and meet several players.

And wherever they went around town, Spangler said folks were buzzing over the Sixers and their new megastar.

“It was nice of LeBron to follow him,” agent Scott Boras said jokingly.

Seriously, though, there were draft-day questions about Spangler, notably his health. He didn’t play this year as a senior at De La Salle High School in Northern California because of a back injury, which hit home because of a back condition that has prevented Phillies top prospect Aidan Miller from playing this season.

Neither Spangler nor Boras divulged specifics about the back injury. Spangler called it “a little problem” and said it “wasn’t bad.” Boras said he advised Spangler to “conservatively manage a very minor back issue” to focus on making sure he was ready for the draft, not the high school season.

“The [medical] advice was basically, ‘It’s not a serious issue, but you know what, let’s treat this conservatively,’” Boras said. “The key thing is to get core strength with young players, getting core strength and leg strength underneath them so that nothing like this occurs any further.

“It was really a decision medically on the basis of saying, ‘Let’s resolve this.’ He could probably have played with it, but let’s resolve it and focus toward what we’re going to do in the future.”

Like most teams, the Phillies scouted Spangler in his junior year and in tournaments leading up to his senior season. He was cleared to participate in MLB’s scouting combine in June in Phoenix. The Phillies watched him there and again a week later in a workout at his high school.

As he heads to Florida, Spangler said he doesn’t have physical limitations, especially after testing his back at the combine.

“It was super important,” Spangler said. “Going out there and taking BP in a big league stadium for the first time in a while, it was surreal. It was awesome. I was just super happy that I went out there and felt great and no issues. I just felt healthy and ready to go.”

If not for the injury, Spangler may not have been available when the Phillies made the 36th pick. And by signing him for more than the slot value, they pried him away from a college commitment to Stanford.

Spangler has drawn parallels to five-time All-Star shortstop Corey Seager because of his size (6-foot-3) and aptitude as a left-handed hitter. He doesn’t mind the pressure that comes with such a lofty comparison.

“I mean, definitely, Seager’s a good one,” Spangler said. “Bigger shortstop, left-handed hitter. I love the way he plays. I always watched Barry Bonds, too, just the way he swings it. I feel like I model my game after those two guys.”

Spangler will join the rest of the Phillies’ draft class in Clearwater. All but one pick, 19th-round catcher Braeden Lipoff of Gloucester Catholic, have signed. Lipoff has a college commitment to East Carolina.

The Phillies hope Spangler will play in games before the end of the minor league season.

Meanwhile, as Spangler tried out Philly cuisine (he said he went to Angelo’s Pizzeria and sampled cheesesteaks, of course), his friends from back home in California texted him about that other athlete who just signed with a Philadelphia team.

“Oh yeah, I was happy,” Spangler said of the James news. “But I’m from the Bay Area, so, you know, the Warriors were another option, right? And I’ve been a Warriors fan for my whole life. All my friends are giving me a hard time back home that he’s coming here. But either way, now it’s good with me.”

For most of the season, the Phillies have carried three catchers on their roster.

In the span of four days, both backups — Rafael Marchán and Garrett Stubbs — have been placed on the injured list.

Stubbs landed on the shelf Tuesday with left wrist inflammation. Marchán departed Wednesday’s game in the middle of the ninth inning with left knee pain, and imaging Thursday revealed patellar tendinitis.

Interim manager Don Mattingly said the news was better than feared.

“We were worried about a tear,” he said. “They haven’t given us a real timetable, but it didn’t sound like it was extended. … I do feel like they’re pretty encouraged, get the inflammation out of there, calm it down, and see where it goes.”

Marchán played 32 games for the Phillies this year. The switch-hitter has a .102 batting average and has posted plus-5 defensive runs saved at catcher. Stubbs has made 20 appearances, including four as a position player pitcher in blowouts. In 28 at-bats, Stubbs has a .179 batting average.

Stubbs’ placement on the injured list was retroactive to July 18. Mattingly hopes he will be ready to return once the 10 days are up on Tuesday.

Until then, Payton Henry was recalled from triple-A Lehigh Valley to serve as J.T. Realmuto’s backup. Henry has a .201 average with four home runs in 55 games in triple A this season. He was 20-for-47 in catching attempted base stealers.

Henry, 29, last played in the major leagues in 2022 for the Marlins, where he crossed paths with Mattingly.

“He’s always had the profile of good catch and throw. So that’s what we saw in Miami,” Mattingly said. “There is some pop in there, seeing that also. So it’s never off the table.”

To clear room for Henry on the 40-man roster, Brad Keller (right elbow UCL tear) was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Extra bases

The Phillies have not announced a starter for Saturday’s game against the Yankees, who will have Ryan Weathers (3-7, 4.40 ERA) on the mound. Brian Keller, who had a locker in the Phillies clubhouse Friday, is expected to play a role. Keller, a 39th-round draft pick in 2016, is set to be activated Saturday and is positioned to make his major league debut after stints in the minors and Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. Keller also missed nearly three years because of injury, but, after signing a minor league deal with the Phillies in May, has a 2.06 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in 39⅓ innings with the IronPigs.