Jhoan Duran has been on the IL with a strained oblique. Oblique injuries can be one of the trickier injuries to deal with and often recur if teams and players aren’t smart about being sure they are healed. That could be a reason why Duran did something you don’t often see in a bullpen session Saturday in Miami.
The Phillies closer ramped himself up to 100 mph in the session. In a bullpen session, most pitchers go 80 to 90-percent of effort. Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said that the team wanted to be absolutely sure that Duran was healed and ready to go.
“We did want to make sure he went to intensity,” explained Mattingly to reporters. “When you’re throwing at 90-percent, it’s different than throwing at 100-percent.”
Duran is eligible to return from the IL since the injury was backdated to April 15. Mattingly was non-committal about whether Duran would go on a rehab assignment, but seemed to indicate that he would not. Duran was a little more straightforward with MLB.com writer Todd Zolecki: “I don’t think I need to,” said the 28-year-old.
Marsh and Crawford both return
Brandon Marsh (elbow) and Justin Crawford (migraine) both missed Saturday’s game against the Marlins. Both are back for Sunday’s penultimate game of the four-game series in Miami.
Felix Reyes got the start in left field where Marsh usually plays, but Adolis Garcia was given a day off, so Marsh moved over to right field. Garcia was going to have Saturday off, but with both Marsh and Crawford unavailable, he was back in the lineup and got Sunday off instead.
Spoiler Alert
Kyle Schwarber entered Sunday’s game having struck out eight straight times. He did not extend the streak. The franchise records is nine straight strikeouts and is held by two players that no true hitter wants to be on a list with. Pitcher Wayne Twitchell and outfielder Dylan Cozens. Twitchell was a pitcher; enough said. Cozens had power, but making contact was a difficult concept for him. Cozens only had 39 at-bats as a major leaguer and struck out in 24 of them; 61-percent. For comparison, Twitchell struck out in 63-percent of his 260 MLB at-bats. Cozens finished with a .154 batting average in the majors and Twitchell finished at .127.
Coming home
The Phillies finish up their wrap-around series in Miami on Monday. They fly home for three against the Athletics and then three against Colorado. From there, it’s a trip to Boston and Pittsburgh.
By the way, a new moniker for the Athletics may have been “accidentally” revealed by the team’s front office, at least that’s what some fans thought. In a “Help Wanted” release, the team referred to the location of the jobs being “The Las Vegas Black Fire.” Turns out that Black Fire is the name of a co-working space in the Southwestern part of Las Vegas that is being used by the Athletics as office space.
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