WASHINGTON — Until a few days ago, the Phillies didn’t know for sure if Zach Eflin would be able to pitch Sunday.
In hindsight, he probably shouldn’t have.
Eflin left early from a start last week when his right knee stiffened. He underwent a series of tests that didn’t reveal new damage to his twice surgically repaired patellar tendon, and team doctors cleared him to start, as scheduled.
But Eflin had trouble keeping the ball down in the zone, gave up four runs, and exited after only two innings in the Phillies’ sweep-spoiling 9-3 loss to the Washington Nationals.
An update wasn’t available during the game, but it’s possible that Eflin’s difficulty locating his pitches was connected to his knee. If he was having problems pushing off his right leg, it could hinder the sinkerballer’s ability to keep his pitches down.
Regardless, Eflin wasn’t sharp. He hung changeups to Luis García for a leadoff double in the second inning and Maikel Franco for an RBI single. Three batters later, Juan Soto smashed a belt-high cutter for a three-run homer, the slumping star’s only extra-base hit of the series in 22 plate appearances.
Andrew Bellatti replaced Eflin for the third inning, with the Phillies in a 4-0 hole. It marked the shortest of Eflin’s 114 career starts.
Losses happen. And five-game sweeps are exceedingly rare. The Phillies hadn’t swept a five-game series on the road since 1980. They lost for only the third time in the last 18 games — and for the first time in 13 games against the bottom-dwelling Nationals dating to last summer. That streak had to end sometime.
But the possibility of an injury to Eflin is more sobering.
The Phillies lack pitching depth in triple A. Left-hander Bailey Falter has backed up a 1.54 ERA in five starts in Lehigh Valley with solid spot starts last month in Seattle and Friday night in Washington. Cristopher Sánchez, the next option, has one career major league start. Pitching prospect Hans Crouse has missed two months with an undisclosed injury.
Eflin has dealt with knee problems throughout his career. He had surgery on his right and left knees in 2016 and missed the final 2½ months of last season when he re-tore the patellar tendon in his right knee.
So, the Phillies were holding their breath last week that he hadn’t suffered another recurrence of the injury.
“Yeah, we were concerned about it, sure,” interim manager Rob Thomson said before Sunday’s game. “It was probably a couple days ago when we thought, ‘OK, we’ve got a really good chance of starting him.’”
Now, they’re left again to hope for the best.
Knebel struggles again
Trailing 5-2 in the fourth inning after César Hernández’s RBI double sailed over Nick Castellanos’ head in right field, with two runners on and one out, Thomson turned to demoted closer Corey Knebel to shut off the Nationals’ rally.
No luck.
After an intentional walk to Josh Bell, Knebel walked Nelson Cruz to force in one run, then came back out for the fifth inning and gave up a two-run homer on a high-and-inside fastball to Franco, the former Phillies third baseman who finished 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBIs.
The Phillies took Knebel out of the closer role last week after he blew his fourth save in 11 chances. Thomson was encouraged by Knebel’s outing Friday night, noting that he could rapidly regain a late-inning role.
But Knebel continues to have difficulty landing his curveball and commanding his fastball. He got only one swing-and-miss with his fastball and threw only five of 12 curveballs for strikes.
Stott ends drought
The Phillies scored twice in the fourth inning, with the second run coming on Bryson Stott’s RBI single. It broke an 0-for-24 drought for the rookie infielder.
On the flip side, Kyle Schwarber’s career-long on-base streak reached 24 games with a fifth-inning single.
