Was Vince Velasquez’s best outing of the season enough to save his rotation job? | Extra Innings

The Phillies left Detroit feeling good about themselves after completing a two-game sweep of the worst team in baseball Wednesday afternoon at Comerica Park. The 4-0 win allowed the Phillies to close to within 5 1/2 games of the Atlanta Braves, the closest they’ve been since July 3. The Braves were swept at home in a two-game series by Kansas City, the team with the fourth-worst record in baseball.

After a day off Thursday, the Phillies will get to play the Braves in a three-game series this weekend at Citizens Bank Park. Take two of three, and they will close to within 4 1/2 games. Sweep the series, as they did in the opening three games of the season, and they’ll be within 2 1/2 games.

Despite the victory Wednesday, the Phillies still lost ground to second-place Washington because the red-hot Nationals swept a doubleheader from the Colorado Rockies. The Phillies trail the Nationals, the leading team in the wild-card race, by 1 1/2 games. They remained a half-game behind St. Louis for the second wild-card berth. The Cardinals have won 10 of their last 12 games and are 13-6 this month.

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— Bob Brookover (extrainnings@inquirer.com)

The trade deadline is next Wednesday, so there’s no guarantee that Vince Velasquez saved his job in the starting rotation with his strong performance Wednesday against the Tigers. Still, it was a step in the right direction for the 27-year-old right-hander who has struggled for consistency during his big-league career.

Velasquez pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and two walks. He struck out a season-high nine in what was by far his best performance of the season.

“It certainly gives us optimism,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I think there’s reason for excitement for Vince’s outing today, and I think there are things he could have done better. It’s very clear that the fastball up is the pitch that we want to hunt for him. He still misses down, and that’s when you see the good swings from the opposition. We’re going to stay focused on the north-south attack with him.”

Kapler removed Velasquez with two outs and two runners on in the bottom of the sixth inning, and lefty Ranger Suarez got the final out of the inning, preventing Velasquez from picking up his second quality start of the season. Velasquez had 110 pitches when he departed, and he has not completed six innings in a start since April 14 against Miami.

The Phillies bullpen continued its recent dominance as the trio of Suarez, Adam Morgan and Hector Neris combined for 3 1/3 scoreless innings. The relievers allowed just one hit and struck out five, extending the bullpen’s overall streak to 17 1/3 scoreless innings.

Kapler said he felt the Phillies’ shutout of the Tigers felt like “a double win” because Bryce Harper also had a chance to take a full day off for the first time this season. It was definitely a different lineup look with catcher J.T. Realmuto at first base and Rhys Hoskins at designated hitter.

Columnist David Murphy looks back on some of the recent moves made by the Phillies and general manager Matt Klentak and declares that the organization’s next big move has to be a good one.

Less than 12 hours after making a game-extending throw to the plate against the Tigers on Tuesday night, reserve outfielder Brad Miller landed on the injured list with tightness in his hip flexor. Sean Rodriguez returned from the injured list to fill Miller’s spot on the roster.

Murphy also wrote about Tigers starter Matthew Boyd and what it might take for the Phillies to lure the lefty away from Detroit. He contemplates whether Phillies top prospect Alec Bohm should be considered in such a deal. I can assure you neither Bohm nor Spencer Howard will be moved at the deadline.

Columnist Marcus Hayes caught up with Ryan Howard recently, and the Big Piece urged fans to stick with the current Phillies because they could “just catch one of those waves.”

Today: Off day.

Tomorrow: Start of three-game series with the first-place Atlanta Braves, 7:05 p.m.

Saturday: Zach Eflin vs. Kevin Gausman, 7:05 p.m.

Sunday: Drew Smyly makes first home start for Phils vs. Braves’ Max Fried, 1:05 p.m.

Monday: Third off day in eight days. Weird schedule.

Bryce Harper on Wednesday did not get into a game for the first time this season, ending his streak of consecutive games played at 147. It was the first time he had not played since Aug. 9 of last season with the Nationals. Harper played in a career-high 159 games last season with the Nats.

Cal Ripken Jr. owns the record for consecutive games played at 2,632, and it’s unimaginable it will ever be broken. Former Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis entered this season with the most consecutive games played among active players, but his streak ended at 349 games when he sat out April 24 with a hamstring injury. The current active leader is Atlanta Braves outfielder Nick Markakis, who has played in 265 straight games.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @brookob.

Question: You report that the Phillies will pay Robertson, Hunter and Neshek $24.75 million this season. Doesn’t insurance cover some of their cost, or do teams no longer insure against player injury?

Thanks.

— Tom L., via email

Answer: Thanks for reading and for the question, Tom. I don’t know for sure, but I highly doubt that the Phillies have insurance policies on either Tommy Hunter or Pat Neshek.

The insurance packages are usually reserved for players who sign long-term deals of more than two years, and those two were both working under two-year contracts. It’s possible they have insurance on Robertson, but that’s probably doubtful, too.

The one contract they have obviously insured is Bryce Harper’s 13-year, $330 million deal because you would obviously want to recoup as much money as possible if Harper were suddenly unable to play after a few seasons. The insurance issues are always complicated, as you can see by this story that ran in the Dallas Morning News after Prince Fielder suffered a career-ending neck injury in 2016.