Jeremy Hellickson succeeds by inducing weak contact, not strikeouts
The Phillies starter improved to 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA. He succeeds with guile.
This current brand of big-league baseball, which features fewer balls in play than ever before, does not typically reward pitchers who cannot mount high strikeout totals. Jeremy Hellickson has never been known as a strikeout pitcher, but he whiffed 20 percent of batters he faced last season, and it helped him.
This season, the Phillies have won all five games Hellickson has started despite just 11 strikeouts in his 30 innings. His strikeout rate has dipped to 9.5 percent. But Hellickson owns a 1.80 ERA and contributed six solid innings to the Phillies' 3-2 win Thursday over Miami.
Does the unusual path to success surprise the veteran righthander?
"Maybe a little bit," Hellickson said. "I have never really struck out a lot of guys anyway. But it says a lot about our defense and how good they are."
He added: "I'll take weak fly balls every day."
The Phillies wagered another $17.2 million on Hellickson because they believed in his change-up and curveball, two pitches that propelled him to a decent season in 2016.
His manager, Pete Mackanin, has marveled at how Hellickson renders his opponents uncomfortable.
"This guy, sometimes I watch him pitch and when he's doing it right, it looks like he's just playing catch with the catcher," Mackanin said. "Catcher puts down a location and he throws it there. They throw it back. Just like they're having a game of catch. A really super job by him."
Ramos is fine
Adeiny Hechavarria lashed a 104.4-mph liner off Edubray Ramos' right elbow to begin the seventh inning. Ramos threw a few practice pitches and looked fine. But the Phillies removed him because Miami countered with a lefthanded pinch-hitter.
After the game, Ramos had his elbow wrapped. He said he was not hurt.
Hechavarria later scored, and the run was charged to Ramos. He has a 6.48 ERA in nine games this season.
Extra bases
The Phillies announced that Tuesday's postponed game was rescheduled as a single-admission doubleheader on Aug. 22. The first game will start at 4:05 p.m. Fans with tickets to the postponed game can exchange them for the doubleheader or another 2017 Phillies home game, the team said. . . . Andres Blanco started at second base. It was his first start of the season in the Phillies' 20th game. . . . Jerad Eickhoff, Zach Eflin, and Nick Pivetta will pitch this weekend at Dodger Stadium. Los Angeles will use righthanders Kenta Maeda and Brandon McCarthy and lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu.