Bastardo, Stutes may find themselves in late-inning situations for Phillies

With all that was going on at Citizens Bank Park Sunday night, it was easy to be distracted from what was happening in the top of the eighth inning on the pitcher's mound.

As the news spread of Osama bin Laden's death, and the chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" started to reverberate through the ballpark, two young Phillies pitchers - righthander Michael Stutes and lefthander Antonio Bastardo - were handed the baseball in the late innings of a 1-1 game.

Together, the duo pitched a scoreless inning against the New York Mets.

Stutes, 24, needed just two pitches to retire Jason Bay, and it was difficult to tell which of the two was more impressive: the first-pitch slider for a called strike or the 94-m.p.h. fastball that resulted in a weak pop out to second baseman Pete Orr.

Bastardo, 25, came on after that because the Phillies wanted him to face the lefthanded-hitting Ike Davis. A seven-pitch battle resulted in a walk, and Mets catcher Ronny Paulino followed with a single, one of his five hits.

Trouble was brewing, but Bastardo escaped unharmed by doing what he does best: making hitters miss.

He recorded consecutive strikeouts of Jason Pridie and Chin-lung Hu, giving him 18 strikeouts in 11 innings. Bastardo is armed with a fastball that can hit 94 m.p.h. and a nasty slider.

The Phillies eventually lost, 2-1, in 14 innings when Paulino singled off Kyle Kendrick, and the story lines afterward were the chilling show of patriotism from the crowd and a Phillies offense that has scored three or fewer runs in 14 of 27 games.

The rise of two young homegrown relievers is a story that will continue to be told throughout this season. It's not at all a stretch to think that Stutes and Bastardo will evolve into late-inning relievers for this team.

Manager Charlie Manuel has been forced by injuries to give Stutes and Bastardo a chance at pitching in meaningful situations, but the team has not had young arms this talented since Madson arrived in the big leagues in 2004.

"It is a real good group," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said when asked about the emergence of the young pitchers in the organization. "It has taken a while to get some of these young guys through our system because we had a dearth of high-round draft picks for about three or four years. We kept signing [free agents] and playing well, so we were putting [scouting director] Marti Wolever in a position where we didn't have many high-round picks."

Bastardo, a native of the Dominican Republic, is a product of the Phillies' international program. He signed in 2005, a year the Phillies did not have a first-round pick.

Stutes was an 11th-round pick in 2008 out of Oregon State University. That same year, the team took Vance Worley in the third round, and he, of course, is also among the young homegrown arms who have a chance to make a serious immediate impact.

Even though the Phillies have missed on some first-round picks (Anthony Hewitt and Joe Savery) and traded away some others (Travis d'Arnaud and Kyle Drabek) during Manuel's tenure, the team appears to have done well at drafting pitchers.

"We're just starting to see some of these guys percolate to the top now," Amaro said.