Phillies' Cloyd holds own in loss to Mets

TYLER CLOYD'S phone rang shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, a day after he was named the Most Valuable Pitcher in the International League for the 2012 season.

It was Hall of Famer and Triple A Lehigh Valley manager Ryne Sandberg. He called the 25-year-old Cloyd to deliver him the best news he's heard in what's been an unforgettable summer: Cloyd had been summoned to the big leagues to pitch in place of Cole Hamels, who called out sick.

While making the hour-long drive to his first major league game, Cloyd called his parents in Nebraska. They couldn't make it to Citizens Bank Park on such short notice.

But Cloyd knew he made them proud when he heard his father cry on the other end of the phone. It was the first time he had ever heard his dad cry.

"They couldn't get a flight out," Cloyd said. "But I'm pretty sure they'll be out here soon."

A few hours later, Cloyd did what he needed to do to extend his fill-in start for Hamels into a month-long tryout in the rotation in place of Vance Worley, who will have surgery on his right pitching elbow after landing on the disabled list on a busy Wednesday at the ballpark.

Cloyd held the Mets to three runs in six innings but was victim to a Phillies offense stifled by another rookie, hard-throwing righthander Matt Harvey, as New York edged the Phils, 3-2.

"He gave us a chance to win the game, he kept us in the game," manager Charlie Manuel said of Cloyd. "He did good, looked in control."

Cloyd's major league debut came opposite a pitcher with the polar opposite background.

The 23-year-old Harvey is a former first-round pick (seventh overall in 2010) who featured a fastball that hit 99 mph at one point and was still ticking at 95 on the last pitch he threw in the seventh inning.

Cloyd, an 18th-round pick in the 2008 draft, barely got the radar gun by the 90 mph mark on Wednesday night.

What Cloyd lacked in stuff, however, is made up in the know-how to get hitters out. International League opponents hit .210 off Cloyd in 142 innings at Triple A, where he went 12-1 with a 2.35 ERA in 22 starts.

When he showed up to the ballpark Wednesday afternoon, Manuel had one message for Cloyd: "I told him to keep pitching the way he's been pitching."

Other than a couple of early hiccups, Cloyd adhered to his new manager's advice.

Cloyd's only big blemish came in the third inning, when he hung an 86-mph cutter that Lucas Duda smoked for a two-run homer.

But after walking the next two batters, Cloyd set down two in a row. With the Phils offense incapable of igniting anything that resembled a rally against Harvey, Cloyd kept them in the game by retiring 11 of the final 12 batters he faced.

"I think after that [home run] it kind of lit a fuse in me," Cloyd said. "I got a little mad at myself and just kind of slowed down a little bit. I realized it's just another game."

After Worley and the bullpen failed them Tuesday, the Phils dropped their second straight game to the Mets because they mustered just two hits and no runs in the final seven innings.

It's a problem that even has the Phillies thinking outside the box in considering moving longtime second baseman Chase Utley to third base, a position that screams for a consistently productive power threat. But what ails Manuel's lineup will almost certainly be addressed with a body or three outside the organization.

With Cloyd, the Phillies may have found another serviceable arm from what was a productive 2008 draft.

The Phils missed on their top pick in 2008 - Anthony Hewitt hasn't escaped Class A ball in five minor league seasons - but six players from that draft have appeared in the big leagues, five with the Phillies. Fellow starter Worley and bullpen arms Mike Stutes, Michael Schwimer and B.J. Rosenberg beat Cloyd to the big leagues, as did Toronto outfielder Anthony Gose.

One big-league start does not make a career and 102 pitches in six innings against a weak-hitting Mets team is surely too small of a sample to make any lasting judgments. But for one night, Cloyd was not unlike Worley, Kyle Kendrick or even Jamie Moyer, pitching well enough to steer the Phils toward a win.

The offense just failed to follow him on that path. Harvey and four New York relievers set the Phillies down in order in each of the game's final three innings.

Cloyd will likely get his next opportunity for his first major league win on Labor Day in Cincinnati.

"It's an awesome feeling that they're going to let me stay up here and show what I can do," Cloyd said. "But it's obviously on me to go out there and perform every 5 days and let them know that I can throw up here. There are some things I still have to work on while I'm up here to continue that success."