Eickhoff silences Blue Jays with slider in 7-0 Phillies win

TORONTO - Last month, when Jerad Eickhoff threw a slider that Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton missed by a foot, Larry Andersen's eyes widened. Andersen - former reliever and minor-league pitching coach, now broadcaster - considers himself a slider connoisseur. When Eickhoff shelved the pitch in a subsequent start, Andersen approached him in the dugout.

Eickhoff, who tossed six shutout innings Monday in a 7-0 win over the Blue Jays, had become too predictable as a two-pitch starter. Andersen was not the first to tell him he needed the slider. But, for some reason, the dugout conversation stuck in Eickhoff's head.

"When you don't use something much, part of the reason is because you don't have confidence in it," Andersen said. "The more you hear from somebody how good something is, the more confidence you may feel in it."

The young pitcher has boundless confidence in the pitch now. Eickhoff silenced a Toronto offense that had scored 21 runs in the two days before the Phillies arrived, and he did it with an impressive arsenal that included frequent sliders. Eickhoff's pitches possessed so much movement, he often fooled the home-plate umpire. He issued a career-high four walks. His pitch count soared.

But the Blue Jays never scored. They could not make hard contact. For one night, Eickhoff stopped the Phillies' spiral.

"It's nice to win by seven runs for a change," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said.

Mackanin rewarded Eickhoff with some trust. He began the sixth inning at 93 pitches and retired the first two Toronto hitters with ease. Ezequiel Carrera walked on five pitches, and Mackanin could have summoned his bullpen at that moment.

Instead, for the 30th time, catcher Carlos Ruiz put down a sign for Eickhoff's slider. It was not the best one, but Darwin Barney popped out into foul territory. Eickhoff slapped Ruiz's hand and pounded the catcher's chest.

"This past couple starts," Eickhoff said, "have been kind of an eye-opening transition."

This season, the Phillies search for signs of maturation in their young players. Eickhoff has a 3.40 ERA, and a 2.45 mark since his chat with Andersen. Last season, as a rookie, Eickhoff's slider was a pitch that generated a high percentage of swings and misses. The slider to Stanton on May 16 jogged Andersen's memory.

"It's such a good pitch," Andersen said. "Obviously, I'm biased because that's all I threw. It was like, 'Boom.' Then it was gone. It disappeared."

Andersen survived 17 seasons as a major-league reliever because of his slider. For Eickhoff, the slider is another weapon. Another thing that forces the hitter to think.

Both Mackanin and pitching coach Bob McClure had implored Eickhoff to throw his third pitch. The conversation with Andersen, Eickhoff said, "was kind of the spark." He threw 72 sliders in his first nine starts this season. In his last four starts, Eickhoff has used 104 sliders. It was a pitch he relied upon last week to dominate the potent Cubs.

Eickhoff was less commanding Monday; he threw 26 pitches in the first inning while the Phillies dugout waged war with home-plate umpire Todd Tichenor. He needed 77 for four innings, although Toronto mustered just one hit: a bloop single by Michael Saunders on a slider that ran in on his hands.

He pitched with a lead. Odubel Herrera and Ryan Howard, as the designated hitter, supported Eickhoff with solo homers. The offense padded things in the later innings. David Hernandez, Hector Neris and Andrew Bailey preserved the shutout started by Eickhoff, who flaunted his slider.

"When he used it," Andersen said, "he seemed to be pretty excited about it."

So are the Phillies, who have witnessed a young pitcher flourish with an in-season adjustment.

mgelb@philly.com

@MattGelb