Zach Eflin and Hector Neris put their fingerprints all over Phillies’ latest victory | Bob Brookover

Zach Eflin does not want to be some guy in the Phillies’ starting rotation anymore. He does not want to be considered the fourth or fifth starter, a pitcher who might give his team five or six decent innings before watching the rest of the game from the safety of the clubhouse.

He wants more, and he provided a lot more Sunday afternoon during a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins that allowed the Phillies to claim a series victory before another huge crowd at Citizens Bank Park.

“It was nice,” Eflin said when asked about throwing seven innings and holding the Twins to a single run in his second start of the season. “It was what I’ve been wanting my whole career -- to be able to go as long as I can, especially when you’re at 90-plus pitches after six innings. To have that kind of confidence in me is huge, and I was ready to go however long he wanted me to go.”

Manager Gabe Kapler asked for more from Eflin on this bright, sunny afternoon because he needed more. Pat Neshek was unavailable and the Phillies wanted to give Seranthony Dominguez a day to recover from his rough outing the previous afternoon.

“One of the things that I’ve said is that if our pitchers are efficient and they earn the opportunity to keep going back out there, we want to be able to give them that chance,” Kapler said. “Zach’s stuff seemed to get better as the game moved on.”

Eflin’s afternoon started with a leadoff home run by Minnesota’s Max Kepler, who homered in each of the three games in the series. Before many of the afternoon’s 39,735 fans had settled into their seats, Eflin found himself down by a run. He also found that his go-to slider was not going to be his best pitch on this day.

Great pitchers learn to adjust to those sorts of things. It is way too soon, of course, to declare Eflin a great pitcher, but he did adjust Sunday.

“I got action on my sinker and my changeup,” Eflin said. “I think they were working really well today. I didn’t really have my best slider, so it was nice to be able to have another pitch I could use. To be able to utilize other pitches when your solid pitch isn’t there is really huge.”

The Twins got nothing off Eflin the rest of the day, although the pitcher did get a huge assist from Andrew McCutchen in the fourth inning when the Phillies’ left fielder charged a single by Ehire Adrianza and gunned down Marwin Gonzalez trying to score from second base.

“It was nice to be able to squeeze out seven [innings], but at the end of the day that was an Andrew McCutchen and Rhys Hoskins game right there,” Eflin said.

In addition to his run-saving throw, McCutchen also drew a leadoff walk in the sixth and scored when Rhys Hoskins completed a nine-pitch at-bat against Twins ace Jose Berrios by sending a curveball into the left-center field flower bed just beyond the 374-foot sign.

It was Hoskins’ third home run of the season and the Phillies’ 12th, but the pitching department in general and Eflin in particular deserved a lion’s share of the credit for this Phillies victory.

“[Eflin] had earned the opportunity to go back out there [in the seventh],” Kapler said. “I felt comfortable going to 110 pitches with him given how efficient he was.”

Eflin retired 10 of the last 11 batters he faced and finished with 105 pitches, matching the third-highest pitch total of his career. He also exited with a 0.75 ERA after two starts.

While Eflin strives to give more than many expect from him this season, Hector Neris is simply trying to prove he is a quality reliever again without caring at all about the title of closer he once held. On this day, he was the guy asked to get the game’s final three outs and he did so with a perfect ninth inning, retiring the dangerous Gonzalez on a grounder to first before striking out Jonathan Schoop and pinch-hitter Nelson Cruz.

“When we look at a lineup from top to bottom, we think that Hector is able to get a strikeout on any batter in the game, so we felt confident with him in the ninth inning,” Kapler said.

That might not be the case the next time. In fact, it almost wasn’t Sunday. Neris warmed up briefly in the seventh just in case Eflin encountered some turbulence. Instead, the starter’s outing had a clean landing and Kapler saved Neris for the ninth. Neris’ reward was his first save of the season.

“I come in and try to do my job and that’s it,” Neris said. “No matter what, if it’s the ninth or the eighth or the sixth. Closer is when you win the game. If you win the game like Eflin did in a close game, then he’s the closer.”

Not sure what that means, but the Phillies are 6-2 and the sixth win had the pitching department’s fingerprints all over it.

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