PHILADELPHIA — Zach Eflin managed to fill most of his unexpected week off just fine. His COVID symptoms were mild, no more than a common cold, he said. Between a pitching net and his wife Lauren, a former softball player, serving as his fill-in catcher, the Phillies’ right-hander managed to stay sharp.
The part he couldn’t replicate, though, was the feeling his teammates shared on a 5-2 run through the West Coast.
“It’s probably the worst feeling you could have because I’ve done it before in my career with knee surgery and having COVID last year,” Eflin said. “It’s never fun watching your guys go to war without you there. So that sucked. Just long days, and then the games didn’t come on until 10 at night, so that wasn’t fun. But I’m happy to be back. It’s good to see all the guys today.”
Eflin did enough to perpetuate the momentum, tossing six solid innings Tuesday. But he didn’t get any offense to back him, dealt the hard-luck loss in a 3-0 setback to San Diego.
Eflin didn’t look like someone who hadn’t thrown in 16 days. He allowed just five hits, one earned run and struck out five without issuing a walk. He got through 84 pitches (58 of them strikes), and while he was admittedly tired, he kept his team in the game.
“He was great,” manager Joe Girardi said. “His location was great. I thought his two-seamer was great. He was ahead all night in the count. He pitched really well.”
It’s been quite a while for Eflin, who fell to 1-3 while lowering his ERA to 3.90. He had his worst outing of the season on May 1 against the Mets and was due to face them again on May 7. But that game was rained out, and he was placed on the COVID list the next day.
While the team was fighting its way back toward .500, Eflin was throwing at home, bugging his wife until she got tired of tracking the late movement on his pitches – “she kind of just gets out of the way of everything because she thinks everything is coming at her body,” Eflin said – and trying not to wake up his baby daughter during a series that left him fired up.
Eflin was hard done in the fifth inning for the decisive run. Wil Meyers punched a two-strike sinker the opposite way through a hole in the shift. Robinson Cano followed with a bloop single to center, falling in front of .136-hitting Roman Quinn, and allowing Meyers to go first to third. Myers scored when Austin Nola grounded into a fielder’s choice to second.
A dunker between a triangle of fielders in left-center – again, arguably Quinn’s ball – in the sixth put two on with one out. But Eflin sawed off Eric Hosmer for a pop out to second before getting Jurickson Profar to sky harmlessly to right.
It didn’t matter that James Norwood and Brad Hand conspired to allow two runs in the seventh, charged to Norwood, since the Phillies only managed five singles, not getting a runner safely to third.
That was a slight downer for Eflin on what was otherwise a day he felt good about.
“It kind of gives you motivation to do everything that you can to be ready to go when you get back and when I was able to get back with the guys,” Eflin said. “It was a great road trip and I wish I could’ve been part of it.”