August 29, 2016
Never mind that the Phillies only had four hits – all singles. Or that you could hear the vendors hawking peanuts several sections over because the only buzz at the ballpark – a season-low 16,056 came through the turnstiles at Citizens Bank Park – was the one that older gentlemen in the row below you got from those $9 beers.
There wasn’t any offense and there was hardly anyone at the game on Monday to suffer through watching the Phillies futile at-bats against Tanner Roark and company. But, never mind that.
The most meaningful takeaway from Game No. 131 on the Phillies 2016 schedule was rookie right-hander Jake Thompson’s ability to overcome a somewhat shaky first inning, with his first four big league starts in the not-so-distant past, and deliver his team a startling effort against the third best team in the major leagues.
Thompson held Washington to two first-inning runs in seven innings of the Phillies 4-0 defeat to the Nationals.
"He was the bright spot ... It was all about him tonight," manager Pete Mackanin said of Thompson. "What a job he did after the first inning."
Thompson called Monday a "night-and-day" change from the four starts that preceded it.
"It's kind of a relief," Thompson said. "It feels a lot better."
Former Phillie Jayson Werth hit Thompson’s seventh pitch of the night for a home run. Bryce Harper followed two batters later with a walk, and scored all the way from first when Anthony Rendon ripped a hit into left-center.
Aaaaaaaand it's gone. pic.twitter.com/lptkqbkIpU
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) August 29, 2016
It was at that moment, when Harper blitzed toward the plate, that you wondered how the 22-year-old Thompson would respond. The small videoboard that sits in between the out-of-town scoreboard had the rookie’s 10.35 ERA on display for everyone to see.
Thompson was six nights removed from his latest taxing effort, when he gave up seven runs, including back-to-back home runs in his fifth and final inning, in a lopsided loss to the Chicago White Sox. Four starts into his big league career, Thompson had allowed at least five earned runs three times and had failed to pitch more than five innings in all four.
You had to wonder if the kid who dominated at Triple-A Lehigh Valley for the last three months was having a major league crisis of confidence.
“I think it’s a combination of everything,” Mackanin said before Monday’s game. “This is the final stop. Once you get here, there’s a different type of anxiety. When you’re in Double-A, it’s, well, ‘If I do well here I’ll go to Triple-A.’ And then you get to Triple-A, and it’s ‘If I do well here I’ll get to the big leagues.” So there’s an added pressure.
“And then you get here and there’s nowhere else to go. That has to enter into it. I know I was scared to death when I was 21 and in my first time in the big leagues. It took me a while to get through it. He might say he’s fine and confident, and not nervous. But he’s a liar.”
Mackanin laughed. But he probably wasn’t wrong either, and could only hope the latest 20-something that entered his suddenly uncertain rotation could right himself before the season’s final month. After all, someone has to pitch in the team’s final 31 games.
Realizing that, and knowing he needed to do something to get the rookie going in the right direction, pitching coach Bob McClure stripped down Thompson's mechanics in the last week. When the 6-4 Texan took the mound on Monday, gone was the step back off the mound, and arms rising over his head.
What Thompson did instead was basically pitch from the stretch throughout the night. Minimal movement translated into better control.
"I was in a better position to make pitches and execute," he said. "Everyone eventually does what I was doing with my delivery, I just took away my two moving parts, a step back and then hands over the head. Just making it a lot easier on myself."
"He simplified everything," Mackanin said. "I think this is going to do him wonders down the road this season so I'm anxious to see his next start."
Following the trying first inning, Thompson slowly began to find himself and get back into the groove that saw him sport a 1.21 ERA in his final 11 minor league starts. If it seemed like a difficult task to reconfigure the mechanics he's been using for months, and try them out on a big league field against a formidable opponent, Thompson sure didn't act like it was after the game.
"It actually wasn’t too difficult," Thompson said. "It was really, really simple. Small moving parts instead of a bunch of stuff moving at the same time. I got off the mound twice this week in the bullpen (this weekend in New York). Getting those reps, I think that helped a lot."
The combination of cleaner mechanics and regained confidence was clear in his command. After walking Harper in the first inning, Thompson didn’t walk any of the 23 final batters he would face.
Thompson pitched to contact and succeeded. The only other trouble spot he endured came in his seventh and final inning, when Roark legged out an infield single to put two runners on with two outs and the top of the lineup coming up.
But Thompson prevailed then, too, placing a perfect breaking ball on the inside corner on a 3-2 pitch to get Trea Turner looking at strike three after the fellow rookie fouled off back-to-back pitches.
"I’ve faced him a lot coming up," Thompson said. "I know the kind of a hitter he is. I really just tried to throw my best breaking ball in the zone. Luckily that’s not what he was looking for."
👍 from @CameronRupp after that strikeout pitch! pic.twitter.com/op6aBWoE1z
— Phillies (@Phillies) August 30, 2016
It was his third strikeout of the game – all three came in the seventh inning.
Thompson celebrated his 111th pitch of the night with a small fist pump. And he got a thumbs up from catcher Cameron Rupp for it, too.
"He really showed a lot of gumption there to get out of the inning," Mackanin said.
"It was huge," Thompson said. "I knew it was going to be my last guy regardless and I was pumped. At that point of the game, I kept it a ballgame, I kept it a one-swing game. It was huge and I was pumped to do it."
Thompson deserved it after the four starts that preceded it and how he got back on track Monday night. Thompson's start marked just the second time a Phillies starter had pitched at least seven innings in the team's 29 games since July 26.
Follow Ryan on Twitter: @ryanlawrence21
