While most Phillies fans woke up this morning to highlights from another exciting win over the Dodgers, there was one thing from last night’s game that raised a red flag for me: David Robertson.
Since being signed as a free agent, Handsome Dave has generally been effective as the team’s main righthanded setup man. And last night, the first run scored against him came via a Shohei Ohtani home run (which certainly doesn’t make Robertson unique among major league pitchers) and a baserunner that Tanner Banks would allow to score.
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That doesn’t seem so bad on the surface, but I decided to check his game log:
Robertson has allowed runs in five of his 17 appearances, and four of those came when he had pitched the previous day. All four of the home runs he’s allowed have come on the second half of back-to-backs.
Perhaps Robertson has run into bad luck on those nights, or the lessened effectiveness is just a coincidence. But it’s also worth noting that Robertson is 40 years old. While he hasn’t pitched for most of the season, it seems very possible that at his age, his arm doesn’t bounce back the way it once did. It’s also worth noting that in his previous stint with the team, his effectiveness faded after heavy early usage.
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While obtaining homefield advantage throughout the playoffs is a worthwhile goal, I think Rob Thomson needs to be judicious in his use of Robertson the rest of the regular season. While I appreciate seeing his handsome face as much as possible, and the Phillies certainly don’t want to give away any games at this point, you also don’t want to worry that every inning thrown by Robertson in the regular season will equal less effectiveness in the playoffs.
When it comes to playoff time, there likely will be no avoiding heavy usage. While the playoff structure will minimize the number of potential back-to-back appearances Robertson would have to make, if the Phillies want to win a series, they’ll likely have to use their best relievers on consecutive nights at some point. We just have to hope that between now and then, Robertson can figure out how to be as good on the second day as he was on the first.