Phillies will keep riding their starters while they figure out their bullpen mix

It gets overlooked because they didn’t raise a trophy or ride in a parade. But the Phillies won more games than any team in baseball over the last three postseasons.

Really. It’s true.

The Phillies’ run of contention has been characterized by uncommon roster continuity. Yet, in closing out five series, they used five pitchers: Zach Eflin (vs. the Cardinals), Seranthony Domínguez (vs. the Braves), and Ranger Suárez (vs. the Padres) in 2022; Gregory Soto (vs. the Marlins) and Matt Strahm (vs. the Braves) in 2023.

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The point is, don’t waste time trying to guess whom manager Rob Thomson will choose to get the final outs in October. Because there’s a good chance the best option isn’t on the roster — or even in the organization — yet.

But as the Phillies sorted the post-José Alvarado bullpen last week during a 6-1 road trip against the woebegone Rockies and hapless Athletics (after a home sweep of the awful Pirates) to achieve the best record in baseball on Memorial Day (34-19), one thing was clear: They will keep riding the starters — even more than usual.

Exhibit A: Rather than lifting Jesús Luzardo at 94 pitches after five innings last Tuesday night in Colorado, Thomson pushed him to get through the sixth on 105 pitches, tying his season high.

Two days later, Suárez pitched into the seventh inning for the third time in four starts since coming off the injured list. He would have finished the seventh, too, if not for a 10-pitch walk to Colorado’s Ezequiel Tovar that hiked his pitch count to 99, his highest total so far this season.

Zack Wheeler uncorked a season-high 108 pitches Friday night against the A’s. And Luzardo threw 105 pitches again Sunday, marking the fifth time in six starts that he topped 100.

Overall, the Phillies lead the majors in six-inning starts (31). The starters have completed seven innings 12 times, two more than any other team. They lead the league with 4,907 pitches, an average of 92.6 per start.

That’s one way to mitigate a diminished relief corps. The Phillies’ bullpen has covered only 171⅔ innings, tied for the third-lowest workload.

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It’s a testament to the starters’ talent. Led by Wheeler and bolstered by Luzardo, acquired in a steal of an offseason trade with the Marlins, the rotation was always bound to be the strength of the roster.

But Thomson also feels comfortable leaning on the starters because of the work of the medical department. Two weeks ago, the Phillies quietly announced a title bump for head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit, who leads a staff that has kept pitchers, in particular, remarkably healthy over the last few years amid a spike in pitching injuries across the sport.

Luzardo has noticed a difference in the Phillies’ approach to helping pitchers recover between starts.

“There’s been times, especially with just the older way of thinking, where it’s like, ‘Stay out of the training room. You don’t want to be in there. It means you’re hurt,‘” Luzardo said recently. “Here it’s more of, ‘We want you to come in, we want you to get treatment, we want to keep you as healthy as possible.’

“And I think that goes a long way. Because there’s not that panic of ‘I feel a little sore today.’ And maybe in the past, I would be a little tentative to relay that message.”

Thomson is wary of pushing the starters too hard. Suárez dealt with a recurrence of back stiffness in spring training and missed the season’s first month. Luzardo is up to 67 innings after throwing only 66⅔ all of last season because of injuries. Aaron Nola‘s sprained right ankle has lingered.

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Luzardo will get an extra day of rest before his next start Saturday against the Brewers. And with resurgent prospect Mick Abel and top prospect Andrew Painter on track to make his major league debut in the summer, the Phillies have the depth to move to a six-man rotation later in the season.

Eventually, they will need reliever reinforcements. Some may emerge internally. But president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski will almost certainly get help at the July 31 trade deadline, even though the market figures to favor sellers over buyers.

In the meantime, the starters will continue to lead the way.

After facing a lefty starting pitcher in three of the season’s first five games, the Phillies went 35 games in which they saw only six. So, if ever Edmundo Sosa and Weston Wilson were going to get in the lineup, those were the games — in place of lefty-swinging Bryson Stott and Max Kepler, respectively.

The Phillies weren’t platooning at second base and left field, Thomson insisted, as much as making sure that Sosa and Wilson got some at-bats.

Fair enough. But the Phillies faced a lefty starter in six of the last 13 games, and each time, Wilson played left field over Kepler, who hasn’t been in the lineup against a lefty since April 2. Stott started against a lefty Saturday for the first time since April 8 because Sosa was banged up.

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Sounds a lot like a couple of positional timeshares, doesn’t it?

But here’s the thing: Platooning at multiple positions isn’t a bad thing. The 1993 Phillies won the pennant with platoons at second base (Mickey Morandini/Mariano Duncan), left field (Milt Thompson/Pete Incaviglia), and right field (Jim Eisenreich/Wes Chamberlain). More recently, the Braves won the World Series in 2021 with multiple outfield platoons.

For the first time since the opening series of last season, the Phillies will face the fully loaded Braves beginning Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Ronald Acuña Jr. returned to the lineup over the weekend — 12 months after tearing the ACL in his left knee — and went 4-for-12 with two homers in three games against the Padres.

Moreover, the Phillies will face Braves ace Spencer Strider in the series opener. Keep an eye on the radar gun. Known for his triple-digit fastball, Strider, who missed most of last season while recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery, pitched with diminished velocity in his first start back from a strained right hamstring.

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But the Braves hung in the playoff race without their best player and pitcher. They’re 25-27, 8½ games behind the Phillies but only 4½ out in the wild-card race.

And as the Phillies can attest, once you make the playoffs, nobody bothers asking how you got there.