Philadelphia Phillies Top Prospect Continues Horrid Streak

Pitcher Griff McGarry got back on the mound for the Triple-A Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs on Saturday, and the Philadelphia Phillies pitching prospect had a better outing than his last one.

But he’s still a long way from being where he needs to be if he wants to be called up to the Phillies.

McGarry’s start came 11 days after his brutal start against Jacksonville on Aug. 15 in which he failed to record an out.

On Saturday against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre he did record outs — five of them. But control was still a big issue for McGarry.

He went 1.2 innings and only allowed one hit. But, he gave up five earned runs, walked five and struck out three before he was removed from the game with two out in the second inning.

In fact, it was the second inning that got McGarry. In the first, he limited the damage of an Estevan Florial walk and a Jaason Dominguez fielder’s choice that allowed him to reach first but led to Florial being called out at second. McGarry struck out Andres Chaparro and Franchy Cordero to end the inning.

But the second inning got away from him, but only after retiring the first two hitters.

After that, he walked the next four hitters, the last of which brought home a run to make it 1-0. Then Dominguez doubled home all three baserunners to make it 4-0 and McGarry was removed for Noah Skirrow. He allowed McGarry’s final earned run on an Andres Chaparro single.

Still, it represents progress after his Aug. 15 outing in which he gave up seven runs, didn’t allow a hit, walked seven and hit a batter.

With his second straight loss, McGarry — who is the No. 6 prospect in the Phillies’ system — now has a 41.54 ERA in three Triple-A starts. He has allowed 20 earned runs and 14 walks in 4.1 innings with the Iron Pigs.

Before his call-up, he spent all but one inning with Double-A Reading, where he went 1-1 with a 3.13 ERA in 13 starts. He threw 54.2 innings, striking out 74 and walking 36. He pitched one inning in one game in May for the Phillies’ Florida Complex League rookie team as part of an injury rehab assignment.

For his minor league career before Triple-A, McGarry was 6-9 with a 3.44 ERA with 249 strikeouts and 103 walks.

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