Phillies bullpen the best story of 5-1 homestand | Bob Brookover

A year ago, it would have been an uh-oh moment for the Phillies, but in their opening homestand of 2021, the bullpen story could not have been any different or any better and the results reflected it.

Once again the Phillies needed a good bulk of their ‘pen to come through Wednesday and once again it did so, covering the final five innings in an 8-2 win over the New York Mets that allowed manager Joe Girardi’s team to start the season 5-1.

Oh, yeah, and once again, Connor Brogdon went home with a victory, his third of the season. A year ago in the pandemic-shortened 60-game season, Aaron Nola led the Phillies with five victories.

“You think about the innings they have had to give us just the last three days and what they’ve been able to do,” Girardi said. “I think everybody has a ton of confidence in them. I like the arms, I like how they prepare, I like the personality of our bullpen. It has been fun to watch and we need it to continue. We need to spread the work around and I think that’s the important thing.”

It looked like a sure bet after one inning Wednesday that Nola would get his first win of the season after a Pablo Sandoval late-game, two-run homer had saddled him with a no decision in his outstanding opening-day effort against Atlanta.

In his second start, the Phillies put on their first power display of the season to provide Nola with a 4-0 lead after an inning. The white-hot Rhys Hoskins started the scoring by driving a 3-2 fastball on the outside part of the plate from David Peterson into the right-field seats for his first homer of the season. Three batters later, Alec Bohm crushed a three-run homer into the center-field seats.

» READ MORE: J.T. Realmuto homers Phillies over Mets, who passed over him this offseason

With Nola pitching, the Statcast win probability chart jumped to 86% in the Phillies’ favor, but the four-run lead grew increasingly uncomfortable in a hurry. The Mets did not score in the second, but they made Nola throw 24 pitches. He needed 22 more pitches to get through the third and this time the Mets did score on a one-out single by Pete Alonso.

Again the Mets did not score in the fourth, but they probably thought they did something nearly as good or maybe even better. By making Nola throw 30 pitches and driving his pitch count to 92, they chased him from the game. Girardi sent up Matt Joyce as a pinch-hitter and now it was up to the bullpen to protect a three-run lead with five innings left to play.

Nola or the Phillies’ bullpen?

That’s a question that would have evoked intense, roll-on-the-ground belly laughter from opposing teams and Phillies fans a season ago.

On this day, however, the Mets had a better chance against Nola.

“Those guys have come in and shut the door in this first week,” Nola said. “It has been fun to watch them. They come in and they pound the zone. We expect that to keep on going because we have a lot of solid guys in the bullpen and a lot of guys who have done it before.”

Brogdon, a rookie, was the first reliever to trot in from center field Wednesday and he carried the Phillies through 1⅔ innings, retiring the dangerous Alonso and Domonic Smith to start the fifth inning. He ended the inning by getting James McCann to look at a third strike and the Phillies’ power game resurfaced in the bottom of the inning with a three-run homer from Realmuto that made it 7-1.

» READ MORE: Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler not a fan of early-season scheduling

After Brogdon got the first two outs of the sixth, Archie Bradley came on and struck out Michael Conforto, stranding runners at first and second. The Mets did get a run off Bradley in the seventh when he spiked a two-out wild pitch with a runner at third, but Sam Coonrod and Hector Neris navigated the Phillies through the final two innings and the players got ready for their first road trip with a nice, shiny 5-1 record.

Sure, there was a bullpen hiccup in the only loss Tuesday against the Mets, but Vince Velasquez and David Hale, the two guys who gave up six runs, are going to be counted upon the least. Trouble lurks for almost every team when they get to the very back of their ‘pens.

The other six guys in the Phillies’ bullpen, a group that also includes Jose Alvarado and Brandon Kintzler, has a 0.96 ERA. That super six has combined to throw 18⅔ innings and allowed only two earned runs on 13 hits. They have struck out 22 and walked five.

Most important of all, they have flipped the narrative from a year ago and that had to happen if the Phillies were going to have any chance in 2021.