Phillies Sunday Notes: Haseley Returns, Eflin Makes his Debut, Better Bullpen

The Phillies look to sweep the Braves today at Citizens Bank Park with Zach Eflin making his 2021 debut on the mound.

Behind him today the Phillies are going to role with essentially their same lineup with just two changes.

Andrew Knapp replaces J.T. Realmuto, hitting seventh and Adam Haseley in center field hitting eighth. With Realmuto out of the lineup, everyone bumps up one spot with Bohm hitting fourth, Gregorius hitting fifth, Segura hitting sixth.

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The Phillies are counting on Eflin to lengthen the rotation and be a solid No. 3 starter this season. The 26-year old has been dealing with a back issue in Spring Training and compiled a 3.97 ERA, 1.27 WHIP across 59 innings last year.

Eflin has 25 wins over the past three seasons in 67 games. If he can give them 13-15 wins this season, the Phillies could find themselves back in the playoffs for the first time since the 2011 season.

In nine career games against the Braves, Eflin has a 5-3 record and 3.48 ERA in 51.2 inning of work.

Bullpen Providing Quality Innings 

So far, so good.

The Phillies rebuilt bullpen has pitched scoreless frames to far this season with Archie Bradley and Héctor Neris came in and each threw a scoreless inning in relief of Zack Wheeler, with Neris striking out the side.

So far this season the bullpen has yet to give up a run in 5 1/3 innings of work with eight strikeouts and a 0.56 WHIP.