Last year, he spent the first part of the year at Scranton, going 4-8 with an ERA over 6. When he was called up to the Phillies, the team won 5 straight of his wins. With these kinds of records, the Phillies might be familiar with pitchers with up and down years. What a way to run a rotation. That's a vast improvement over the 7 runs in less than 5 innings he gave up on April 7.
Every starter has a bad game every now and then, so one bad start is no reason to panic.
But for a team that's counting on good pitching, you can't afford too many really bad ones. Starts as bad as Green and Stephenson have had have to be a reason for concern. If they have many more, the Phillies had better clear out some garage space, because the bandwagon will need a parking space for another year. Kevin Jordan did well enough filling in for Mark Lewis to earn some more playing time. He started at first Sunday instead of Rico Brogna against lefty Kent Merker.