It’s a long and winding road that leads a team - let alone a team with a supposed interest in making the playoffs - to utilize a four-man starting rotation. The organizational failure that got us to this point will be discussed at length elsewhere, so let’s just focus on the fact that by only having four starters, every fifth game will be handled by a bullpen committee, and for the Phillies, that fifth game came on Thursday night.
Without a starting pitcher, the Phillies were forced to use seven relievers. Some of them pitched well.