How’s the bullpen looking for today?

The Phillies had grand designs yesterday that Ranger Suarez was going to be effective enough that the soft underbelly of the bullpen wasn’t going to be exposed. The meat grinder that is the Braves’ lineup made sure that that plan was put in tatters early, using Suarez’s lack of command against him, refusing to chase pitches out of the zone, eventually driving him from the game in the fourth inning.

That meant that manager Rob Thomson was forced to go to pitchers he probably wasn’t comfortable putting on the mound, forced to use pitchers for longer than he probably wanted to and forced to rethink how he can deploy his bullpen, if needed, in today’s game in Atlanta. With Zack Wheeler on the…