Starting the moves early.
Calling up Ruiz a day early was a bit of a surprise, although it’s obvious why the move was done, namely to have an extra bat on the bench if the Phils make the post-season. Really what made the move quite possible however was the combination of Tom Gordon’s being almost but not quite ready to come off the DL and Cole Hamels’ strong outing last night.
Because Hamels went 8 innings yesterday, it’s pretty clear that barring either a spectacular flameout from Wolf (which at this point is not going to happen since he’s about through the 3rd) or a really long extra-inning game, they really shouldn’t need more than a 6-man bullpen tonight. Whether they ever need more than 6 is another debate for another time.
With Flash presumably coming back tomorrow once the rosters expand, it’s only for one day that they’re at 6. If they make the playoffs they will presumably go with a 4 man rotation so they wanted to have another bat available off the bench and this gives them that option. They could get another in there by exploiting a loophole with Aaron Rowand, but this is more within the spirit of the rules.
Meanwhile no word yet on who else is coming up, but more moves are obviously coming. With Sandoval and Smith being sent to teams that aren’t going to be in the postseason, it’s clear that they’re ticketed to return as soon as they can which is after Reading and Clearwater play out the string this weekend, instead of having to wait the usual 10 days. With the doubleheader on Saturday they’re going to need at least another starter, and since that’s Scott Mathieson’s day to pitch, that seems like a natural. It’ll be interesting to see if they pull up a reliever as well. If they do, they’ll make themselves even more unpopular than they already are in Scranton since the Red Barons are in a decent position to make a run at the Governor’s Cup.