Seth McGarry took somewhat of a circuitous route to Triple-A. He pitched in 45 games at Double-A Reading last season, so it figured that he would either start the year back with Reading or get a promotion to Lehigh Valley. Neither of those things happened. Instead, he was sent down a level to High-A Clearwater even though his 3.99 ERA with Reading in 2018 wasn’t bad, and he had an impressive performance as part of the Phillies contingent playing in the Arizona Fall League following last season.

The demotion caught McGarry unprepared, but he realized that there wasn’t anything he could do to change the minds of the Phillies player development staff other than pitch for Clearwater and put up numbers that would force them to bump him back up to Reading.

That didn’t happen either.

McGarry had made four relief appearances with the Threshers this season, three of which resulted in four innings of work and just one hit and one walk with no runs allowed. The other was a disastrous inning of work where he allowed five hits and three earned runs. The result was a 5.40 ERA.

“I definitely had different expectations,” said McGarry about opening the season with Clearwater. “But they talked to me about it and I saw where they were coming from. I guess I didn’t leave enough of an impression for them to put me some place else and I didn’t want to feel sorry for myself, I just wanted to try to get better so I could get back to where I was.”

One of the reasons he was sent down to Reading was because the Phillies wanted him to develop a slider, which he had never thrown before. They felt it was a better compliment to the sinker he was throwing than his curveball was. He took input from anybody who was willing to give him tips on throwing the slider and was beginning to feel a little more comfortable with it.

On May 1, the Threshers were rained out in Ft. Myers. McGarry and his roommate were just hanging out in their hotel room when there was a late-night knock on the door that started a whirlwind 12-hour span for McGarry.

“It was pretty unexpected,” said McGarry. “The manager came and knocked on the door around 11:30 and said ‘Hey, I don’t know the exact details yet, but you’re going to be going to Lehigh tomorrow.’ He came back around midnight and said the airport shuttle is at 4:30 in the morning, they’re playing a 10:30 a.m. game and you’re definitely pitching.

“My flight was around 6:50 a.m. and I got here in the fourth or fifth inning and then pitched the seventh and eighth. I only had about three hours of sleep before I got ready to catch the shuttle. I had about five alarms set because I didn’t want to miss the shuttle.”

As it turned out, McGarry did pitch in that Education Day game, making his Triple-A debut. He wound up throwing two shutout innings against Syracuse, picking up two strikeouts and not allowing a baserunner. Needless to say, he’s stuck around and has added five more shutout innings for the IronPigs, giving up just three hits and one walk with five strikeouts since his debut. Odds are that he may stick around a little longer.

TOE JAM... Dylan Cozens would likely choose to take a do-over on the 2019 season even though it’s not very old. Cozens has struggled at the plate this season and is batting just .167 with Lehigh Valley. It’s basically been either a home run – he has six – or a strikeout when he’s at the plate. Cozens has struck out in 42-percent of his plate appearances this year. Cozens hasn’t played since May 4 because of a sore toe and last week, he was placed on the IL with no immediate timetable for his return.

SWERVIN’ TO PHILLY... Cole “Swervin’” Irvin made his Major League debut with the Phillies on Sunday and it was a rousing success. The lefty threw seven innings and allowed just one run as he pitched his way to a win in his MLB debut. Manager Gabe Kapler was impressed and told reporters that Irvin would stick around for at least one more start with the big league club. A rotation spot opened up when Vince Velasquez was placed on the IL Saturday with a forearm strain.