The Phillies placed Seranthony Dominguez on the 15-day injured list Saturday afternoon with a left oblique strain, retroactive to June 16.
Dominguez last appeared in a game Thursday, striking out the only two batters he faced to protect a one-run lead in the eighth inning of a win in Arizona. It was a bounce-back performance after he allowed a game-tying three-run home run to Christian Walker with two outs and two strikes the previous night.
He has appeared in 32 games this season and 25 have been scoreless. He’s had several bad outings — two in the Phillies’ first nine games — and has a 4.33 ERA with a 1.56 WHIP for the season.
Dominguez to the IL was one of four roster moves the Phillies made prior to the middle game of their series against the Athletics. They also optioned reliever Luis Ortiz to Triple A and recalled left-hander Christopher Sanchez and right-hander Yunior Marte.
Sanchez was in line to start Saturday in Oakland. The Phillies don’t have a fifth starter and are looking for any sort of stability in that spot. They’ve used Matt Strahm as an opener multiple times. Dylan Covey did not pitch well in his lone start. Bailey Falter started the season in the rotation but was sent to Triple A after starting the season 0-7 with a 5.13 ERA. He has not shown much improvement at Lehigh Valley.
Marte is back just four days after being optioned to Triple A. He was not sent down because of performance — he’s pitched very well since initially returning from the minors on May 20. The reason the Phillies sent him down earlier in the week was they needed a fresh arm after using Marte, Covey and Andrew Vasquez for more than an inning a piece behind the opener Strahm on Monday in Arizona. They had a thin bullpen the night after and swapped out Marte for Ortiz.