Baseball is really, really hard.
There are players in the major leagues who can make it easy to forget that, the guys to whom everything comes naturally. But there are many more stories in this game of struggle, of adversity, and in many of those stories, the ending isn't happy.
That looked like it might be the way things were going for Cincinnati Reds right-handed pitcher Connor Phillips.
He made his last of five MLB outings in 2023 as a fill-in starter for the 161st game of the season. He threw 12 consecutive balls to begin the outing and was pulled as the Reds went on to lose, 15-6.
Cincinnati radio host Lance McAlister shared Phillips' story on X on Friday, and it's worth recounting all of it here.
Phillips spent most of 2024 in Triple-A, but he didn't have it anymore. He had an 8.01 ERA in 19 starts.
The Reds eventually sent him to their complex in Arizona, where they remade him as a pitcher and turned him into a reliever.
He began this season at Dayton, where he had a 2.45 ERA. Then it was back to Triple-A with Louisville, where his ERA was 2.88.
And now he's made 18 appearances this season with the Reds and has a 2.82 ERA, including seven consecutive scoreless outings.
Phillips is still just 24. He has a whole bright baseball future ahead of him.
For a time, it looked like his major league dreams may have ended with 12 consecutive pitches out of the strike zone.
But Phillips rediscovered himself. He found the drive within to recreate who he was as a pitcher and to travel an uphill path back to the place it seemed like he could never reach again.
Now, Phillips finds himself in the heat of the NL Wild Card race. After a journey like this, there's no way Phillips is taking this for granted.
He knows how hard baseball can be. And he's now consistently determined to overcome it and prove he belongs.
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