Velasquez S.O. 16, Makes History

The Phillies 23 year-old right-hander Vincent Velasquez made history Thursday, less than 24 hours after his teammate in the rotation Jerad Eickhoff continued to impress with a 9K, 0 BB stellar performance.

When the Phillies traded their closer Kenny Giles to the Astros in December, Velasquez was a key part of the Phils return. In 19 games (seven starts) for the Astros last year, he posted an ERA of 4.37 in 55 2/3 innings and struck out just over a batter an inning, averaging 94.6 mph on his fastball.

The 2010 second-round pick had been re-ranked at No. 69 on MLB's Top 100 list, and sat at No. 4 on the Astros' Top 30 when the Phils got him.  He entered into the Phils prospect list at #5 before being promoted to the majors.

In his first outing with the Phils on April 9th vs. the Mets, Velasquez sparked a shutout at Citi Field.  His 6 innings were dynamite: 3 hits allowed, 9 S.O., 3 walks.

Thursday, however, he took the next step in a thrilling young career.

He S.O. a staggering 16 and walked none in a complete game shutout of the Padres at Citizens Bank Park to complete a 3-game sweep of S.D.  Velasquez allowed just 3 hits.  He has not yielded an earned run yet this year.

Most impressive, the quality and power of his pitches never faltered throughout the contest. Velasquez hit 97 mph with his fastball on pitch No. 101. His final pitch of the game was 96 mph.

More importantly, Velasquez didn't walk a single batter during the start. He induced an amazing 27 swinging strikes!

"I reached back," Velasquez said. "I wasn't really looking at the radar gun. I was just trying to get a last strikeout and celebrate."

"My face doesn't show it, but it was fun," Velasquez said 15 minutes after striking out the final batter. "I'm fully excited. Man. Gosh, it's still hitting me."

Velasquez is the third pitcher (after Dwight Gooden and Kerry Wood) under 24 since 1913 to strike out 16 and walk none in a shutout.

"It looks like we made a pretty good trade, I'd say," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "How much fun was that to watch?!"

"A young Zack Greinke right there," pitching coach Bob McClure said. "That was like watching the same thing."

"That was incredible," righthander Aaron Nola said. "I felt like it was automatic. It looked like a video game."

"His fastball, I mean, it had every bit of life that it had to it," Catcher Cameron Rupp said. "It got to a point where I was thinking to myself, 'I kind of want to mix in a breaking ball here, but I don't need to.' He was blowing everybody's doors off with it."

Ryan Howard (yes, he's still around) hit his 3rd HR of the season and drove in the only 2 Phillies runs Thursday.  The 2nd-place Phils are now 5-5 and have won 3-straight and 5-of-6.  They will host 1st-place Washington and the Mets in back-to-back series beginning Friday.

Velasquez's complete game 16 S.O. no walk shutout has only been equaled by 1 active pitcher in all of baseball: (now) Washington's Max Scherzer, who Aaron Nola will face Saturday in Philadelphia.

Velasquez now leads the NL in wins (2), ERA (0.00) and S.O. (25).  He is second in WHIP behind L.A.'s Clayton Kershaw.

The 3 young guns: Velasquez, Nola and Jerad Eickhoff in the Phils rotation are making things very exciting and encouraging with an eye to the future, which the organization has so effectively transformed into something bright.