Phillies still trying to figure out how to deploy Seranthony Dominguez

PHILADELPHIA - Seranthony Dominguez has become a bullpen warrior for the Phillies.

Armed with a big fastball and wipe-out secondary stuff, Dominguez has delivered a much-needed boost to a bullpen that needed a serious shot in the arm.

While Dominguez has quickly proven to be a valuable weapon, first-year skipper Gabe Kapler is still learning how to get the most bang for his buck with his budding star.

And that’s not a knock on the manager either.

Use him in a high-leverage situation in the seventh against the opponents’ heart of the order? Save him for later in the game? Throw him for one inning or two?

Kapler’s answer to all of those questions would be yes.

“I personally think there is a balance there and it’s one we are trying to figure out,” Kapler said. “A guy like Seranthony, a guy who, right now, is our most dependable and strongest reliever, this is my opinion, he should be used in the most important moment of the game. Sometimes the most important moment of the game is in the seventh inning, something it’s in the sixth and sometimes it’s in the ninth.”

Kapler hasn’t been shy throwing the rookie into different situations. He has responded with a 1.27 ERA and a 0.563 WHIP in 21 1/3 innings.

Since he was promoted on May 7, Dominguez has pitched in 17 games. Eight of those outings have been for more than three outs, with three appearances reaching two full innings.

“If you use (Milwaukee’s Josh) Hader as a model, you can really close out a game from the middle of the seventh inning on. Getting a guy and stretching him out,” Kapler said about his pitcher, who used to be a starter in the minors.

“We’re trying to protect him to keep him sharp and to keep him healthy. I don’t think there’s no real formula with this. I think that’s the real tricky part. There is some trial and error to this and we just have to err on the side of caution.”

In an eight-day span in late May, Dominguez notched four straight appearances of more than an inning. He gave up one hit with no walks and seven strikeouts in those six innings.

More innings means more rest is needed in between and back-to-back days are out.

Firing him up for one inning at a time would give Kapler his best fireman for more appearances during the course of a week.

But is that a good thing?

The manager has used Dominguez on consecutive days twice, and the reliever has some fatigue in the back-end games. He gave up two runs against the Cubs on June 6 and, on Sunday, issued two walks and a hit in a four-out appearance against Milwaukee. He had walked just one batter in his previous 20 innings.

Dominguez wasn’t available for Monday’s game against St. Louis when the Phillies encountered trouble closing out the game. After coughing up a two-run lead in the ninth and gave up a go-ahead homer in the 10th, the Phillies bailed out the bullpen with two runs in the bottom half of the frame for the win.

Kapler said Dominguez was ready to go if needed on Tuesday, but probably would be limited to just one inning.

“It takes us some practice on how to best deploy him, not just from a strategy perspective, but how to keep him as sharp as possible,” Kapler said. “We’ve seen this with a lot of our relievers. Some guys function really well when you send they back out for as second inning, some guys their stuff checks up a little bit.

“And I’m not sure where we’re at with Seranthony.”

The bullpen has endured its ups and downs especially in recent weeks.

Kapler will lean on Dominguez, even if the role isn’t defined.

Injury news

Right fielder Nick Williams suffered a broken nose in Monday’s game when the ball bounced off the right-field fence and hit him in the face.

Williams said he could play as early as Wednesday.

Tom McGurk; @McGurkSports (856) 486-2420; tmcgurk@gannett.com