{"id":112129,"date":"2025-06-18T04:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T04:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/112129\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T04:00:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T04:00:13","slug":"phillies-matt-strahm-says-orion-kerkerings-first-career-save-is-1st-of-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/112129\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies’ Matt Strahm Says Orion Kerkering’s First Career Save is ‘1st of Many!’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phillies’ Matt Strahm Says Orion Kerkering’s First Career Save is ‘1st of Many!’<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Phillies typically use various relievers in a closing role since Rob Thomson took over in 2022. With the team having a few issues in the bullpen in 2025, the team has been looking for a new closer.<\/p>\n

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Jordan Romano has been iffy all year, and Jose Alvarado is suspended for 80 games. Instead, the Phillies might have found their new closer in an internal option.<\/p>\n

After Orion Kerkering notched his first career save against the Miami Marlins, his fellow reliever, Matt Strahm, responded to the video of his save with a three-word message. Strahm said on Twitter\/X, “1st of many!”<\/p>\n

Kerkering getting his first save in his third season with the team is surprising. Considering how well he pitched in 2024 and his strong 2025 season since May began, Kerkering getting his first save against the Marlins was a surprise.<\/p>\n

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It was a clean outing, getting two groundouts and a strikeout. For Strahm, he’s always come to bat for Kerkering whenever he gets the chance. Earlier in the year, he called out people on Twitter\/X for their negative comments amid Kerkerings’ 6.53 ERA start to the year.<\/p>\n

\"Philadelphia<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Matt Strahm (25) reacts with starting pitcher Ranger Suarez (55) after the game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Citizens Bank Park.Kyle Ross-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

This time, however, it’s a positive message he’s sending, and one that’s hopeful of Kerkering getting more chances to close games for the Phillies in the future. With how he’s pitched since May first, it’s not a surprise that Strahm believes this save is the first of many.<\/p>\n

Since May first, Kerkering has a 0.53 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 17 innings pitched. The only thing holding Kerkering back from securing his spot as the closer is his struggles with command, as he’s walked 10 batters and hit one since May 1st.<\/p>\n

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But, with his recent performances in mind, and Thomson alluding to the potential for Kerkering to get more closing opportunities, Strahm may be right. This save from Kerkering might be the first of many.<\/p>\n

Related: Phillies’ Rob Thomson Alludes to Bullpen Decision After Marlins Game<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Phillies Get Bad News on Kyle Schwarber Extension<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 17, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phillies’ Matt Strahm Says Orion Kerkering’s First Career Save is ‘1st of Many!’ originally appeared on Athlon Sports.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,1098,1104,1103,58,4,4681,144,25,4216,40,90,4874,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-112129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-jordan-romano","10":"tag-jose-alvarado","11":"tag-matt-strahm","12":"tag-miami-marlins","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-orion-kerkering","15":"tag-philadelphia","16":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","17":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","18":"tag-phillies","19":"tag-ranger-suarez","20":"tag-rob-thomson","21":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114702373675655805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}