Jake Arrieta is considered one of the better hitting pitchers in baseball and he batted eighth 38 times in his career before joining the Phillies as a free agent this season. But for the second time in as many National League starts Thursday night, Arrieta arrived at the ballpark to find his name ninth in the batting order.
That, of course, is the traditional spot for the pitcher, but if we’ve learned anything about Gabe Kapler during his first three weeks as Phillies manager it is that he could care less about tradition. Kapler has filled out 15 lineup cards for games against National League opponents and nine of them have had the pitcher batting ninth while six others have had the pitchers batting eighth.