I think there’s more to this story. Its not unusual to have a non pitcher pitch at the end of a blowout loss, to save your pitchers strength for future games. Can’t believe the only reason for this pitching outfielder was due to a bad phone.
The Phillies could have pitch a peanut vendor and it would not have mattered.
What you say is likely correct . . . which shows you how lazy and too stupid to check out the obvious today’s news writers really are, even in the more demanding world of sports.
They said that they only pitch one inning and anymore could hurt the players arm.
I remember when the Rangers had Jose Canseco pitch, and it effectively wound up ending his career.
I was at a spring training game once, the last of pre-season. One team ran out of pitchers due to players leaving the stadium early, so they “borrowed” one of the opposing teams’s pitchers.
He was asked if he wanted to go another and said yes, when it was realized that it wasn't such a good idea, he was beat, they tried to call the bullpen and the phone was off the hook, whether it was bumped or the bullpen denizens were pranking is unknown but it took a lot of yelling and towel waving to get their attention.
A mound visit, an upset Utley and couple of runs later Frenchy finished the game. He's a gamer and everyone else was more upset than he was.