By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Although the Philadelphia Phillies edged the Colorado Rockies in Tuesday evening's series opener at Citizens Bank Park, the club nearly denied Aaron Nola his eight win of the season as reliever Luis Garcia struggled in the ninth. Garcia failed to retire any of his four batters faced, allowing four singles before eventually giving way to Seranthony Dominguez.
Although Dominguez allowed two inherited runners to score, he secured his third save out of 15 career appearances overall. The rookie right-hander has struck out over one-third of his 65 batters faced, and has allowed only three runs through 19 frames.
Despite Dominguez's early-career dominance, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler still does not believe in anointing him the title as closer.
"I completely understand and respect why people like to take the best reliever in the bullpen and make him the closer. I am definitely very confident in Seranthony. I just don't think that an elite reliever is best deployed in any specific inning. In fact, I think that it is affirmatively not the best way to deploy them," Kapler said Wednesday on SportsRadio 94 WIP's Angelo Cataldi And The Morning Team. "What I see is that the most important moment of the game may be bases loaded with two outs in the seventh inning, [with] Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis on deck. If one of those two guys go deep, do we get to that ninth inning for that save opportunity? What if something similar happens for three straight games? Then you don't tire your bullet."
"You never deploy your weapon because your saving it, because it's too late and you're already dead. That's why I believe you use your elite relievers when you need them most."
Seranthony Dominguez's Career Stats
When Cataldi asked Kapler if he will ever set "what we see as a defined closer," Kapler responded that it is "definitely not right" to do so, and that he is simply "reading and reacting to what's happening on the field in between the lines, in the clubhouse, [and] in the bullpen with our coaches."
"All of those things are going to play into the decisions that I make on the baseball field," Kapler said. "And if at the end of the day we have to have a set closer, because the environment just isn't going to work otherwise, we'll have a set closer. It's not the way I think a baseball team works best. I don't think it's the way you can set yourself apart from other baseball teams."
"My ambition is that we deploy our relievers in the best situations [and] the highest-levered situations that will help the Phillies win every night."
