The Phillies struck out 15 times Thursday night, didn’t have a runner reach third, and fell back to .500. They have struck out at least 13 times in 14 games this season. That is tied for the second-most games in a single season for the franchise. There are 118 to play.
“When you don’t hit, a team always looks flat,” manager Joe Girardi said after the 6-0 loss to the Marlins. “That’s the bottom line.”
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Some of the final numbers are going to look weird. The Phillies are 6-8 when they strike out at least 13 times in a game. That’s baseball in 2021.
Here’s this week’s Six Pack on the good and bad that emerged in the last week of Phillies baseball.
Alec Bohm, 3B
Girardi hasn’t seen a noticeable change in Alec Bohm’s approach at the plate. Bohm hasn’t seen a noticeable change in how pitchers are attacking him. There is more velocity, sure, but every hitter is seeing that this season. He’s missed pitches to hit in the zone. Everyone can agree on that.
But Bohm has steadily been expanding the zone as his slump has deepened.
Just as concerning is what’s happened in the field. Bohm misplayed another ball Thursday. He has more errors (five) than homers (four). On top of that, there might be 10 other plays that weren’t errors but were plays a good third baseman makes.
There hasn’t been overlap from offense to defense in Girardi’s mind. Bohm struck out three more times Thursday.
“I think he does a pretty good job of separating it,” Girardi said. “But there is frustration. Some guys will outwardly show it more than others. And it’s really the first time he’s gone through it for an extended period of time. This is the big leagues. This is where you see the best of the best. And our division, I think you could argue, might have the best pitching in any division in all of baseball. So there aren’t a whole lot of easy at-bats in our division. You just have to fight through it. Make adjustments if they’re making adjustments to you.”
The next few weeks will tell the franchise quite a bit about Bohm’s fortitude.
Spencer Howard, RHP
The Phillies had planned to stay in rotation — Chase Anderson starting Saturday and Spencer Howard pitching the same day but in Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Those plans could change in the wake of Vince Velasquez’s finger injury that prevented him from starting Thursday.
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Anderson sat in the bullpen during Thursday’s game in case he was needed to pitch in an emergency situation. If Velasquez misses a turn, Howard would fill his spot next week in Miami. The Phillies could have Howard throw an abbreviated outing Saturday in the minors to keep him sharp.
The Phillies spent $7 million combined on Anderson and Matt Moore, and they have already made one of them a long reliever. Girardi felt it was unfair to judge Anderson on his last outing, in which the right-hander allowed seven runs in 1 1/3 innings to raise his season ERA to 6.96. The team’s defense failed to make numerous plays behind him. But sticking with Anderson is the conservative decision. He has a low upside. Howard is the team’s best pitching prospect.
If Howard is restricted to a finite number of innings in 2021, it is illogical to keep him in the minors beyond this weekend. Howard has struck out 13, walked five and allowed three hits in nine innings at Triple A.
“I think it comes down to us feeling good about where he’s at,” Girardi said earlier in the week. “Stats are one thing, right? Using your pitches and executing all your pitches is another. There’s a difference between Triple A and the big leagues, so a lot of times you want to see them executing everything and then you make those evaluations after each start and you go from there.”
Does that mean Howard has things he must still improve in the minors?
“Well, no,” Girardi said. “I mean, he looked really good his last start. I’m not going to lie to you. I saw it. But there are people that are evaluating that stuff — not necessarily me — as much as front office and pitching coaches and pitching coordinators about where he’s at.”
Howard might be nothing more than a four- or three-inning pitcher in the majors while the Phillies work to preserve his innings. It’s probably time for that to happen.
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Rhys Hoskins, 1B
It’s odd to see Rhys Hoskins at .257/.319/.467, only because of the current state of the league. Batting averages are down. But Hoskins has traded some walks for more contact. He went 0-for-3 on Thursday, but he is still hitting for a higher average than he’s carried for much of his career.
He is starting to reach base more at a Hoskins-like clip, too. He’s raised his on-base percentage by 46 points in May. Six multi-hit games in the month have helped.
“I’m swinging at better pitches,” Hoskins said this week. “I’m chasing less, which is always going to help. Trying to get these guys in the strike zone. Sometimes the barrel just finds the ball a little more often. Just got to ride that wave as often as you can.”
Hoskins was swinging more earlier in the season, but he’s actually swinging less often at first pitches than he did a season ago. He’s whiffing at more pitches, and that is the biggest problem. (He is not alone. The entire Phillies lineup has regressed when it comes to putting the ball in play.) It’ll be interesting to see if Hoskins continues the recent trend of taking more pitches. The Phillies have missed J.T. Realmuto and Didi Gregorius in the lineup, so that puts more pressure on others. But with so much swing-and-miss in this lineup, Hoskins is one hitter who can counterbalance it with his old patient approach.
Nick Maton, SS
In the minors, Nick Maton batted 266 times against a left-handed pitcher. He hit just .222/.295/.335 against lefties with three homers.
Then he crushed his first two big-league homers against a lefty in the same game. Maton hit a hanging slider for the first one. In his next at-bat, he barreled an elevated 96 mph fastball and hit it 403 feet to center.
Maton has surprised the Phillies in many ways. His initial production against lefties is just one of the reasons. Maton has batted .350/.350/.650 in 33 plate appearances against a left-hander. It’s a small sample and it’s sure to regress. Maton has a .524 batting average on balls in play against lefties and has struck out 10 times without a walk.
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But he’s playable against a lefty.
The 24-year-old infielder credited an unusual situation last summer at the alternate camp in Lehigh Valley for his progress against lefties. Maton and Bryson Stott were the only lefty hitters on the reserve roster for most of the summer. The players scrimmaged every day and there weren’t set rules. So, whenever the Phillies wanted one of their lefty relievers to prepare for a possible call-up, Maton and Stott batted every other hitter.
“I just think it was a lot of work,” Maton said. “A lot of consistent at-bats against lefties last year at the alternate site. There were a lot of really, really good arms out there. I saw them every single day. I think that really helped out my approach. It just helped me out a lot.”
Maton has handled velocity from lefties and righties. He is hitting .341 with a .500 slugging percentage against fastballs. Maybe the scouting report is known: Eight of the 11 pitches Maton saw Thursday from Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara were off-speed pitches.
Brandon Kintzler, RHP
The numbers, at first glance, befuddled Brandon Kintzler. He’s posted the highest ground-ball rate of his career (67 percent). That is his job as a sinkerballer: Get groundouts.
“But the problem is my home run rate is the highest it’s ever been,” Kintzler said. “So that is where the confusing part is. I don’t know.”
Kintzler has a 6.28 ERA in 14 1/3 innings this season. He’s allowed four homers, one more than he did last season as Miami’s closer. The veteran reliever has fallen lower on Girardi’s list of trusted arms.
But on Thursday, he might have discovered something during an afternoon meeting with pitching coach Caleb Cotham.
“We just realized that my arm angle has been 8 degrees higher than normal,” Kintzler said. “So that’s something. That is eye-opening for me. My arm angle has gotten way too high.”
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That, Kintzler said, affects how his ball sinks. Sometimes, he tries to over-sink it and it turns into a runner that moves horizontally instead of vertically. That might explain the uptick in homers.
But, even if the duller sinker leads to contact on the ground, it’s not the type Kintzler wants. Entering Thursday, the average exit velocity on grounders hit against him was 92.5 mph. It was 86.4 mph from 2018 to 2020.
He’s pitching in front of a suspect defense. Harder-hit balls have a better chance of skipping through.
Kintzler pitched a clean 1 1/3 innings Thursday. He induced two routine groundouts with his refined mechanics.
“So I’m hoping we just keep working with that,” Kintzler said before the game. “Those groundballs that get through become slower groundballs and we can get them.
“When my stuff’s great, they are slower choppers. It might take a little bit. When someone shows me that (information about his arm angle), that’s extreme.”
José Alvarado, LHP
The Phillies knew they were boarding a roller coaster when José Alvarado emerged as a prime late-inning option for them. There are highs and there are lows.
Alvarado has walked more batters (nine) than he’s struck out (eight) in May. He’s allowed softer contact in May, but he’s missed the strike zone with 62 percent of his pitches. Hitters aren’t chasing.
“He’s just a little off,” Girardi said. “We’ll get him back on track. I don’t worry too much about Alvy because he also has the ability to strike people out and get groundballs. You don’t see a lot of balls hit in the air.”
That’s true, although Alvarado’s fly ball rate is almost double what it was two seasons ago.
Alvarado hasn’t worked much of late. He’s thrown just 22 pitches in the last six days. They all came in one outing. Jazz Chisholm, for the second time this season, blasted a 100 mph fastball for a homer. The other time he did it was against Jacob deGrom. The Phillies will probably avoid throwing Chisholm fastballs up and in next week.
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Alvarado walked three of the first 37 batters he faced this season. In May, he’s walked nine of 27 batters faced. The month began with an emotional outing against the Mets a couple of days after the benches cleared. When he played for the Rays, Alvarado sometimes failed to prevent one or two bad innings from spiraling into a few weeks of struggles. It’s one reason Tampa Bay was willing to move on from him despite the potential for incredible performances.
It’s still a work in progress.
(Photo of Alec Bohm: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
