Alec Bohm returned to the lineup after two reset days and delivered two homers plus a two-run single in the Phillies’ win.
Over the last two days, the Phillies opted to sit Alec Bohm, who has gotten off to a historically slow start. Not an injury. Not a true benching.
Just a “reset,” as Mattingly called it, for the club’s third baseman. On the third pitch he saw Saturday, Bohm golfed one into the left-field seats. A no-doubt homer. It was the perfect matchup for Bohm, so perfect that when he came up an inning later, he got another pitch to handle.
This time, he hit a low liner that snuck over the orange Asplundh signage just above the left-field wall. Whatever the reset was supposed to do, Bohm looked clearer when he returned to the lineup. His two early homers ignited the Phillies’ offense in a 9-3 win over the Rockies in front of a sold-out crowd at Citizens Bank Park. Even during Bohm’s season-long cold stretch, he has still controlled the strike zone and made contact.
Entering Saturday, Bohm ranked in the top 16 percent of hitters in chase rate, whiff rate and strikeout percentage. Not too shabby for someone who entered with a .433 OPS. Out of his 107 batted balls on the season, Bohm had barreled just one. The quality of contact had not matched the approach.
Against Colorado lefty Kyle Freeland, Bohm stayed consistent with that approach. He took a first-pitch cutter inside.
Then Freeland spun a slow knuckle curve, which Bohm also took. That put him in a hitter’s count. Bohm, who had hit just .128 against four-seamers this year, got a heater and was ready for it. He pulled his hands in and drove it out at 101.2 mph with a 38-degree launch angle, opening a five-run third inning.
Bohm fell behind 1-2, then protected the plate. He fouled off a fastball up and a hanging breaking ball before Freeland threw a strong two-strike knuckle curve. Like his first at-bat, Bohm saw it well out of the hand. The breaker finished about a ball’s width out of the zone, but Bohm dropped the barrel on it and sent it out at a 22-degree launch angle.
It was a low liner, but he produced enough backspin to sneak it into the seats. Trea Turner had been grinding coming into Saturday. He began May 4-for-32 without much slug. The Phillies’ shortstop collected four hits, his second four-hit performance of the season.
Three of Turner’s four hits on the night were not considered hard-hit, but that has been a common theme so far. His average exit velocity on the season is 90.2 mph, his highest in a full season since 2019. Turner’s chase rate and strikeout rate have both risen by about four percentage points from last year’s batting-title campaign. Seeing Turner put the ball in play is a good sign, and the tide could be starting to turn.
A night after going 0-for-6, Turner’s four-hit performance was just the fourth time by a Phillies hitter, and first since Gregg Jefferies in 1995, that a player followed that big of a hitless outing with four hits. In five full campaigns with Texas, García averaged 30 homers per 162 games. Since getting to the Phillies, though, the power numbers have not been the only thing to notice.
He has been a more consistent hitter, and the ability to impact the ball has not gone anywhere. García has produced a 52 percent hard-hit rate this year, the highest of his career. That has been paired with a five percentage point decrease in swings outside the zone and a walk rate that has increased by three percentage points. The Phillies’ right fielder has been much better at the plate recently.
Over his last 15 games, he is slashing .298/.339/.474 with 17 hits. He tallied two more on Saturday and has been a steady presence out of the cleanup spot. It was not up to Nola’s standard from his last start, when he spun six scoreless innings in the Phillies’ 1-0 win in Miami on Monday. Against the Rockies, Nola went 4 2/3 innings, allowing six hits, two walks, and three earned runs while striking out four.
His ERA still sits over five, and he dealt with some of the same issues that have followed him early this season. Five of his six hits allowed came to left-handed hitters. Again, his four-seam fastball did not generate much swing-and-miss. He got one whiff on 12 swings after going 0-for-12 in his last start.
Most importantly, Nola kept the Phillies in the game. He also produced a 42 percent chase rate. His knuckle curve generated a 43 percent whiff rate after entering the outing at 39.8 percent. The relievers delivered 3 1/3 scoreless innings without allowing a hit, striking out six.
Tanner Banks and Chase Shugart each tallied three strikeouts. Since the start of May, Phillies relievers have the second-most strikeouts in the National League.
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