PHILADELPHIA — On May 7, Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly gave Alec Bohm a game off. He wanted the right-handed hitter to take a “reset day.” No playing. No swinging.
Bohm was batting .154 with a .398 OPS, but he wasn’t being benched for an extended period. Mattingly maintained that Bohm would turn it around. He thought Bohm would hit, “and I’ll believe that until the day I’m not on this Earth,” Mattingly said at the time.
That reset didn’t fix everything. Bohm hit better right after, but it was still largely a struggle for him in the first half. The Phillies, however, stuck by Bohm in words and actions. They kept him in the mix after the trade deadline at a new position.
Now, three months after Mattingly professed his eternal belief, the club is reaping the benefits, as Bohm is hitting — and hitting a lot — in a scorching-hot August. The first baseman went 3-for-5 with a 10th-inning, two-run, walk-off triple to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-6 on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park. His drive into left-center field off right-hander Luis Gastelum scored runners Bryce Harper and Edmundo Sosa, the latter of whom dove into home plate to win Philadelphia’s seventh game in a row.
“I’m fairly confident when he’s up there,” Mattingly said. “I mean, obviously right now he’s going good, and he’s kind of a collector. He collects those RBIs, so he’s kind of one of those guys.”
Bohm, batting .246 with 14 home runs, 74 RBIs and a .692 OPS this season, is batting .371 with a .945 OPS in 19 games this month. He only has one homer in August, but it was a big one in Minnesota last week. He’s racked up 26 hits in 70 at-bats while striking out just four times. A player who has worn his frustrations on his sleeve at times, Bohm is looking as confident as ever.
“It’s definitely easier to just be a little more relaxed in there and just not try to do too much and just be a little more disciplined and a little more patient,” Bohm said. “All those things, I think, come a little bit easier when you’ve seen some success recently and you’re not chasing results.”
As an entire unit, Philadelphia’s offense has been impressive in the second half with a .754 team OPS and .342 team OBP. Harper and Bryson Stott have been on base at ridiculous clips. The club added three-time batting champion Luis Arraez at the trade deadline. But Bohm’s emergence of late has certainly been a key factor in the improvements.
That doesn’t mean this will be permanent for Bohm. He has displayed the highs of an All-Star who hits in the middle of the order and the lows of a regular who gets benched for a postseason game. But if he can keep anything close to this up, it makes the Phillies (71-58) and their lineup a lot deeper and a lot scarier.
After downing St. Louis in the opener of a three-game weekend series, they remain in the second National League Wild Card spot, and they are creeping up on the NL East-leading Braves. The Phillies are just four games back for the division, have seven games left against Atlanta in September and are rolling in August. The club could definitely catch up, but Bohm and the Phillies don’t want to look too far ahead while they have a good thing going.
“Anything’s possible, right?” Bohm said. “We play them a lot coming up here in a little bit. I don’t think that’s the main focus in here, though. I think we’re just showing up each day and trying to play winning baseball and do what we can to win the game that’s right in front of us today.”
