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Tag: Alec Bohm

  • Phillies Quick 6: 2 of 3 from the Nats gets Philly on track

    Phillies Quick 6: 2 of 3 from the Nats gets Philly on track

    Nothing like a series against the Nats to get things back on track – well, somewhat. 

    The Phillies took two of three on the road from Washington this weekend, though closing out with a 3-2 loss on Sunday, leaving them within a game of the .500 mark at 4-5 heading to St. Louis next. 

    It isn’t all perfect – it never is with this club – but it’s still early into the season and this three-game set brought some promising signs, though with some more to be concerned about. 

    For now, here are a quick six thoughts on the series to take things into a new week…

    • In the series opener on Friday, a 4-0 shutout win, Aaron Nola got his second turn on the bump and put up 5.2 scoreless innings with only two hits surrendered. He struck out only four and was pulled after 95 pitches, but brought much sharper stuff and a much better performance than his first go against the Braves when he got tagged for 11 hits and six earned runs. 

    Nola is durable and dependable, and when him and Zack Wheeler are at the top of the rotation and fully on, there’s arguably no better 1-2 punch in baseball. We know this.

    But what we also know, and have for years now, is that there are three versions of Aaron Nola, and which one you’re going to get can often be a dice roll. A big key for the 30-year old and longest-tenured Phillie this season is going to be in making sure that he brings out his best stuff as consistently as possible, because his best stuff either has batters whiffing on breaking pitches or reaching for contact on grounders that amount to nothing. 

    Probably pretty safe to say that few fans want to be holding their breath throughout the summer and, hopefully, well into October when the fourth inning rolls around on Nola’s day. 

    Again, early into the season, and we only have a sample size of two here. Let’s see how the rest of April shakes out for him.

    • Kyle Schwarber pulled a two-run single into right early into Friday night, then notched another base hit on Sunday after going 0-for-5 in game 2 (with 3 strikeouts). He entered Sunday’s game batting .257 at the top of the order. This time last year, he was batting .158.

    Who said he couldn’t hit for average?

    • J.T. Realmuto crushed a two-run bomb in Saturday’s 5-2 win, and Alec Bohm made the highlight reel with an RBI triple and then a barehanded grab in the field. 

    That’s Bohm at his best, and what could quietly make him one of the better third baseman in the NL if he can do that consistently. Sunday, not so much with an 0-for-3 effort and the strikeout to end it offensively, and then an offline throw on a grounder that pulled Bryce Harper off the bag at first to allow an infield hit. 

    Bohm’s come a long way from “I f***ing hate this place” two years ago, but can be a polarizing player within the lineup among fans for what he has offered so far compared to the idea of what he still could in the way of more power (he hasn’t homered yet this season) and sharper fielding.

    • Edmundo Sosa started at second on Sunday and did everything he could to push the Phillies to win this one, first with an RBI single into left in the second and then a solo shot to tie it up 202 in the fifth. 

    They didn’t come through this time, but he has really left them in good shape reaching into the bench ever since getting to Philly from the 2022 trade deadline. 

    • Brandon Marsh drove in the first run on Friday with a bases-loaded sac fly off Patrick Corbin, a lefty. He really pushed that one into center, too. Then on Saturday in the ninth, he bounced one off the mound and through the middle to score Bryson Stott from second and make it a 5-2 ballgame. 

    On Sunday, Marsh sat and Whitt Merrifield took the start in left with the Nationals sending out MacKenzie Gore, another lefty. 

    It has to be kept in mind that Marsh did only recently return from late offseason knee surgery, but a key point in his development is figuring out how to hit off lefties, and it’s been noticeable that the Phillies have been protecting him from that so far. 

    Again, this is another thing to monitor and see if it might gradually loosen up over the course of the season.

    • Johan Rojas also sat on Sunday. He’s a miserable 1-for-22 eight games in. Cristian Pache took over in center, and at this point, you do have to wonder if the scale between what Rojas brings in the field versus what he can do at the plate has tipped, and if the call might be coming to send him down to Triple-A. 

    The situation for the 23-year old entering 2024 was always positioned as a sink or swim one, and so far, he’s struggled mightily to stay afloat with his bat. Some time in Lehigh Valley might be the best thing for him now after bypassing that part of the minor-league climb entirely last season. 

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    Nick Tricome

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  • Harper, Phillies tie World Series mark with 5 HR, top Astros

    Harper, Phillies tie World Series mark with 5 HR, top Astros

    PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper bashed a home run on the first World Series pitch he saw in Philadelphia, and then figured out how the Phillies could hit a few more.

    The $330 million star offered quiet advice to Alec Bohm — and then it got really loud in Philadelphia.

    As for those whispers in May that the Phillies were finished? Forget about ’em. The secret has long been out: these Phillies are for real.

    Now, they’re two wins away from their first World Series championship since 2008.

    Harper hammered his sixth postseason home run, whispered an assist to Bohm before his solo shot and the Phillies tied a World Series record with five homers to rout the Houston Astros 7-0 Tuesday night and take a 2-1 Series lead.

    Brandon Marsh also homered, and Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins hit back-to-back shots in the fifth inning to chase Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. Philadelphia used the long ball to end the long wait for its first World Series home win since Game 5 of the 2009 World Series.

    Those Phillies couldn’t finish the job.

    Ranger Suárez tossed three-hit ball over five shutout innings and inched this year’s team closer to getting it done.

    Harper, Bohm, Marsh and the rest of the Phillies on the last team to qualify for the playoffs are two wins away from ending the season as the last team standing. With a sparkling 6-0 record at Citizens Bank Park this postseason, the Phillies just may not return to Texas.

    “It’s our fan base. I mean, plain and simple.” Harper said. “They keep us going, keep us fired up.”

    Another red, raucous, resolute crowd of 45,712 let the Astros have it from the first pitch with chants of “Cheater! Cheater!” for Jose Altuve and “Check the Bat! Check the Bat!” for Martin Maldonado.

    The fans — already amped from the jump after another sliding catch by right fielder Nick Castellanos in the first — didn’t wait long to go wild for the home run barrage.

    With leadoff hitter Schwarber on first base, Harper repeated his flair for playoff power when he ripped a two-run shot off McCullers into the right field seats for the fast lead. That made Harper 2 for 2 on home run swings in Philly — he sent the Phillies to the World Series with a two-run drive in Game 5 of the NL Championship Series to beat San Diego.

    Harper crossed the plate and again exclaimed “This is my house!” before he ripped off his helmet, exposed his Phillie Phanatic headband and was mobbed by teammates in the dugout.

    Harper’s homers shake the stadium to the point they should be measured on the Richter scale rather than in feet — and they seem as automatic these days as a Phillie Phanatic spin on his ATV. Harper has hit four postseason homers that gave the Phillies the lead and showed that, yes, Bryce Bombs do go off in November, the first time more World Series games will be played in this month than October.

    Oh, and Harper might have a second career as a homer whisperer.

    Harper beckoned Bohm from the on-deck circle and back to the dugout for a quick word of advice.

    Maybe Harper saw McCullers tipping his pitches?

    “I think that’s just general conversation,” Harper said. “Trying to get as much information as we can from each other. We just tried to have the best at-bats we could.”

    Whatever the quiet counseling was, it worked, and Bohm lined his first postseason homer leading off the second inning and the 1,000th in World Series history into the left field seats for 3-0 lead.

    So c’mon, Alec, fess up, what did Bryce tell you?

    “That’s between us,” Bohm said on TV with a shrug and a big smile.

    Marsh took the baton on the long-ball relay and knocked one into the right field seats that was dropped by a young kid from Delaware. The home run stood after a brief review — as it seems nothing can interfere with Philadelphia’s playoff push — and it was 4-0.

    With that, McCullers had allowed four homers to his first nine batters. The right-hander who got his left triceps inked with nods to Houston got absolutely tattooed by the Phillies.

    Schwarber, the NL home run champion, again dumped a two-run shot into a thicket of English ivy, Arborvitae and Holly beyond center field, and Hoskins connected on solo shot for a 7-0 lead that ended McCullers’ night.

    McCullers became the first pitcher to give up five home runs in a World Series game.

    “I don’t really get hit around like that, so I was a little bit in disbelief,” McCullers said.

    Suárez, the scheduled Game 4 starter before Game 3 was postponed a day by rain, delivered with the performance of his career and shut down the big bats in the AL champs’ lineup.

    He needed only two pitches to get the first two outs of the game and struck out Yordan Alvarez to end the first. The few jams he got into, Suárez worked his way out, notably in the second when he whiffed Chas McCormick and left two runners stranded. He retired Altuve to end the fifth on a soft foul pop with two runners on base.

    Four relievers each tossed a scoreless inning to finish the five-hitter.

    THE CHAMPS ARE HERE

    Philly sports champions Mike Schmidt, Julius Erving, Brandon Graham and Bernie Parent threw first pitches to 2008 World Series champions Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino. Country music star Tim McGraw, son of the late Phillies reliever Tug McGraw, received a huge ovation and wore his dad’s No. 45 McGraw jersey. McGraw closed the 1980 World Series with a strikeout.

    UP NEXT

    The Phillies send RHP Aaron Nola (2-1, 4.57 ERA in the postseason) to the mound against Houston RHP Christian Javier (1-0, 1.35 ERA) in Game 4. Nola was done after 4 1/3 innings in Game 1 of the World Series, though he retired the final six batters he faced and left in a tie game after the Phillies rallied from an early 5-0 deficit — and won 6-5.

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    More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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  • World Series teed up: Harper, Phillies go deep, face Astros

    World Series teed up: Harper, Phillies go deep, face Astros

    Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber breaking the Bank in Philly. Yordan Alvarez launching moonshots in H-Town.

    Dusty Baker trying for a most elusive win. Justin Verlander, too. A fired-up Harper and All-Stars J.T. Realmuto and Zack Wheeler, stepping onto baseball’s biggest platform for the first time.

    Yo! The Philadelphia Phillies, of all teams, are headed to the World Series. Against those back-for-more Houston Astros, y’all.

    A pretty tasty matchup starting Friday night at Minute Maid Park, a Fall Classic full of vibrant sights, scents and sounds.

    Think cheesesteaks, hoagies and water ice vs. BBQ brisket, Tex-Mex and Blue Bell ice cream.

    The Phanatic and Phils fans need a late rally at Citizens Bank Park? Dial up something from “Rocky.” Want to party in Houston? Sing and clap along with mascot Orbit to Moe Bandy’s bouncy “Deep in the Heart of Texas” during the seventh-inning stretch.

    Harper already has hit five home runs this postseason. In the signature swing of his career, his eighth-inning drive against San Diego on Sunday in Game 5 sent the Phillies into the World Series for the first time since 2009 and earned him the NL Championship Series MVP.

    The Astros are 7-0 this postseason after finishing off a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series. Alex Bregman’s go-ahead single keyed a 6-5 win Sunday night.

    After losing the World Series last year, Houston opened as a solid favorite to win the title this year, according to FanDuel.

    Odds are, crowd might witness a Schwar-bomb or the Chas Chomp along the way.

    But no possibility of seeing a sibling rivalry. Astros reliever Phil Maton broke a finger on his pitching hand when he punched his locker after a shaky performance in the regular-season finale, an outing that included giving up a hit to his younger brother, Phils utilityman Nick Maton.

    City of Brotherly Love, not so much. But a nice treat for fans in both cities: The Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL’s only unbeaten team, visit the Houston Texans on the travel day between Games 5 and 6, if those are needed.

    Weather won’t be an issue with the retractable roof in Houston. No telling what the elements will be with the open air in Philly.

    With the likes of Jose Altuve, ALCS MVP Jeremy Peña, Rhys Hoskins and Alec Bohm, this World Series is a best-of-seven matchup representing some of the game’s best present and future. Plus a good piece of the past — remember, these teams have played each other nearly 600 times.

    There was the thrilling 1980 NL Championship Series, when Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose, Steve Carlton and the Fightin’ Phils outlasted Nolan Ryan at the Astrodome on the way to their first World Series title.

    Years later, closers Brad Lidge, Billy Wagner, Mitch Williams and Ken Giles spent time with both clubs. So did future Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Robin Roberts.

    And this neat piece of history — the Phillies were the first team to ever beat Houston, back in 1962 when the expansion Colt .45s lost at Connie Mack Stadium.

    Funny, the Phillies are also the most recent team to beat the Astros. Way back on Oct. 3, Philadelphia opened the final series of the regular season with a 3-0 win at Houston, with Schwarber homering twice as Aaron Nola outpitched Lance McCullers Jr.

    The Astros then closed out an AL-best 106-56 record by winning the next two behind Verlander and Framber Valdez — Philadelphia still leads 297-283 in their head-to-head matchups, mostly all before Houston moved from the National League to the American League in 2013.

    Houston then swept Seattle in the AL Division Series and the Yankees in the ALCS featuring its winning formula of imposing starting pitching, a dominant bullpen and a lineup full of home run hitters such as Alvarez and Kyle Tucker.

    This marks the Astros’ fourth trip to the World Series in six years and their only title in 2017 was tainted by an illegal sign-stealing scandal. Last season, they lost to Freddie Freeman and the underdog Atlanta Braves in six games.

    At 73 and in his 25th season as a manager, Baker is looking for a crown to cap his ample resume.

    “I mean, victories drive me. And I’ll get it,” he said during the ALCS. “You can’t rush it before it gets here because it ain’t here yet. So you just got to put yourself in a position to do it.”

    Verlander, the likely AL Cy Young Award winner after bouncing back from Tommy John surgery, is hoping to improve his 0-6 mark in seven career World Series starts.

    The Phillies, meanwhile, looked like a big zero this year before getting to this point in October.

    Stuck at 21-29 going into June, they fired manager Joe Girardi a few days later and put the interim tag on bench coach Rob Thomson. Then suddenly, the Phillies took off.

    They overcame Harper’s broken thumb, sidelining the two-time NL MVP for two months, beat out Milwaukee for the final playoff spot in going 87-75, and quickly topped NL Central champion St. Louis in the wild-card round. Philadelphia eliminated defending World Series champ Atlanta in the NLDS and topped San Diego in the NLCS.

    Now, with Thomson having been rewarded with a two-year contract, the Phillies are the first third-place team in baseball history to reach the World Series.

    Philadelphia lost to the Yankees in its last trip this far. A year earlier in 2008, Lidge capped off his remarkable year of going 48 for 48 in save chances to close out the Phillies’ second title as a team led by Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard beat Tampa Bay in five games.

    Spurred by their rollicking home crowd, Harper and this bunch of Phils hope to add another banner.

    Thomson is trying to join Jack McKeon (Marlins, 2003) and Bob Lemon (Yankees, 1978) as the only managers hired in midseason to win the title. To the 59-year-old Thomson, it’s not such a surprise his team is in this position.

    “Coming out of spring training … we knew we had a good ballclub. We knew our bullpen was good, rotation was good, we had great offense,” he said earlier in the playoffs. “We just got off to a little bit of a slow start and kind of spiraled.”

    “And we had ups and downs during the season, just like any other club does. But they knew that they were going to come out of it at some point and start winning again. And we did,” he said.

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