PHILADELPHIA — Here is Trea Turner, the embodiment of whatever disease has infected the Philadelphia Phillies this summer. Thirty days ago, he was one of baseball’s hottest hitters. Until he wasn’t. Everyone in the league knows the scouting report on him right now — offspeed, down and away. His poor results at the plate leaked into the field and created unforced errors again and again. Then, he looked more tentative on the bases. He is not hurt, his manager said, just being cautious.
He is a skilled player — one of the most dynamic talents in the whole sport — and he is lost. The Phillies are lost, and the entire thing is jarring because outside of those dugout walls and across the league, this is considered to be a formidable team. No team is expected to be perfect. The Phillies were due for a course correction.
Not like this.
“We’ve been through this before, maybe not this prolonged,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said after a 5-0 shutout at the hands of Miami Marlins rookie Valente Bellozo. “But you look at the numbers on the back of baseball cards. I always bring that up. I believe in this team. They’re resilient. They’re tough. They care. I think we’re — I know we’re going to turn it around.”
Thomson takes pride in operating with a steady hand. His lineup is his lineup. His players respond to continuity. Everyone knows the expectations and, when it works, it works. It is not working now; the Phillies have lost 16 of 23 games since the All-Star break. They have been a .500 team for almost two months now.
Changes are probably coming.
“We’re getting close,” Thomson said. “I am. But, uh, we’ll see tomorrow.”
The easiest place is a lineup shuffle. Maybe it’s dropping Turner, who went 0-for-4 Tuesday night to lower his OPS to .805. It was .917 exactly a month ago. But, before Tuesday’s game, Thomson said he hadn’t given any thought to that. The alternative is too complicated because there is no clear replacement in the No. 2 spot.
“No,” Thomson said. “I mean, we’ve got a few guys that aren’t going real good right now. So we just got to fight through it.”
Maybe it’s benching Brandon Marsh, who struck out two more times Tuesday night. He is hitting .235/.314/.395 this season, and it’s officially more than a slump. In August, he’s 5-for-36 with one extra-base hit and 17 strikeouts.
Does Marsh have to make more contact to keep putting him in the lineup?
“He needs to make more contact,” Thomson said. “Sure.”
After hitting .182 in July, Brandon Marsh is hitting .139 in August. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
The last part of the question went unanswered. The manager did not need to say it aloud. The issue is this: Whatever change Thomson makes, it is temporary. Perhaps that is the point. A jolt. If Thomson is so steady, a change would send a direct message to his players. But they know it’s past time to play better. Everyone knows it. Maybe the manager shuffling the lineup has an unintended effect and is perceived by the players as a panic move.
So, does something need to change in the batting order or the clubhouse to spark the Phillies?
“No,” Kyle Schwarber said before the question ended. “Not at all. No, no. I think the group that we have is one of the most talented groups I’ve been around. Some of the best dudes we’ve been around. You go one through nine in the order, you go through our staff, you go through our bullpen. We’ve assembled a really good team. And we’ve assembled a bunch of good dudes too. That’s why, for us, there’s frustration. You’re going to see us really come together, right? And we’re going to figure this thing out. I promise you we’ll be better for it at the end.”
That has become the rallying point inside the clubhouse, and it’s not an inaccurate sentiment. Had the Phillies stormed through their July and August schedule, their reality would not have changed: It doesn’t matter if they do not win in October. That is a cold way of thinking about a season that lasts 162 games. But that is the deal these Phillies have made after the last postseason ended in heartbreak. So, if they lose in July and August and hit their stride over the final six weeks, does it matter? Does anything matter?
“The game can be great,” Schwarber said, “and it can bring you right back down.”
The Phillies had not been inside Citizens Bank Park for 12 days. The fans booed after the 11th pitch Tuesday night. There was a mound visit after the 14th pitch. They trailed seven minutes into the game. In the top of the eighth, the first audible “E-A-G-L-E-S” chant echoed through the ballpark. The Phillies have gone 29 innings without a home run.
Turner batted with two outs in the eighth inning and no one on base. The game’s fate had been decided. He faced a righty reliever, Jesus Tinoco, who was pitching for his fourth different organization this year. Turner took a slider for a called strike. He whiffed at another slider down in the zone. He swung through a fastball on the inner edge.
This is how teams have attacked him for weeks.
“I mean, it’s a lot of offspeed,” Thomson said. “It’s a lot of chase pitches. He’s got to see the baseball a little bit better and eliminate the chase. Force them into the zone. Take his walks. That type of thing.”
Turner has not made that adjustment. He is frustrated, like everyone else on the club, and he is not solely responsible for the malaise. But he’s wearing the anguish. He committed another error in the sixth inning on a routine grounder that nicked his glove.
His whole game, built on power and aggressiveness, looks dulled. The Phillies built such a cushion earlier this season that it was natural to be bored. This thing could run on cruise control for a little bit. They could manage innings and injuries. Turner missed almost two months with a strained hamstring. He could be smart about it.
Until he couldn’t.
“He is healthy,” Thomson said. “OK? Let’s get that out of the way. But he is a little bit … I don’t know if the word is ‘tentative.’ He’s cautious. He doesn’t want this to happen again. I’ve seen it from a lot of guys that have calf, quad and hamstring injuries. It takes them a while to be really confident they can turn it loose and not re-injure themselves. So that’s where he’s at, really. But he is healthy.”
When it ended at 9:03 p.m. ET, there was a smattering of boos. The Phillies had not been shut out at home in exactly one year. They are 19 games over .500 and own a healthy lead for the National League East. But they have made a first-round bye and home-field advantage harder to obtain.
Maybe they’ll be better for this derailment. Maybe not.
“That’s kind of when you want to get hot again — September, toward the end of the year, and make a run for the playoffs,” starter Taijuan Walker said. “We built ourselves a pretty good cushion, but we definitely do need to start playing better baseball.”
They do. This is not how anyone envisioned this summer.
(Photo of Trea Turner: Eric Hartline / USA Today)
