PHILADELPHIA − It was a rational decision.
Brandon Marsh was mired in an 0-for-26 slump, his average down to .108. So Phillies manager Rob Thomson did the only sensible thing and benched Marsh, saying that it could be for as many as three games.
That’s all well and good if the Phillies actually had someone on the roster who could pick Marsh up.
They don’t. At least not until the Phillies call up minor league phenom Justin Crawford, who’s currently at Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
That day becomes more inevitable as Marsh keeps struggling and Johan Rojas keeps, well, doing what he has always done − field well, but not hit.
We’ll get back to Crawford in a bit.
For now, Thomson turned to Rojas, and that was a disaster. It wasn’t just that Rojas struck out in each of his three at-bats during the Phillies’ 10-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants on April 14. It was how he struck out.
In the fourth inning, Rojas came up with runners on second and third, nobody out, the Phillies down 6-3. He struck out for the second time.
Granted, Rojas wasn’t alone. Bryson Stott, who moved to the leadoff spot, flied out to left field, not deep enough for a sacrifice fly. Then Trea Turner grounded out. The Phillies didn’t score.
In the sixth, the Phillies were down 6-4 when Rojas came up with a runner on third with one out. Again, he struck out. Then Stott flew out to left to end the inning.
Rojas didn’t get a fourth chance. Kody Clemens pinch hit for him in the eighth and grounded out.
“Just a little bit over-aggressive, over-swinging a little bit,” Thomson said about Rojas’ at-bats.
The Phillies were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position against the Giants. Phillies starting pitcher Taijuan Walker contributed to the loss, too, by throwing a potential inning-ending double play ball into center field.
That came in the second inning after the Phillies took a 3-0 lead in the first. The Giants got a run back and had runners on first and second with one out when Patrick Bailey hit a grounder back to Walker. Thomson said it would’ve been a double play “that changes the entire inning.”
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Instead, Walker threw the ball past Turner and into center field, allowing one run to score. Tyler Fitzgerald followed with a three-run homer, and just like that, it was 5-3, Giants. Willy Adames added another homer later in the inning to make it 6-3.
“I went too quick, trying too hard to get the double play,” Walker said. “I didn’t have a really good grip on the ball. I just rushed it and threw it into the outfield.”
The natural reaction here is to say we’re still in mid-April, barely one-tenth into a 162-game season, and the Phillies are 9-7.
Thomson certainly did.
“These guys gotta remember, we’re (16) games in here,” he said. “There are 70 guys hitting under .200 in major league baseball right now. So, they just need to relax. It’s going to happen.”
No, those 70 players don’t all play for the Phillies.
In fact, the Phillies started only one player hitting below the Mendoza Line, third baseman Alec Bohm. Yet to show the lineup’s overall malaise, Thomson had already dropped Bohm to eighth in the lineup. Bohm at least doubled to the top of the wall in left-center in the fourth. That moved Max Kepler to third with nobody out.
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That’s when Rojas struck out, Stott flied out to shallow left and Turner grounded out to end the inning.
Would Crawford had done better?
Possibly. The 21-year-old is getting his first taste of Triple-A, and he was hitting .259 with no homers, seven RBIs and five stolen bases through 14 games and 59 at-bats. Crawford, the Phillies’ first-round pick in 2022, clearly needs more at-bats.
For now, the Phillies are committed to being patient with him.
But that only goes so far, especially if Marsh keeps struggling.
“It’s just getting my rhythm back,” Marsh said. “The game is very, very tough. It’ll bring you down, break you down, and bring you (back) up when you least expect it. So I just gotta keep a positive mindset.”
Thomson was then asked how far into a season before he knows whether a change is needed.
“I think you got to get to 100 at-bats for sure, maybe close to 150, before you really think about doing something drastic,” Thomson said. “So we got a lot of time.”
For Marsh, that could be into late May or early June. And if Marsh is still one of those players still hitting under .200, well, Crawford could be that “something drastic.” By then, Crawford will have about 150 at-bats at Triple-A.
That could be enough.
Until then, all Thomson can do is hope that Marsh can get back on track, along with several others.
“We haven’t played our best baseball, that’s for sure,” Thomson said. “We need to get better, and we will. We got a good club. I’m not sure exactly why, but we haven’t hit as much as we normally do. But that will change. We just gotta keep moving forward.”
The Phillies will eventually move forward with Crawford. It’s just a matter of when.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl. Read his coverage of the Eagles’ championship season in “Flying High,” a new hardcover coffee-table book from Delaware Online/The News Journal. Details at Fly.ChampsBook.com
