Kevin Long talks Phillies struggles with runners in scoring position
The lack of production with runners in scoring position has been a hot topic around the Phillies, who have lost four straight and are three games under .500.
Is it the only reason the Phillies are on a skid? No. Some of the blame belongs to the pitching staff and the defense. It’s hard to win when a starting pitcher allows six unearned runs in one inning.
But there’s a feeling that a lineup stacked with this much talent shouldn’t miss on as many opportunities as they have been in recent days.
The numbers, 2-for-39 with runners in scoring position over the last four games, are driving everyone who watches the club on a daily basis nuts. But Long, a 17-year veteran Major League hitting coach, isn’t losing any sleep over such a small sample size.
“You guys are making too big of a deal out of four games, ” Long said. “If it was, I don’t know 50 games? 40 games? Four games, that’s a little unfair. In my opinion, it’s just not enough sample size. And if the two games before that were 4-for-9, then it really is a bad four-game stretch.
“Does it need to get better? Yeah, everybody wants to do better. You don’t want to leave runners out there. The gimmes — the man on third with one out or nobody out, we did OK in those situations. Those are the ones I feel like you’ve got to pick up. We were able to do that but not really break anything open. The good thing is, if we keep putting guys out there, we’re too good not to get guys in.”
Both Long and manager Rob Thomson highlighted some positives. Over the past six games, the Phillies have hit 68 balls over 95 mph. They also walked 24 times over those six games.
“I’ve always said hitting with runners in scoring position ebbs and flows, but as long as we’re getting baserunners, we’re going to score runs,” Thomson said.
The hard-hit balls just aren’t falling. There will eventually be some regression to the mean in that category, but there’s a related season-long trend that reflects poorly on the Phillies lineup.
They are dead last in slugging percentage (.325) with runners in scoring position, just behind Detroit (.333), San Diego (.333) and the New York Yankees (.348). It’s a bizarre stat considering the Phillies are 11th in MLB in overall slugging percentage (.421).
The situational power just hasn’t been there.
“That’s not a good number,” Long said. “You definitely want to slug a little bit more than that with runners in scoring position. That number needs to increase. Needs to get better. But I feel very confident in our guys that that’s going to sky rocket. I think that’s going to go way up too. I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the year we’re somewhere in the 15, mid range with that.”
It’s a number that makes sense when you consider three of the most important hitters in the Phillies lineup: Bryson Stott, Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber. In 116 at-bats with runners in scoring position, they have combined for five extra-base hits and a .155 batting average. Brandon Marsh and J.T. Realmuto are tied for the team lead in extra-base hits with runners in scoring position with four.
But consider this. From June 1 to the end of last season, the Phillies finished tied with Toronto for second in the league in slugging percentage with runners in scoring position at .466. Stott and Schwarber both performed much better once the calendar turned to June.
Long believes that number will sky rocket again and render the anxiety around the lack of production with runners in scoring position pointless.
“For me to get caught up and wrapped in I think would be – I wouldn’t be doing my job the way I need to be doing,” Long said. “I gotta trust my guys and I do and I know that they’re better than what they are with runners in scoring position, especially slugging and that number will change. I’m quite certain of that.”
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