Thompson finds footing, even in another loss

PHILADELPHIA >> When Jayson Werth golfed a hanging breaking ball into the left field seats Monday night with one of his patented, one-knee showstopping swings, Jake Thompson was down yet again, this time all of two batters into a game.

There would be more signs of protracted trouble in this first inning at Citizens Bank Park; Bryce Harper drawing a two-out walk, then scoring all the way from first base on a single to the right of plodding centerfielder Odubel Herrera.

Such has been the script for the early days of major league life for the Phillies’ couldn’t-miss, 22-year-old pitching prospect.

That Thompson would wind up going seven full innings on this night against the Nationals, no one could have predicted.

That Thompson would not yield another run beyond those two first-inning Washington runs, hardly anyone would have believed.

That Thompson would end up taking the loss in what would become a 4-0 Nationals conquest?

Well, yeah of course. What else?

“It was all about him tonight,” Phils manager Pete Mackanin said after not saying that it was all about his pitcher because his hitters did squat.

“What a job he did after the first inning,” Mackanin continued about Thompson. “In the first inning it was more of the same. He hung a breaking ball to Werth and gradually as the game went along he got better and better. And in that seventh inning he really battled hard to get out of that. All three of his strikeouts were in that one inning. That was huge. Great to see. I’m real pleased with that. A real positive outing.

“I thought about getting him out after six to keep it positive, but I thought he was just pitching too well. So I let him go.”

Thompson did the twist but never pouted through seven full innings, his longest and by far his best start since taming the Triple-A International League as the Lehigh Valley ace earlier this summer.

He’d made his Phillies debut Aug. 6 in San Diego. Gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings pitched. He lasted just five innings in each of his next three starts, and heading into this game against the Nationals was 1-3 with a 9.78 ERA.

Through it all, Thompson seemed to go to great interview lengths to sound like the cool, confident young pro he may yet be.

He just needed to stop tapdancing while facing the music and start really getting his dance steps down on the mound.

Nothing a couple of sharp pieces of advice from pitching coach/choreographer Bob McClure couldn’t fix.

“It was huge,” Thompson said of his new delivery system, which he’d tried out in two short bullpens in New York over the weekend. “I’m in a better position to make pitches.”

It was no two-step or four-onthe-floor four-seamer that magically enabled Thompson to move on from the cumulative ERA of near 10 that spelled his first four major league starts, and the first inning of this fifth outing.

“It actually wasn’t too difficult,” Thompson said. “It’s really simple; just small moving parts instead of a bunch of stuff moving at the same time.”

More lucid movement than Locomotion.

More simple than salsa, more about timing rather than Tango, more of a straightforward line dance instead of a diamond ballet.

But he did have his butt breakdancing the right way.

“It was a lot more crisp,” Thompson said. “A lot more pitches were down, which is something I struggled with my first few (outings). I was able to keep the ball down and make some good pitches when I needed to.

“It was night and day from my performance in the first four that I’ve had. It’s kind of a relief. It feels a lot better.”

It also didn’t feel like a loss, though thanks to the Phillies’ chorus line of stumbling swingers, that’s exactly what it was. So Thompson fell to 1-5. So what?

His ERA dropped a full two points, his pitch count on this night reached 111, the last being a terrific called-third-strike curve that froze Trea Turner with two baserunners on and two outs and the Nats threatening to break the game wide open.

“That was probably my last guy regardless,” Thompson correctly analyzed. “I was pumped. It kept it a one-swing game.”

So OK, the Nats did break the game open in the ninth against reliever Frank Herrmann, but the Phillies club that managed all of four hits on this night wasn’t going to create any lategame heroics.

All 30,000 or so empty seats knew that.

Besides, Jake Thompson had already etched the positivity part of another Citizens Bank Park news night. It just took him a while. “I just took away my two big moving parts, the step back and the hands over head, to make it a lot easier on myself,” he said. “The only thing I can probably pinpoint is it has a lot to do with timing. Coming up here and struggling kind of disrupted my timing a little bit.”

Now the feet might be back in synch.

To contact Rob Parent email rparent@21st-centurymedia. com; follow him on Twitter @ ReluctantSE

CHRIS SZAGOLA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Phillies starting pitcher Jake Thompson towels off after finishing his finest start in the big leagues. Of course, thanks to his inept offense, it still went down as a 4-0 loss for the Phils.