Mackanin’s plea for power answered

PHILADELPHIA >> The first four games of the season were enough for Pete Mackanin to make a few observations before Saturday night’s game against the Washington Nationals.

In spite of a surprising near-comeback from a seven-run grave by the Phillies the night before, Mackanin’s remarks were mostly about power-hitting ... or Tommy and Company’s lack thereof.

“I believe that Joseph is capable,” Mackanin said. “I believe (Cameron) Rupp is capable. I believe they have the power potential.”

Those middle of the order guys and others like them were coming into this second series game against the Nationals lacking a little luster in their start. The Phillies’ home run leaders in their first four games were Freddy Galvis and Daniel Nava, with two each.

Tommy Joseph was hitless in his first 13 at-bats of the season. Rupp only had two hits in his first 11. Howie Kendrick was off to a hot start, but he had no homers or RBIs. Cleanup hitter Maikel Franco was hitting .125 with just two singles and no runs knocked in. Michael Saunders at least had gotten a double ... but that was his only hit.

So, considering the three-game losing streak his club was on, it seemed the right time for the manager to take a few verbal cuts. Soft strokes, though, considering the early hour. So, to Tommy Joseph... “I think he’s working underneath the ball too much,” Mackanin said. “He needs to level his swing off. That’s what I see. I don’t know if he’s trying to hit home runs or swinging too hard. It’s tough to put my finger on it. I know Stairsie (uh, that would be Matt Stairs, one of the greatest upper-cutters of all time) is working with him with set-up stance and approach and knowing what a pitcher is going to give you.

“Someone asked me yesterday if pitchers were pitching him differently. I don’t think so. I think he’s just missing pitches he can hit.”

Joseph hadn’t been alone in doing such things over the first four games, Mackanin would say.

“We’re striking out a lot,” the manager lamented. “Not because we are missing the third strike, but we’re getting pitches to hit and we’re not hitting them. Franco has a pitch right there yesterday and he popped it up. Mechanically, he’s got to make the adjustments to get into the right approach.

“I have seen him all spring, working the middle of the field,” Mackanin added about Franco. “He would turn on a pitch that was in to him because it was what you want the guy to do - hit the ball up the middle and react inside. I saw him working on that. But once the bell rings and you are crossing the lines and facing that pitcher, strange things happen and you don’t know.

“It is different to come out of that comfort zone on how you are hitting. He’s been pretty successful to this point. He needs to take the next step. It’s not easy.”

Nah, it’s never easy, this hitting game...

So by the end of the first inning, three-plus hours after Mackanin’s talk, Tommy Joseph would have two hits.

So would Michael Saunders and Howie Kendrick, whose second hit of the inning was a three-run triple.

And Franco knocked in one on a sacrifice fly, then another on a double. And ...

“Sometimes,” Franco had said almost prophetically Friday night, after a comeback fell one-run short in a 7-6 home opener loss to the Nationas, “like I’ve said before, it just happens. So today, just turn a new page. Tomorrow is a different day. I’ll do anything I can do to try to win the ballgame.”

He tried. And Saunders did, and Rupp did and Joseph did and ... the Phillies scored 12 runs in the first inning Saturday night against the Nationals. A new club record for runs in a first inning, the second-most runs scored in any Phillies inning, period. Period. Power? Who knew how powerful Pete Mackanin’s pregame words could be?

••• Hey, Bryce Harper hit a home run Friday night. Nothing unusual about that. It was the ninth time Harper homered in what then was his 15th Citizens Bank Park game over the past two-plus productive years.

Mackanin was asked if maybe his pitchers should think about changing an approach to him.

Mackanin didn’t seem to agree with that point.

“What it boils down to is this: If you make your pitches, we certainly have a game plan and we know how to get him out,” Mackanin said. “But it’s up to the pitcher to make pitches. (Jeanmar) Gomez struck him out with a backfoot slider yesterday and pitched him extremely well. If a pitcher makes quality pitches, you will get guys out. If you make mistakes - the good hitters like Harper with poorly located pitches, they don’t miss them.”

And they hit them a long, long way.

“I think he’s working underneath the ball too much. He needs to level his swing off. That’s what I see. I don’t know if he’s trying to hit home runs or swinging too hard. It’s tough to put my finger on it.” — Phillies manager Pete Mackanin on Tommy Joseph