Klentak: Crawford a candidate to play ‘all over the field’

PHILADELPHIA » Hours before Rhys Hoskins would belt his sixth home run in eight games and start both ends of a doubleheader in left field, Matt Klentak had his case study at the ready.

Hoskins’ success in the bigs is striking a blow at positional rigidity for a club with more prospects than discreet paths to major league at-bats for them, the Phillies general manager was saying. So yes, prized prospect J.P. Crawford, nominally a shortstop, would take reps at third base at Triple-A. So would Scott Kingery, who’s shining as a rapidly rising second baseman. So what? “Any time a player can expand his versatility to allow himself more chances to get called up and get playing time, the better off the player is and really, the better off the organization is,” Klentak said. “At the time we did it, I think we had about three weeks left in the minor league season and J.P. with his athleticism, arm strength, his general skill set — we feel like he’s a candidate to play all over the field.”

The Phillies are veering into Sixers-type assets territory, which isn’t a bad thing. They had at least three starting-caliber outfielders before Hoskins moved from first base to left field because of the presence of an established starter in Tommy Joseph there. That’s before factoring in prospect darlings of yesteryear like Dylan Cozens and Roman Quinn, plus their last two top-round draft picks, outfielders Mickey Moniak and Adam Haseley.

On the infield, Maikel Franco looked like the third baseman of the future. Freddy Galvis and Cesar Hernandez, at short and second, respectively, appeared to be veteran placeholders. But those estimates have shifted, and flexibility can help Klentak maximize value and relieve the logjams.

Klentak said Crawford’s shift to third, “has very little to do with Franco and more to do with J.P.” In the short term, that may just be a matter of comfort to allow manager Pete Mackanin to shoehorn more youth into lineups of academic September games. And longterm?

“This is not a permanent move for J.P. by any stretch,” Klentak said, “but it’s an opportunity for him to expand his skill set and hopefully find a path to the big leagues.”

••• It was a tough fate for Pete Mackanin to stomach Tuesday. His team belted eight home runs in a doubleheader with the Marlins, but found itself on the wrong end of a sweep, 12-8 and 7-4.

The bright sides had to be more granular. Like Tommy Joseph breaking an 0-for-18 with two hits in Game 1 and homers in both halves of the twinbill. Or Andres Blanco cracking homers in each game.

The latter, at the end of a 14-pitch at-bat that featured eight foul balls — one of which involved Blanco flinging his bat into the netting over the home dugout — was especially impressive.

“A great at-bat,” Mackanin said. “He really battled. You talk about grinding out at-bats, that’s what he did.”

Nick Williams blasted a homer to deep center in Game 2, then had another robbed by a leaping Christian Yelich well over the fence in front of the Phillies’ bullpen.

••• The Phillies’ five roundtrippers in Game 1 were overpowered by Ichiro’s three-run pinch-hit home run (his second career, both against the Phillies) and Giancarlo Stanton’s 46th homer of the season in the opener.

Aaron Nola allowed seven earned runs, more than in his previous six home starts combined.

Nick Pivetta had even less in the nightcap, needing 46 pitches to escape the first inning. He only got one out in the second before receiving the hook, serving gopher balls to Yelich and Marcell Ozuna.

Despite being visibly upset afterward, he added to Mackanin’s praise of the bullpen, which allowed just one earned run over 7.2 in- nings.

Yacksel Rios, added to the roster Tuesday, recorded five outs in his MLB debut without surrendering a hit.