A rookie on a roll, Bohm matching clutch hitting with a cool and calm demeanor
By the time Alec Bohm reached the batters’ box early Tuesday night, Zach Eflin had already staked out his celebration position in the clubhouse. Given everything, it was just a matter of how loud it would be when it started.
“We were all going ballistic in there,” Eflin said. “We actually called it. We knew if Bohmer was going to get up, he was going to get the job done.”
They called it because they believed, and they braced for it because Bohm has made them believe, needing all of 38 games to crash deep into the National League Rookie of the Year race.
“It’s been impressive,” Joe Girardi said.
The opener of a doubleheader Tuesday, a 6-5 victory over the Red Sox, was an example of the Phillies’ season crammed into seven innings of entertainment. Their eternal search for a reliable fourth starter continued, with Eflin pitching OK, but exhausting most of what had been a 4-1 cushion. The bullpen was predictably annoying, with Tommy Hunter entering in the sixth and allowing Boston to take a 5-4 lead.
Then, there was the bottom of the final inning, a small rally, some good base running, a little stress, and ultimately Bohm up with two outs, runners on second and third, and a certain air of confidence. He would go down in the count, 1-2, work it back to even and nearly slice a game-winning hit down the first base line, just foul. Having already tormented Adam Haseley earlier in the inning with a knuckle curve, Matt Barnes tried one more against Bohm, and the Boston right-hander wouldn’t have a chance to throw another. Bohm would pound it between third and short, J.T. Realmuto and Didi Gregorius scoring and the Phillies winning for the 12th time in 15 games.
They have been doing a lot of that lately. Monday in New York, they wasted a 5-0 lead and needed Jean Segura to thump a 10th inning home run off a Citi Field back wall to win. And the Game 1 success Tuesday was their second consecutive walk-off victory in Citizens Bank Park, Bohm plating Realmuto in the 10th with a sacrifice fly to center to subdue the Nationals last week.
All of that means two things: The Phillies are going to be in NL East pennant race, and Bohm has a few shaving-cream face-smears on back order, to be delivered once it’s OK to hold a celebration in public.
“Bohmer has been great for us ever since he’s come up,” Bryce Harper has said. “He’s a great hitter. And you will probably think it’s because he has long hair, but he has a great swing and he reminds me of J-Dub (Jayson Werth). He does a great job. It’s like he has that little swing in a big man’s body, the way he does it, the way he goes about hitting, his two-strike approach, hitting the ball to right field, hitting home runs to right field and left field as well.
“The bigger he gets, the better he will get. He can be a possible MVP for us. I know that’s high praise for him. But I believe in him as a player and as a person, and he has been very good for us since he has come up.”
Bohm supplied four RBIs in the opener, a career high, including a two-run single in the third. With runners in scoring position, he is hitting .478, with two doubles and 13 RBIs.
MVP?
Harper didn’t mean this year.
Rookie of the Year?
That could work.
Bohm was fifth on a recent Vegas futures-odds board, with San Diego second baseman Jake Cronenworth a heavy favorite. But the race is tightening, and it could come down to a showdown between Bohm and former Phillies prospect Sixto Sanchez, the gifted pitcher invested in a help-both-teams trade with the Marlins for Realmuto.
Among the reasons for Bohm’s expanding status has been his staggeringly quick development as a difference-making defensive third baseman. After a few tense early moments where it looked like he wouldn’t be able to play the position at all at the big-league level, Bohm quickly has become a defensive force. That has allowed Segura to slide to second where he is about to return Scott Kingery to what noted visionary Gabe Kapler had planned all along: A super utility player.
In the victory in New York Monday, Bohm delivered an eighth-inning RBI single to quickly settle the Phillies after they’d fallen behind, 7-6. It’s that kind of timely production that has his teammates convinced that he is not just another rookie.
“You see how confident, calm and collected he is,” Eflin said. “You look at him and it looks like he’s been playing ball up here for 10 years. It is amazing what he’s doing right now. And we’re looking forward to having him for a long time.”
Bohm is 24, not 19, and he was the third overall pick in the 2018 draft, nwot an over-achieving freeagent find. So his majorleague excellence has been more necessity to the Phillies than a shock. A couple of weeks ago, on a day Bohm was given off, veterans Tommy Hunter, Neil Walker and Phil Gosselin all told him he was going to hit his first career home run the next day. He did, going deep against Atlanta, then being congratulated by Freddie Freeman the next time he reached first base.
“When you hear from an All-Star like that, it’s pretty cool,” Bohm said. “It reminds you of where you are.”
The Phillies saw it coming then. The Phillies saw it coming Tuesday. It’s what happens when they realize a Rookie of the Year candidate is there for good reason.