Schwarber’s struggles go on as Phils blanked again
PHILADELPHIA » Devoid of offense through five innings Thursday due to the dippy, darting and altogether dazzling servings by Padres veteran starter Yu Darvish, the Phillies looked ready made for a sixth-inning uprising.
Consecutive one-out singles by Rhys Hoskins and
Alec Bohm set the table, and lifelong run producer Kyle Schwarber was coming up to do what he built a career around. Except this season offers no such nods to his history.
Schwarber, who has struggled through his early days with the Phillies, took two quick called strikes, then fouled off an obvious ball well off the plate. He then struck what has become a familiar pose this season — he turned toward home plate umpire Erich Bacchus to briefly vent his frustration at the first two calls of the at-bat. That done, Schwarber did take a pitch for a ball before not deciding what to do with the next one
— a fastball down the middle that might have been a tick high, though Schwarber’s half-swing would render that point moot. Another strike three for him in a season thus far full of them.
When Nick Castellanos followed with a groundout, the Phillies’ best chance of denting the scoreboard at all slipped away. They were on the way to a 2-0 loss, a testament to Darvish’s dynamic outing (seven innings, no runs, six hits, five strikeouts), but also to what’s been going on with them all season. This was their 10th loss in which they scored either zero or one run.
“We end up with eight hits, but we didn’t piece more than two (together) in one inning,” manager Joe Girardi said. “That’s the issue. We had a couple of chances and weren’t
able to come through.”
A familiar theme over the season’s first six weeks, and in some ways, Schwarber has become its poster child. He does have nine home runs and 21 RBIs, but those power numbers are undercut by what is now a .189 batting average and 49 strikeouts. Not that he’s trying to notice that.
“Personally, I didn’t get the job done there (in the sixth),” Schwarber said. “That’s the thing that will sit with you. You’ve got to get the job done. You’ve got to get the ball in play and you don’t know what will happen from there.
“You learn from it. You’ve got to keep going, keep grinding, learn from different situations and go.”
Keeping the head down and plodding along might be a successful long-term plan for a veteran star, but it doesn’t make the short-term slumping any easier to take. Hence the frustration Schwarber has shown with umps (no, we’re not going to mention Angel Hernandez to him).
“I’m not (prone) to starting off slow and things like that,” Schwarber said. “I just have to be able to keep putting in the continuous work and being consistent in the cage and going out the to the field and trusting out there.”
What he doesn’t bother to trust are what the stats say.
“I know from me today, I have to execute better,” he said. “I try to go
out and put in consistent at-bats on a daily basis. Those are the things I try to live by, good at-bats and not a number-based thing.”
So the batting average will continue to be ignored, with Schwarber trying to navigate daily life in a new city under the shadow of unfulfilled expectations. Of course, it’s early. Plenty of time to tear that tag down and start anew.
“It’s been somewhat of a struggle for Schwarbs, pretty much the whole year,” Girardi said. “He’s had some pretty good days. He’s still got 21 RBIs and nine home runs but he hasn’t been as consistent as he’s capable of being. But that will change.”
Overall the Phillies have been one of the better hitting teams for average in the National League this season. But they also have been one of the most inconsistent when it comes to scoring runs. And yet Girardi is a believer in things eventually balancing out.
That same theory could be applied to Schwarber.
“We’ve had guys with struggles for a substantial period of time and it’s really that everybody’s struggled a little bit,” Girardi said. “But eventually numbers get back to what’s on the back of a baseball card. These guys have some good times coming.”