Healthy Bruce ready to finish the job
PHILADELPHIA » Jay Bruce was in the middle of his 12th majorleague season last summer when he was sent to the Phillies and asked to make a difference. By the end of that week, there seemed no doubt that he would.
In his second game with the Phillies, he hit two home runs in San Diego. In his third, he hit another. By his fourth Phillies game, and his first in Citizens Bank Park, his every plate appearance would be accompanied by a crowd roar of “Bruuuuuuuuuuce.” On cue, he hit a home run in that game, too.
Three times an All-Star, a player the Phillies were able to snag from Seattle for minorleague utility man Jake Scheiner, Bruce was set to be the ideal outfield replacement for the injured Andrew McCutchen. And it was working, all of it, until late July. That’s when Bruce sustained a complicated elbow injury, played just one game before September,
and never did recapture the clout that made him one of the better power hitters of his generation.
It’s July again. And he feels like Jay Bruce again, too.
“Philly has been exceptional so far for me,” Bruce said Tuesday, before an intrasquad game. “The way the fans embraced me when I got here, the way the players embraced me in the clubhouse, it’s been awesome. Everyone has made it so easy on me.”
Bruce wound up hitting .221 for the Phillies with 12 home runs. But including his early-season production with the Mariners, he had an attention-demanding 26 homers in 98 games. Since then, he has become fully healthy and has seen a change in managers from Gabe Kapler, who barely would use him last September. He has had the benefit of an extended spring training, and, in a bonus surprise, will have the ability to help the Phillies as a designated hitter under the short-season rules.
For all of that, and for the second time in a year, he feels like he has landed in the right place at the right time to make a difference to a playoff-minded team.
“It’s a tough lineup to beat, I’ll tell you that, especially adding the DH,” he said, before drawing a walk and lacing a sharp single to right in that role Tuesday. “We have the ability to have a really, really long lineup that is incredibly dynamic. Most of the time, you have lineups where you either get on base or hit for power and it’s either feast of famine. But I don’t believe our lineup is married to either one of those. We will have the ability to sequence correctly and have the ability to give a lot of pitchers tough times, to be sure.”
While Bruce was less than sparkling defensively last season, he was a 2013 Wilson Defensive Player of the Year for the Reds. So while the Phillies seem set with McCutchen and Bryce Harper on the outfield corners and either Adam Haseley or Roman Quinn in center, Bruce is still angling to win regular outfield innings.
“I’m definitely not resigned to the fact that I am just going to be the DH,” he said. “I think that Joe (Girardi) probably has a plan to keep us on a rotation. There’s a chance that I’ll have the lion’s share of the DH, for sure. For me, I am definitely used to playing every day, playing in the field, being involved, playing defense. But I’ve tried to talk to as many guys as I can over the years to ask what it takes to stay in the game, to stay in a routine as a DH. I feel pretty comfortable with it.”
Bruce has regained full strength in his elbow. His confidence, too, has been strengthened since the quiet close to last season.
“It was frustrating last year from an off-field standpoint, because I came here and was able to play a lot,” Bruce said. “I was able to play a lot. I was performing. And I was doing what I normally do. The injury stopped me. When I came back, it was really frustrating because I didn’t have the ability to take the consistent at-bats. I was only pinch-hitting. For me, having never done that, it was tough and it was frustrating and really didn’t paint the picture of the player I am.
“So to be back and to be healthy is something I am really looking forward to. I am fortunate to have another year here. I am really looking forward to it.”
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Zack Wheeler, still in Girardi’s mix as a possible Opening Night starter, looked strong in four-plus innings of the intrasquad game, striking out four, walking two and allowing no runs.
In his start, Vince Velasquez was equally crisp, permitting two hits and fanning six in four-plus scoreless innings. Haseley, hitting leadoff, had two early hits.
Scott Kingery made his intrasquad debut after a late arrival in camp following a failed coronavirus test and lined a seventh-inning homer over the right field fence against Edgar Garcia.
The game was played in conditions the players will face when the regular season begins. Dan Baker did the PA, the regular walk-up music was used, the stadium lights were on and a subtle crowd noise was piped through the sound system.
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All intrasquad games through Friday, including Wednesday night at 6:05, will be live-streamed on Phillies.com.
The Phillies will play an exhibition game Saturday night in Washington. They will face visiting Baltimore Sunday. Monday they will be in Yankee Stadium. All games will begin at 6:05.