Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Franco keeps making his bosses think twice
PHILADELPHIA » On a night that a Phillies offense that its manager claims is capable of turning this season into a special one was showing off its potential, Maikel Franco joined in kind of late.
It wasn’t until the eighth inning that Franco singled to center field. He followed that up by running hard and almost wrecklessly around the bases on a pinch-hit by Andrew Knapp, then a wild pitch, Franco staying safe only because Padres catcher Austin Hedges flipped wildly toward his covering pitcher while Franco arrived at home late ... but safe.
His insurance run helped ignite a four-run inning that blew open what would be an 11-5 Phillies win.
It also exemplified the effort that Franco has shown since Day 1 of a season which started without much promise for him.
“I know I’m proving a lot,” Franco said when talking about the start of the year under new manager Gabe Kapler. “I know my game plan isn’t different now, when I go out and play defense and my offense, too, when I go to the box. I just want to keep working hard, get better and better every single day and do everything I can do for my team.”
Along the way, Franco has won a fan in Kapler, and why not? He was coming off seasons in which he hit just .255 and .230, his OPS in 2017 finishing at a less-than-stellar .690. With J.P. Crawford and Scott Kingery joining the infield mix and veteran Carlos Santana manning first base, it appeared rather likely that Franco would be a part-time player.
Instead, he has blossomed into the player who had a hot career in parts of the 2014 and ‘15 seasons.
Franco is hitting .269 with 13 homers and 47 RBIs and remains a fielding force at third. He also has accepted being bounced around in the lineup (including the No. 8 spot) without so much as a shrug, repeating his favorite line, “I just try to do the best for me and for my team.”
“Most of our players that are producing are doing things that they’ve generally done before,” general manager Matt Klentak said Friday. “And when you have a roster of young players — we still have the youngest roster in baseball — there’s some expectation that those young players will continue to get better. Will they make a quick jump in the second half or will it be more of a steady, modest ascent? We don’t know, and that’s what makes it hard.
“But to take Maikel Franco as an example, what he is doing right now and what he has shown in the couple weeks leading up to the (All-Star) break is very reminiscent of what he did in 2015, and it’s a heck of a lot better than what he had done in ‘16 and ‘17. And he’s still 25 years old.”
It as an intriguing example, as Franco’s return to respectability manifested itself at about the same time Klentak was building toward a possible trade with Baltimore for Manny Machado, an offensive powerhouse who says he’s a shortstop even if his history shows he’s just as electric at third base.
Klentak stopped just short of giving up the house in prospects for Machado in what would have been a rental deal over the break, eventually losing the bidding to Los Angeles.
Asked if he thought he might have thrown at least the shadow of a wrench into that process by returning to the form he showed three years earlier, Franco said, “I don’t know, it’s something I couldn’t control . ... I just try to think about day to day what I do here, and whatever happened (with Machado), it’s not in my hands.
“I know the last couple of years here I did not do what everybody expect or what I expect,” Franco added. “I’m just trying to forget that; 2016 and ‘17 is passed already and I’m just trying to get better and better every single day.”
*** The Phillies (54-42) stayed on top of the National League East by a half-game, as the Braves jumped all over Stephen Strasburg en route to a win over Washington, digging a deeper hole for the favored Nationals.
Said Santana, whose threerun homer in the second inning was a key cog in a six-run Phillies second inning and a game that began with the Padres scoring four times off Jake Arrieta: “We’re fighting every game. I know we have to get in good position, Atlanta and Washington are behind, but we’re not worried about that. We’re worried about what’s here, game to game and trying to win every day.”
*** Arrieta would last only 3⅓ innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits, and striking out three. He shrugged it off to perhaps a bit of post-break rustiness.
“Not the way you want to start, four runs in the first, that doesn’t happen very often,” Arrieta said. “But man, the second inning, six-run inning. You know, when you’re behind early like that it’s just really nice to see the team be able to pick you up.”
*** NOTES » Recent Triple-A promotee Austin Davis came on in relief of Arrieta in the fourth, and promptly walked the first batter he faced on four pitches to load the bases with one out. But Davis pitched out of that jam and wound up getting his first major league win . ... Nice ovation from a good-sized crowd when Padres shortstop Freddy Galvis made his first plate appearance as a visitor at Citizens Bank Park.