M&M boys determined not to melt under pressure
PHILADELPHIA >> Joe Girardi professed one-to-eight lineup depth in spring training, which hasn’t yet materialized for the Phillies.
Wednesday, with a good chunk of that supposedly deep order either injured or otherwise unavailable, the Phillies improbably looked more potent than usual.
Nine of the their 12 hits came from spots five through eight in the order, enabling them to salvage the final game of a threegame set with the San Francisco Giants, 6-5 at Citizens Bank Park.
That lower-order punch, in sequence:
• Five-hitter Brad Miller had four hits, including a single to move winning run Bryce Harper into scoring position in the bottom of the ninth. Miller also scored twice.
• Six-man Andrew Knapp was just 1-for-5, but it was the big one: A walk-off single to left that drove home Harper.
• In the seven spot, new shortstop fill-in Nick Maton went 3-for4. He’s got hits in all three of his big-league games while spelling Didi Gregorius.
• And in the eight-hole, Mickey Moniak clubbed his first major league home run, a three-run job to left in the second inning that staked Zach Eflin to a 3-0 lead.
“It was awesome,” said Moniak, who retrieved the ball from two kids who caught it in the stands. “Obviously it’s something you dream of, and the fact that I’ve been grinding out at-bats the way
I have and to do something for the team and put us in a place to win a ballgame, a big game on a getaway day, was something that one, I’ll never forget, being my first homer. But the fact that it contributed to the team winning is maybe even better.”
Moniak has struggled in Week 1 of Season 2 in the bigs. The first overall pick waited for his 13th at-bat for his first hit, a single Tuesday night, with eight strikeouts. Girardi is as pleased with his approach on the homer, going the opposite way with the pitch instead of trying to pull it, as with the result.
“His approach is the middle of the diamond, left-center to right-center,” Girardi said. “And when he gets a little pull happy, which can happen with any hitter, he’s probably seeing more swing-and-miss. I think it’s a huge help, especially after losing last night, to give us the lead and let Ef do his thing.”
The three runs driven in are, almost impossibly, the first RBIs by a Phillies centerfielder this season, in game 18. They were the only team without an RBI from center.
Girardi’s praise was just as effusive for Maton. While he expects Gregorius (elbow inflammation) to be ready for Friday’s game in Colorado, at-bats are open at second base with Jean Segura (quad strain) down for at least 10 days. Scott Kingery was recalled in Segura’s place. He went 0-for-2 Wednesday, and Girardi said he would “look at matchups” to see how to fill that spot against the Rockies and beyond.
“Nick has played great,” Girardi said. “I don’t think you can say enough about what Nick has done filling in for Didi. He’s played really good defense. He’s swung the bat well. The game is not sped up for him, which you’re never sure what’s going to happen. The M&M boys were good today.”
The orders aren’t rolling in for those M&M T-shirts just yet. But the young guys contributing to winning baseball should boost their confidence moving forward.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Maton said. “It’s cool stuff up here. But the biggest thing is intensity, man. The last parts of the games, you’ve got to get after it, you’ve got to bring it every single day. If you don’t, bad things will happen. It’s cool stuff, man.”
“Being able to do it today is huge for us as young guys,” Moniak said. “Having the veterans and the leaders in the clubhouse that we do, it’s only going
to make it that much easier for us moving forward to figure out what we have to do and when we have to do it.”