Finally healthy, time for Phillies to see what they’re made of

PHILADELPHIA >> In this Major League Baseball season of injuries, none more damaging to the game than the lengthy calf issue shelving Mike Trout, the Phillies found themselves at full strength Friday night.

That would be, full strength for just the third time this season, with the everyday lineup they envisioned before the games began.

Shortstop Didi Gregorius returned to the field, his elbow injury finally cleared for action, his defense OK with manager Joe Girardi.

It’s been a while. So long, in fact, that Girardi needed help to remember the last time the actual lineup card was the winner he sought coming into the season, rather than the makeshift placards he’d been turning. The latter happened when injuries shelved key components such as Bryce Harper, Jean Segura, J.T. Realmuto and Gregorius for chunks of time. Only first baseman Rhys Hoskins has played in all the Phillies’ games.

“Yeah, we haven’t had it very

often,” Girardi said. “It’s kind of nice to have. Obviously, we’ll work through it and see how it works together. It’s different when you have all the different pieces and you’re trying to divide your lefthanders up to make it difficult for the opposing managers when he deploys certain guys in his bullpen. That’s kind of how we made the lineup today. We’ll see how it goes.”

Girardi rolled Friday with Odubel Herrera leading off, Segura, Realmuto, Harper and Andrew McCutchen following. Hoskins batted sixth, Gregorius seventh and Alec Bohm batted one spot ahead of ace Zack Wheeler.

With Girardi hoping to ease Gregorius into action, that will likely be the lineup in at least two of the three games against the San Diego Padres, who entered the game third in the West with a 49-34 record that would have had them in first place by five games in the ordinary, unremarkable, going-nowhere-fast East.

It’s been a perplexing season for the Phillies, who don’t know whether the defense that surrenders costly errors, extra outs and base hits is worse than the overworked bullpen all too often challenged to get outs.

Perplexing in that Harper, when the game began, had just 23 RBIs in 58 games. Only one Padres starter had fewer ribbies.

Injuries are part of the inconsistency. When Harper returned, Realmuto got hurt. When Realmuto was healthy, Segura sat down with an injury. Even McCutchen has been fighting injury annoyances.

The Phillies have had just four winning streaks this season, their longest lasting five games. The last skein, a modest four-gamer, ended June 12. Since then, the Phillies were 5-11 in their previous 16 games yet entered just 4½ games behind the East-leading New York Mets.

After starting the season with a four-game win streak the Phillies finished 13-13 in April, 12-16 in May and 12-12 in June.

The silver lining is that the Phillies could be healthy enough now to see if they can contend for a pennant, assuming the core lineup stays that way.

“As we start to tick away the dates in July, it’s important that you’re still in it,” Girardi said. “I think we need to take advantage of this. And we’re facing really good teams now. That’s the other thing we’re going to run into. We have to prove that we can compete against good teams.”

By the July 30 trade deadline, baseball operations president Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies will have a better feel for adding pieces to take a legit shot at the playoffs or selling assets. Of course, there isn’t a lot to trade without breaking up the nucleus. Segura, who slugged his fourth home run Friday to stake the Phillies to a 3-0 lead, could be expendable as there are enough experienced young infielders to take over.

Whether Segura would be enough to get the Phillies some bullpen help is another question. But they can take on a contract and stay under the luxury tax, and vice versa. Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Richard Rodriguez, who can close games, Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo and possibly even closer Ian Kennedy, a teammate of Gallo would be appealing.

Now, for just the third time this season, it will be easier to assess what assets they have. If, of course, the starters stay healthy.

That beats the alternative.

The NL East race pennant is there for the asking this season.

If the Phillies aren’t playing meaningful baseball in September and early October, you can count on changes.

How significant they are depends on how this everyday lineup they drew up in the offseason takes care of business down the homestretch.