It was the hardest-hit ball of the night, but the fly ball that San Diego’s Eric Hosmer rocketed Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park hardly made it to the warning track. He held his bat outward after connecting with Zack Wheeler’s fastball in the seventh inning of the Phillies’ 3-0 win over the Padres and watched for a moment as the ball sailed toward right field with the look of a two-run homer.
But the 107.9 mph scorcher was just a loud out — one of the 21 outs Wheeler recorded in seven scoreless innings — as the Phillies seemed to benefit from baseballs that just don’t seem to be carrying this season like they did in recent seasons. Wheeler was excellent on Wednesday as he struck out nine, walked none, and allowed just four hits. The only trouble he seemed to face all night was the few seconds that Hosmer’s fly ball hung over South Philadelphia.
Major League Baseball told each team in spring training that it had modified the baseballs this season to deaden them after a surge in homers. The Phillies were frustrated by that earlier this season when the lineup they spent the winter building seemed to have trouble lifting the ball out of the park. But there were no complaints on Wednesday.
Wheeler retired the next two batters and his night was finished. José Alvarado and Corey Knebel combined to retire the six batters they faced in the eighth and ninth and the Phillies ended a two-game skid despite not having Bryce Harper in the lineup.
Hoskins homer
The Phillies hit so many homers last week that it made it feel like an eternity when they went two straight games without hitting one. Rhys Hoskins fixed that in the third inning with a solo shot to left field off Blake Snell, who lasted just 3 ⅔ innings in his season debut for the Padres.
It was Hoskins’ seventh homer of the season. He had one of the team’s 14 blasts during their seven-game road trip to Seattle and Los Angeles. The Phils have 24 homers this month with 13 games remaining, putting them in position to challenge the franchise record of homers in May (42) set by the 2008 world champions.
Snell, the 2018 American League Cy Young Award winner, allowed three runs on five hits and threw 84 pitches. He was scratched in April from his first start of the season due to a sore groin and was held back until Wednesday. The Phillies were stymied Tuesday by Mike Clevinger, chased Snell, and will meet Yu Darvish on Thursday as they face each of San Diego’s top three starters.
Fixing Realmuto
J.T. Realmuto’s RBI single in the first inning may be a sign that he’s pulling himself from a rut that manager Joe Girardi said became worse when the catcher went away from a swing adjustment Realmuto made during spring training with new hitting coach Kevin Long.
Realmuto entered Wednesday hitting just .154 with two extra-base hits over his last 14 games. His average exit velocity (86.8 mph), hard-hit percentage (35.6%) and barrel percentage (4.6%) all ranked this season in the bottom third of baseball and the “Best Catcher in Baseball” was slumping.
“He started to struggle with some of the new stuff that he was doing and I think he went back to his old way and I think it created more struggles,” Girardi said, referring to his swing mechanics that were altered during spring training with new hitting coach Kevin Long. “I think we just have to get him going. You’re going to see more of what he was doing in the beginning.”
Girardi said Realmuto would ditch his “huge leg kick” as Long instructed him before the season to use a more compact stride. Wednesday provided a glimpse of progress.
