Where has Rhys Hoskins’ power gone? Getting it back must be a top Phillies priority. | Extra Innings

If the late Yogi Berra could witness pandemic baseball, he almost surely would volunteer one of his most famous lines as a slogan for the 2020 season.

“It gets late early out here.”

Truer words couldn’t be spoken about the Phillies’ predicament. Because while a 5-9 start wouldn’t ordinarily be cause for alarm anywhere but the sports-talk radio echo chamber, it represents nearly a quarter of the schedule this year. There’s little time, then, for teams to express the nothing-to-see-here calm that usually accompanies early-season struggles.

“Yeah, it’s concerning,” Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto said after Thursday night’s 11-4 humiliation by the Baltimore Orioles, who swept a road series of at least three games for the first time since Aug. 25-27, 2017. “Nobody wants to start off 5-9 whether it’s a 162-game season or not. But this shortened season, we have to get it going quicker than we normally would.

“It’s definitely being talked about in the clubhouse. We are trying to pick each other up and stay positive because if we have one good week we are right back in it, especially in our division because nobody is running away with it yet. We feel like we can be right there. We just have to get going and get on a roll.”

Never before has there been a better time than the present.

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— Scott Lauber (extrainnings@inquirer.com)

Andrew McCutchen went 417 days between blowing out his knee last year and playing on opening night this season. It’s reasonable, then, to chalk up his 7-for-42 start to rust.

Scott Kingery came down with COVID-19 on June 11, wasn’t cleared to report to training camp until July 11, and still reported lingering effects, including occasional shortness of breath. Perhaps that helps explain why he’s 4-for-40 this season.

But what about Rhys Hoskins?

The Phillies like to dismiss concerns about Hoskins’ slow start by citing his 14 walks and .404 on-base percentage, which would be swell if he batted leadoff. But he’s a power-hitting run-producer, and his mystifying lack of power and run production defies explanation and has persisted for more than a calendar year.

So far this season, Hoskins has eight hits, no homers, and one RBI. One of his 32 batted balls was barreled, Statcast’s classification for a ball that’s struck at an exit velocity of at least 98 m.p.h. and a 26- to 30-degree launch angle. On Wednesday night, he grounded into three double plays. After a day off to clear his head, he likely will start Friday night — against New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom.

Through the All-Star break last year, Hoskins had 72 homers and a .526 slugging percentage in 1,043 career at-bats. Since then, he has nine homers and a .343 slugging percentage in 297 at-bats.

So, although Hoskins’ track record through his brief major-league career should inspire confidence that he will regain his power stroke, the fact that it has been AWOL for so long should prompt reasonable concern about when it will return.

Phillies officials insist they aren’t concerned. General manager Matt Klentak said Thursday that a Hoskins hot streak is only a matter of time. Timing, actually.

But Hoskins’ timing has been off for a while now, so much so that he overhauled his stance in the offseason, changing the position of his hands. He has since reverted to his more familiar stance.

“I know it’s not reflected in his season batting line yet, but I’ve been pretty encouraged by his at-bats in the last week,” Klentak said. “I think his at-bats seem to indicate that he’s more on time now than he had been previously. I know he hasn’t hit one into the seats yet. I know [Wednesday] he did something that was pretty uncharacteristic for him in hitting three balls on the ground in a single game. But I think amongst that you’re starting to see some really good, on-time swings from him.

"And his swing decisions are still good. He's taking balls and swinging at strikes, for the most part. I think as he continues to just gain more reps and stay on time, I think we're going to start seeing more results from him."

Maybe so. But the longer Hoskins goes without driving the ball out of the park, the more concerning it will become that perhaps they can’t count on one of their core players.

The Phillies believed they built a deep offense capable of scoring a lot of runs. Thus far, it has been Bryce Harper, Realmuto, and little else, as Matt Breen writes.

It’s Alec Bohm time. The Phillies called up their top prospect, who made his debut Thursday night. Here’s why they decided to do it now.

Bohm’s promotion is another byproduct of COVID-19′s effect on the Phillies’ season, as Bob Brookover writes. (Within the column, Klentak has some thoughts on the coronavirus’ impact on Kingery, in particular.)

In a break with organizational tradition, the Phillies announced they will retire Dick Allen’s No. 15 in a Sept. 3 ceremony. Could a long-overdue election to the Hall of Fame be next for Allen later this year?

Tonight: Spencer Howard vs. Jacob deGrom in Phillies-Mets opener, 7:05 p.m.

Tomorrow: Aaron Nola aims for a third consecutive double-digit strikeout game, 6:05 p.m.

Sunday: Ex-Met Zack Wheeler faces his former team, 1:05 p.m.

Monday: Off-day for Phillies.

Tuesday: Phillies open two-game series at Fenway Park, 7:30 p.m.

Hours after the Phillies announced they will retire No. 15 for Dick Allen, catcher Andrew Knapp switched to No. 7. Coincidentally, Knapp was also the last Phillies player to wear No. 34, taken out of circulation after Roy Halladay’s death in 2017 and ultimately retired by the team.

But Knapp’s numerical roulette likely ends here. The Phillies gave out No. 7 to a DiMaggio (Vince in 1945) and a Giambi (Jeremy in 2002). But the best players in club history to wear the digit were Bobby Wine, Mariano Duncan, Pedro Feliz, Maikel Franco, and for one season, Kenny Lofton.

Suffice it to say, the No. 7 lineage won’t stop with Knapp.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @ScottLauber.

Question: What happened to Liriano and Storen, who we cut? Are there any other unsigned veteran relievers out there? — Angus L., via email

Answer: Hey, Angus. Thanks for the question. You’re referring to Francisco Liriano and Drew Storen, but you might as well include Bud Norris and Anthony Swarzak, too. All are veteran relievers who signed minor-league contracts in the offseason but got released by the Phillies during training camp.

Liriano was considering not playing this season and chose to opt out after the Phillies cut ties with him. Swarzak hasn’t hooked on with another team. Same goes for Norris and Storen, neither of whom pitched in the majors last season, either.