Alec Bohm’s resurgence and Justin Crawford’s fielding have the Phillies trending upward

PITTSBURGH — The same night the Phillies evened their record to .500 for the first time in over a month, Alec Bohm raised his batting average above .200 for the first time since the opening series.

Bohm, who has been penciled in the cleanup spot for three consecutive games, picked up two hits on Saturday night’s 6-0 win over the Pirates: a double and a single. He started the season in the worst slump of his career, scuffling through the month of April with his batting average dropping as low as .128.

But there may finally be some light at the end of the tunnel. He carried a seven-game hitting streak and a .201 batting average into Sunday’s series finale against Paul Skenes and the Pirates. There’s still work to be done: his career average is .275. But considering where Bohm’s numbers were a month ago, it marks major progress.

“I think when you start to get results, it starts to calm you down a little bit, and you start to get a little confidence,” Bohm said.

The hot streak began with Bohm’s two-homer game against the Giants on May 9. He said that he feels like the things he’s been working on in the batting cage have finally started to translate to games.

Even when the hits weren’t falling, Bohm’s approach has been disciplined all season. He has just a 24.4% chase rate, and 16.4% whiff rate.

In his All-Star season in 2024, he chased at a 27.2% clip and whiffed 17.6% of the time.

» READ MORE: Bryce Harper’s three-run homer, Cristopher Sánchez shutout lead Phillies in 6-0 win over Pirates

“I definitely feel a lot more comfortable up there, feel a lot better about the at-bats,” Bohm said. “Not that I didn’t feel like I was competitive before, I just feel like every at-bat feels competitive, I don’t feel like I’m giving myself up too much, and I feel like that I’m able to just go up there, stick to my approach, and kind of execute a lot more consistently than I was early on.”

Center fielder Justin Crawford’s sliding grab in the eighth inning Saturday that helped Cristopher Sánchez preserve his shutout only had a 25% catch probability, according to StatCast.

Crawford had to cover 83 feet to track down the ball hit by Pirates catcher Henry Davis in the left-center gap, and hung onto it as his momentum brought him to the grass. It was the type of play the Phillies want to see more of from Crawford as his confidence continues to grow in center.

Interim manager Don Mattingly said he thought that Crawford was a little more tentative early in the season as he tried to find his footing in the big leagues.

“We’ve pushed [him] to be more aggressive, play with your hair on fire, go get it. If you don’t get it, then fine,” Mattingly said. “We’ll see. I know early the metrics weren’t great, but we’ll see over time if that’s improving. But as much as anything, I think the confidence grows, us encouraging him to go get the ball, don’t worry about not getting there.”

Crawford has posted minus-2 outs above average and minus-7 defensive runs saved in center field so far this year. But he has the tools — namely, a 98th percentile sprint speed — to turn that around if he continues to take ownership of the outfield.

» READ MORE: ‘Substitute teacher’ Dusty Wathan takes over Phillies dugout for a day

“I think sometimes you get to the next level, whether that’s double A to triple A, triple A to the big leagues, you don’t want to make a mistake. You don’t want to be the new guy making mistakes,” said bench coach Dusty Wathan, who filled in for Mattingly managing Saturday’s game. “I don’t want to say he was playing timid, but he wasn’t himself. And now I think we’re seeing him. He’s playing with confidence, he’s playing like himself, and he’s playing like the guy that we envisioned him doing.”

Mattingly returned from his son’s graduation at Purdue late on Saturday night. He said he kept up with the Phillies’ 6-0 win in between the festivities. “Couldn’t have went much better,” he said. ... Andrew Painter (1-4, 6.21 ERA) is scheduled to start Monday’s series opener against Cincinnati Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo (0-1, 8.68 ERA) at Citizens Bank Park.

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There’s never not a good reason to talk baseball with Terry Francona. But with his current team (the Reds) coming to town Monday, and because two of his former clubs (the Red Sox and Phillies) recently fired their managers, there's no better time to invite the future Hall of Fame manager for a conversation on "Phillies Extra," The Inquirer's baseball podcast. Watch here.

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