A healthy Alec Bohm is hoping to ‘flip the script’ on his season and boost the Phillies’ cleanup spot

Alec Bohm walked to the plate, after a 12-day absence, and saw eight pitches before rifling an RBI double the other way to right-center field.

Somehow, it wasn’t even his best at-bat of the weekend.

Bohm also lined a two-run single to center field Friday night in his return to the Phillies’ lineup. He pulled a solo homer to left-center Saturday and picked up four hits and a walk Sunday.

“He was on everything,” manager Rob Thomson said after Bohm went 8-for-13 with four RBIs and no strikeouts — repeat: no strikeouts — in three games in Arizona. “I’ll probably have to move him up.”

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Bohm batted sixth and fifth in the series against the Diamondbacks. By “up,” then, Thomson means the cleanup spot, an important place in the batting order for the Phillies because it comes directly after Bryce Harper.

And only 43.2% of pitches to Harper this season have been in the strike zone, the lowest percentage of any hitter (minimum 500 pitches) in the sport, according to Statcast.

If Bohm stays hot and moves into the cleanup spot, maybe Harper will get more pitches to hit?

“I doubt it,” Harper said.

OK, then.

“I’m not saying that in a bad way,” Harper continued. “Any time you have a guy behind you that’s going to put the bat on the ball and get on base and see pitches, that’s huge in any stance. I don’t want that to come off as whatever.”

But Harper’s point is well-taken. Through Sunday, the Phillies were 19th in the majors in slugging (. 409) and 20th in OPS (. 718) from the cleanup spot. So, teams won’t give Harper much to hit, especially in the postseason, regardless of the batting order as long as Kyle Schwarber continues to hit in front of Harper.

It couldn’t hurt, though, to have Bohm at his best.

“When he gets hot and gets going, he’s one of the better guys in our lineup,” Harper said. “When he’s staying right-center and stays on the ball like he does, it’s fun to watch. It’s going to lengthen our lineup and give Topper a chance to pick and choose what he’s going to do.”

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Bohm said he played through pain in his left shoulder, the front shoulder in his right-handed swing, “off and on for most of the season.” It dissipated after the All-Star break when he was sidelined by a fractured rib that prevented him from swinging a bat for at least a week. But upon his return last month, the shoulder problem came back, too.

The result: Bohm was unable to drive the ball into the gap for doubles. Even when he was getting hits — and he went 14-for-38 in his first 10 games back from the broken rib — they were mostly singles. Before this weekend, he had one homer, three doubles, and a .316 slugging percentage in his last 26 games.

“I was just kind of manipulating and trying to get it to a position where I could just feel good,” Bohm said. “Finally I was like, enough of that.”

Bohm went 4-for-36 with nine strikeouts in a nine-game stretch before agreeing to get an injection to reduce the inflammation in his shoulder.

Thomson said Bohm drove the ball noticeably better in batting practice last week at Dodger Stadium. Bohm said he was able to get better extension on his swing.

“It just feels like I’m getting through the ball better and not cutting my swing off,” Bohm said. “For a little while there, I was just kind of stuck and my best bullet was just hitting something the other way. Really wasn’t able to do a lot of damage.”

Bohm puts the ball in play as much as any Phillies hitter. But with more strength in his front shoulder, he powered it to all fields against the Diamondbacks.

“I feel like when I’m good, when I decide to swing at a pitch and make the right decision, the ball is getting put in play,” Bohm said. “When I’m making a good decision and putting the ball in play on the barrel hard, that’s an indicator that I’m in a good spot.”

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Bohm and Trea Turner went on the injured list on the same day. The Phillies went 8-2 without both of them in the lineup. Turner, sidelined by a strained right hamstring, said he’s running at 60%, according to Thomson, and is scheduled to get at-bats against three minor league pitchers Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Phillies expect Turner to return for the playoffs, if not over the weekend against the Twins in the final regular-season series. Despite missing two weeks, Turner still leads the National League in hits (179). With a .305 average entering the week, he leads the Cubs’ Nico Hoerner (.299) in the race for the batting title.

“I know it’s on his mind, so I really hope he gets it,“ Harper said. ”He deserves it. He’s been one of the best players in the National League this year. Kind of a slap in the face to everybody else that he wasn’t an All-Star, and now he’s doing what he’s doing."

For Bohm, getting healthy before the playoffs represents a chance for redemption after a season that, as he put it, “isn’t up to my standards, numbers-wise.”

“I feel like, with what we have left, I can kind of flip the script on that and at least leave some good memories at the end,” he said. “Might not have started great, but you know what they say. If you have a good postseason and we end up winning the last game of the year, then nobody’s going to care what I was doing in June and July.

“Yeah, I’m excited about being able to, not so much right the ship but be able to contribute. I’m definitely excited about feeling like myself and help the team out with the push.”