‘He hit a nuke tonight’: With one swing, the Phillies’ Bryson Stott shows how he’s evolved

On Wednesday night, Trea Turner watched Marlins third baseman Jake Burger commit an error on a ground ball hit by Nick Castellanos that loaded the bases with one out in the sixth inning. He turned to his teammates in the Phillies dugout.

“We’ve got to take advantage of that mistake,” he said, with the Phillies leading the Marlins 3-0 in Game 2 of their wild-card series.

It didn’t take long. In the next at-bat, Bryson Stott stepped up to the plate, and swung at the first pitch he saw, a fastball up and in. It landed 412 feet in the right-center field stands and gave the Phillies a 7-0 lead. He slammed his bat into the ground, Rhys Hoskins-style. He said he blacked out. He didn’t remember the bat spike, or his swing, or running around the bases.

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“I kind of got caught up in the moment,” Stott said.

And what a moment it was. Stott was just the second Phillie to hit a postseason grand slam, joining Shane Victorino, who hit one in Game 2 of the 2008 National League Division Series. Stott’s blast effectively sent his team to Atlanta to face the Braves in the NLDS, which begins on Saturday.

But to many of his teammates and coaches sitting in the dugout, it was also a reminder of how far Stott has come as a hitter.

The 25-year-old second baseman is known for his patience. Stott takes a lot of pitches, so his teammates can see a lot of his pitches. But in recent months, hitting coach Kevin Long has encouraged him to attack early when he sees the right pitch. It’s something that Turner, Nick Castellanos, and Bryce Harper do very well.

According to Baseball Savant, Harper swings at the first pitch 47.5% of the time, which ranks second in baseball. Castellanos does it 47.4% of the time, which ranks fourth. Turner does it 39% of the time, which ranks 22nd.

This season, Stott has only swung at the first pitch 16.3% of the time, which is the eighth-lowest percentage in the game.

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“He’s just very patient,” Long said. “He doesn’t want to get up there and just end his at-bat. Which I understand, but — you know the strike zone, you’re very good at swinging at the right pitch, so, attack early.

“We’ve all talked to him about it. Not only myself, but his teammates, everybody that watches Bryson play every day. We’re like, ‘Dude, 0-0 is a very good count to hit,’ because what do pitchers want to do? They want to get ahead. And he basically lets them get ahead, and then he battles. Why not just end the at-bat when it needs to end? If they throw you a good pitch, especially a fastball, be ready to hit it. And tonight, he was.”

Turner added: “He’s a big team guy, so he understands his at-bats. If he needs to take a pitch, he will, which I appreciate. A lot of times he’s thinking about the team, but in that instance, he was a little selfish. Which I think is a good thing. Sometimes when you’re a good hitter, it’s OK to be selfish. And I want him to be selfish more, because he’s a good hitter.”

That wasn’t the only sign of growth. Stott also hit that grand slam off a fastball, a pitch that eluded him in 2022. He batted .209 against fastballs last season. He watched film all offseason and did some one-handed tee drills and one-arm swings to make sure he was using his dominant (left) hand.

He also began going without a stride halfway through last season, which helped him see the ball longer, and has put him in a better position to hit. All of that work has paid off. Long checked Stott’s splits against fastballs at one point this year, and thought to himself, ‘Whoa, he’s got this figured out.’ Stott finished the season hitting .303 against fastballs.

“It’s more that he’s in a better position to hit, and he knows what the league is doing to him,” Long said. “Good luck if pitchers have that same book on him. He’s a really good fastball hitter now. He’s batting .300 against fastballs this year. Good for him. He’s evolved, and he’s getting better and better, and he will continue to do that.”

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It’s easy to forget sometimes that Stott is just 25 and in his second full season. Long and Turner say he is mature beyond his years, and his ability to live up to the moment on Wednesday speaks to that. But every once in awhile, they feel the need to give him some good-natured ribbing, too.

“I’m proud of him for the way he’s gone about his business,” Long said. “For this night to go the way it went for him is pretty cool. And I think it’s good, too, that he got humbled. Because he got three strikeouts.

“It all worked out kind of perfectly. I was like, ‘Listen dude, you’re not that good, you struck out three times!’ But he did a mammoth home run. He calls them nukes. And he hit a nuke tonight.”