Phillies’ right-handed bats go quiet vs. a left-handed pitcher in series finale loss to Guardians

It’s Memorial Day, the time of year when baseball front offices shift from gauging the quality of talent on the roster to figuring out how to improve upon it.

Go ahead, then, and peek at the standings.

See the Phillies? They’re stuck in the mediocre middle, a 3-1 loss Sunday to the Guardians dropping their record to 26-27. They’re 10 games behind the division-leading Braves but only 3½ out of a wild-card spot as they head out on a weeklong West Coast trip to San Diego and a rematch with the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

It certainly isn’t great, but also not hopeless, especially given the 9-19 start that got their manager fired and the dominant one-two punch atop their starting rotation.

» READ MORE: Don Mattingly isn’t considering dropping Trea Turner in the Phillies’ lineup: ‘I think we count on Trea being Trea’

And at least their chief weakness is clear, even through the holiday-weekend clouds and rain. It’s on full display whenever they face a left-handed pitcher. But let’s have interim manager Don Mattingly explain it.

“You feel like [Kyle Schwarber] and [Bryce Harper] are going to be who they are,” Mattingly said. “It’s really a matter of our other guys kind of being able to give us productive at-bats — with J.T. [Realmuto], with [Alec Bohm], with [Adolis] García, [Edmundo] Sosa. Guys like that."

In other words, guys who bat right-handed.

The Phillies’ right-handed hitters have been inexplicably impotent against left-handed starting pitchers — and not only the best of the best, such as the Braves’ Chris Sale. It happened again in the series finale against a Guardians rookie named Parker Messick.

Trea Turner, Bohm, Realmuto, García, and Sosa — all of whom bat from the right side — combined to go 1-for-13 with five strikeouts against Messick. The lefties — Schwarber, Harper, Bryson Stott, and Brandon Marsh — were 4-for-9 with one strikeout.

And because Messick kept Schwarber and Harper, in particular, from going deep, the Phillies didn’t score in 5⅔ innings against him and fell to 4-12 against non-opener lefty starters.

“I guess that’s been a big statistic this year, but I don’t know,” Turner said after the Phillies scored a total of four runs in the three games against the Guardians. “I don’t really think about that. When you’re up to bat, it feels like you’re just competing. I think that’s more of a coincidence than anything.”

It sure doesn’t seem coincidental. The Phillies are 64-for-328 (.195) against left-handed starters. And each of their right-handed hitters has underperformed against lefty pitching. The up-to-date numbers:

» READ MORE: Rhys Hoskins’ injury was a sliding door moment in Phillies history. And it still ‘kind of eats at’ Bryce Harper.

Mattingly said the Phillies haven’t identified a common pattern in the way lefties are attacking their right-handed hitters.

“I know the hitting [coaches] are digging in all the time,” he said. “Myself, I’m looking at it like, ‘OK, how do we get our righties going?’ But it’s kind of game to game; it’s guy to guy.”

Messick went after the Phillies’ righties with changeups. He struck out Bohm on a changeup with Harper on first base in the third inning. After García paused a 1-for-38, 21-strikeout malaise with a two-out double in the fourth, Messick got Sosa to roll over a sinker.

“Our lefties, actually, I felt were handling [Messick] better than the righties,” Mattingly said. “Schwarb had good at-bats; Harp had good at-bats; Marsh had good at-bats. Our lefties were good against that angle. Our righties just couldn’t solve that.”

Rinse and repeat.

» READ MORE: Bryce Harper will consider competing in Home Run Derby if he is an All-Star

It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Phillies broke through. And even then, it was the left-handed hitters who delivered against lefty reliever Tim Herrin. Marsh led off with a triple, and after Turner worked a walk, scored on Harper’s sacrifice fly. Turner was left on third base as the tying run when Bohm grounded out.

The Phillies lacked the punch to come back, sending rookie Andrew Painter to a hard-luck loss. Painter pitched into the seventh inning for the first time in nine career starts. But he walked two batters and both came around to score.

Clearly, there’s a righty-hitting hole in the middle of the lineup. And if everyone else sees it, surely the Phillies’ decision-makers do, too.

But the trade deadline isn’t until Aug. 3, and even then, quality right-handed bats figure to be in short supply, especially given the abundance of teams in both leagues that figure to be in contention for a wild card.

So, the Phillies’ solutions may have to come from within. Turner, for one, is stuck in an 8-for-49 funk after another 0-for-4 against the Guardians.

“It feels like just fouling everything off, missing a lot of pitches, just frustrated,” Turner said. “But it’s part of the game. I’ve been in the [batting] cage a bunch. Me and Kyle were talking a lot last night. Just trying to move forward and contribute. Just keep working, you know?”

Sure, so long as the Phillies’ struggle against lefties doesn’t become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“The more you talk about something and the more it becomes evident, then [the players] hear it and then they think about it maybe,” Mattingly said. “I really do expect [the righties] to hit them. You expect those guys to be themselves, so yeah, in general, I do expect them to get back to that.”

At least the Phillies aren’t scheduled to face a lefty starter this week in San Diego, temporary relief from their biggest problem.

Watch the latest episode

Ricky Bottalico spouts opinions each day on sports-talk radio and the Phillies' television pre- and postgame show. But before all that, he had a solid career as a relief pitcher, even representing the Phillies in the 1996 All-Star Game at Veterans Stadium. With the baseball world set to descend on Philly again in a few weeks, Ricky Bo joined "Phillies Extra" to re-live his All-Star experience. Watch here.

You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Phillies Extra on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Previous episodes: Preston Mattingly | Caleb Cotham | Larry Bowa | Joe Maddon | Rhys Hoskins | Terry Francona | Aaron Rowand | Hunter Pence | Paco Figueroa