Phillies seek a way out of their season-opening batting woes

The Phillies are not hitting the panic button yet.

Amid a three-game slide — including a 13-2 drubbing Monday at the hands of the rebuilding Nationals — the offense is trying to keep everything in perspective.

“We’ve got 158 games left,” manager Rob Thomson said Tuesday. “You’re going to run through three-game stretches, sometimes five-game stretches, where you don’t hit, you don’t play well. It’s just kind of magnified because it’s the start of the year.”

It’s not exactly business as usual either, though. Trea Turner, who entered Tuesday with a .167 average, hit on the field before the game Monday and Tuesday. That is typically not part of his routine, as Turner usually prefers to hit inside in the batting cages. J.T. Realmuto also joined Turner hitting outside on Tuesday.

Everything is a small sample size at this point in the season, but still there are some troubling trends. The Phillies entered Tuesday 10-for-71 (.141) with just a .197 slugging percentage against left-handed pitching in four games.

Kyle Schwarber entered Tuesday .125 overall and .091 against left-handers.

“As a team I don’t think that we look into right, left, anything like that,” Schwarber said. “It’s more about being able to go out there, and like we say, work your at-bat and work what you want to swing at, what you don’t want to swing at, and work the process, not the result.”

After striking out swinging in his first plate appearance Tuesday against left-handed Nationals opener PJ Poulin, Schwarber bashed a solo home run off right-handed Zack Littell in the third inning, his second homer of the year.

Thomson has said he thinks the offense is trying to do too much.

“I hate saying it’s baseball, but obviously we need to get better,” Schwarber said. “Everyone’s looking to work to keep getting better, and it’s hard to chase a result, especially at the plate. You have to kind of chase the process of it, and the more that you go about that, and the more that you really focus on it, I feel like the results will be there.”

Brandon Marsh knows that as well as anyone. Last season, he went though an 0-for-31 slide in March and April. He began digging himself out after a rehab assignment to triple-A Lehigh Valley for a hamstring strain, where he received a pep talk from catcher Garrett Stubbs.

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This year, though, Marsh has been one of the most productive Phillies through four games, with a .417 batting average and 1.083 OPS. He is 1-for-5 against lefties.

“It’s still early, really small sample size, a lot more ball to be played,” Marsh said. “But I like where I’m at, just got to continue, to keep trying to get better every single day. A lot more I can improve on, that’s for sure, offensively and defensively.”

Top Phillies prospect Aidan Miller (back) is still not swinging a bat, but his activities have “increased,” according to Thomson. … Orion Kerkering (hamstring strain) was scheduled to pitch an inning for triple-A Lehigh Valley in Durham on Tuesday as he continues his rehab assignment. … Cristopher Sánchez (1-0, 0.00 ERA) is scheduled to start Wednesday’s series finale against Nationals right-hander Cade Cavalli (0-0, 4.91 ERA).