As they limp home in a 20-inning scoreless drought, the Phillies insist no one is panicking

SAN FRANCISCO — When the Phillies opened their six-game road trip with a 10-run, three-homer drubbing of the Colorado Rockies, at first it felt like the start of something.

But soon after, the offense fell into old patterns. And by the time the Phillies boarded the plane back to Philadelphia on Wednesday, they had not scored a run for 20 straight innings. In that span, they also had only one extra-base hit: a double from Edmundo Sosa.

Catcher J.T. Realmuto, who watched 17 of those innings from the bench after taking a foul ball off his right foot in the first inning against the Giants on Tuesday, believes the Phillies are just missing one timely hit to break through.

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“You just have confidence in the guys in this room,” he said. “I think they have a good track record of playing really good baseball. Obviously right now, that’s not what we’re doing, but we know that we’re just one good swing away from the whole team taking off. So we’ve just got to keep working, keep being diligent. Nobody likes to struggle, but there’s nobody in this room panicking, that’s for sure.

“We have a lot of confidence in ourselves, and we know we’re going to be where we want to be at the end of the year.”

Only 12 games — 7.4% — into the season, the Phillies are trying to strike a balance between not underreacting and also not overreacting to the offense’s struggles. Still, there are some clear trends taking shape.

Here are the three biggest takeaways about the Phillies offense from a week on the road:

One of the offense’s clearest weaknesses this season has been against left-handed pitching. The Phillies have lost all four games started by an opposing non-opener lefty. They have a .159 batting average against left-handed pitchers, which is dead last in baseball.

Their .502 OPS against lefties is only better than the Rockies’ .500.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson couldn’t point to one common thread he’s seeing in the Phillies’ at-bats against lefties.

“Get back to the basics,” he said. “Try not to do too much. Stay in the middle of the diamond, and get good pitches to hit.”

Trea Turner, who smacked around lefties in 2025 with a .323 batting average and .836 OPS, has just one hit against them in 17 at-bats this season.

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The Phillies aren’t scheduled to face a left-handed starter in the upcoming series against the Diamondbacks. It’s a double-edged sword, though, because it will be difficult for the offense to truly turn things around against lefties without more reps.

Thomson said he plans to mix his righty platoon players — Otto Kemp and Sosa — in the lineup against some of the upcoming righties to help them stay sharp. In San Francisco, he spoke to Kemp, who is hitting .154, and stressed the importance of staying prepared despite inconsistent at-bats.

The Trajekt pitching machine the Phillies have at Citizens Bank Park is a valuable tool, because it can help replicate pitchers’ deliveries so hitters can experience as close to the real thing as possible.

“Just control what you can control,” Thomson said. “This guy can hit. It’s just difficult when you’re not getting many at-bats, consistent at-bats. Especially for a young guy, because they’re used to playing every day.”

When the Phillies return to Citizens Bank Park on Friday, expect some changes to the batting order. After their second consecutive shutout loss on Wednesday, Thomson said he might switch some things around to see if that can spark something.

One spot that might see some shuffling is the No. 4 hole. Alec Bohm has a .186 batting average from the cleanup spot this year. Like the rest of the Phillies lineup, Bohm struggled with pull-side groundouts during Wednesday’s game. He went 0-for-4, grounding out twice to third base and once to shortstop.

“He’s just getting out in front,” Thomson said. “Trying to do too much.”

Bohm’s strength has always been line drives to the opposite field. But with few extra-base hits for the Phillies over the last couple of games, there can be a tendency among hitters to try and pull the ball instead, searching for power.

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“I think they’re all going through the same thing right now,” Thomson said.

There is an element of bad luck underlying Bohm’s numbers, too. He has a .189 batting average on balls in play this season, which is influenced by quality of contact, defense, and luck. His career BABIP is .316.

Adolis García could be a candidate for the cleanup spot. Thomson penciled him at No. 4 on Tuesday when Bohm was sidelined for a game with groin tightness, but he was back to sixth in the lineup when Bohm returned Wednesday.

The key for García is eliminating chase, but he has been making solid contact recently. His 93.4 mph average exit velocity ranks in the 91st percentile of hitters, and he has a 12.1% barrel rate.

Here’s a dose of positivity: Harper’s OPS when the Phillies boarded the plane for Denver last week was .425. He will return to Philadelphia, six games later, having raised it to .749.

Even Harper was guilty of pull-side grounders on Wednesday, grounding out to first base and second base — though he also singled and drew a walk. But on an individual level, it was overall a productive road trip for him.

“On a personal level, I feel great, so I’m happy about that,” Harper said. “But obviously as a team, that doesn’t really help us. We’ve got to come together as a team and play better, and have better at-bats and all those things.”

Harper has continued to hit breaking balls, raising his average to .333 against them. And in addition to a standout performance in the series opener — the Phillies’ only win in the Bay — Harper took his walks in San Francisco.

Plate discipline is something he wanted to focus on entering this year, and while he’s still chasing at a 34.6% clip, he drew four walks over the three-game series to bring his season total to seven. That puts Harper on pace for 95 walks over a full year — not quite his stated goal of 140-150 from spring training, but still his most since he walked 100 times in his 2021 MVP season.

Of course, a .749 OPS is not where the Phillies will need Harper to be by the end of this season. But two weeks in, it marks progress as the lineup continues to search for a spark.

“It will turn around for sure,” pitcher Aaron Nola said. “Our lineup is too good not to turn it around. A lot of baseball left. Got a ton of baseball left. So I’m not worried about that at all. I don’t think anybody else is worried about that at all.”