Phillies' Cody Asche finally comfortable at the plate - and it shows

IN HINDSIGHT, the line of questioning was destined to be a jinx.

The morning of the Fourth of July, a reporter asked Cody Asche about his recent resurgence. Nothing specific. What was working? What wasn't? What, if anything, felt different about these last few weeks?

He didn't have any specifics, Asche explained, a slight smile working its way toward his left ear. He was just playing better.

Then Asche trotted out and went hitless in four at-bats, the only Phillies position player without a hit or an RBI on the country's birthday.

Lucky for Asche, his team won, 8-2, without his bat. That afternoon was one of the few bleak points in the leftfielder's season since mid-June.

After his first dozen games back from an oblique injury he suffered in spring training, the 26-year-old was hitting .200 and had yet to record a multi-hit game.

In the 13th game, the Phillies' third at Toronto's Rogers Centre, he went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a pair of RBI.

He can't really explain what it feels like to find your rhythm. But Asche remembered that game against Toronto well enough to single it out definitively as the day his fortunes changed.

"I kind of just felt it, some rhythm at the plate," Asche said. "Once you get a feeling as a hitter, you kind of just roll with it."

In his last 20 games entering Thursday night at Colorado, Asche hit .309 with 11 doubles, 11 RBI and three homers. The injury and the doldrums upon his return seem to have passed.

Three years ago, Peter Bourjos was in a similar situation with the Angels when he injured his right wrist. Bourjos tried in vain to work his way back from missing chunks of the season before eventually having surgery.

Coming in cold after missing a month or more, Bourjos said, isn't for the faint-hearted.

"It's really hard," Bourjos said. "It's tough to get going. After you're sitting around, obviously, those pitchers are sharp and you're still trying to find your timing and shake the rust off."

Bourjos said he felt fine after returning from one rehab stint that year, but when he tried again to come back after missing time, it was a no-go. Things vary, he said.

In Asche's first dozen games back, Bourjos could see the potential was there in his swings. It was just taking some time.

"(Asche) seemed like, when he got up here, there were a few at-bats where he looked like his timing was off," Bourjos said. "But he still looked really good. You just wait for the balls to start falling.

"Now you're starting to see the hitter that he is," Bourjos continued, "and the hitter he was in the minor leagues."

The hitter Asche was in the minor leagues - and in college at the University of Nebraska, and is now in the pros - is a man made of doubles.

His 10 doubles in June were fourth most of any player in the majors, and, entering Thursday, he's already notched two in July.

"I've never been the guy that will hit 40 homers, but I might crank out 40 doubles, which works," Asche said.

For his part, Bourjos wouldn't mind seeing those doubles turn into home runs in the near future.

"It seems like a lot (of doubles), and it seems like I've been on base for quite a few of them. I feel like I'm running a lot," Bourjos said, chuckling. "It'd be nice if he could start hitting them in the upper deck, so I don't have to run so fast."

Bourjos might be on to something; after going without a home run in 15 straight games, Asche homered last Sunday and Tuesday.

But Asche said he doesn't care about specifics - third in the lineup or seventh, doubles or homers, you name it. He's hitting again, and it feels so good.

@AdamWHermann