How Harper, Phillies are finding offensive groove to begin May

PHILADELPHIA -- Bryce Harper is feeling most excellent these days.

He hit two home runs in Tuesday night’s 9-1 victory over the A’s at Citizens Bank Park. He’s hit three homers in the past two days and nine this season.

But this isn’t a recent development. Harper’s been exceptional since the first week of the season. His .948 OPS is sixth in the National League and 13th in Major League Baseball.

It’s the type of play that could push him into NL MVP conversations in a few months.

“I’m just trying to keep it simple,” Harper said. “Just stack my at-bats each day and just try to go out there and hit strikes into the field and try to foul stuff off. I think I've said in the past multiple times, I'm just trying to hit strikes and lay off the ones out of the zone.”

Perhaps even more encouraging than Harper’s extraordinary start is that other Phillies hitters are showing signs of life.

Trea Turner has been grinding away at his craft the past several days, hitting in the batting cage postgame in Miami with an extended outdoor BP session before Tuesday’s series opener. He entered the series batting .236 with a .660 OPS, which ranked 133rd out of 179 qualified hitters.

A’s left fielder Tyler Soderstrom made a diving catch on Turner’s soft line drive in the first inning. He flied out to the right-field wall in the fourth. But then Turner ignited a five-run rally in the seventh inning with a hard-hit, leadoff double against former Phillies right-hander Mark Leiter Jr.

Turner singled up the middle to score a run in the eighth.

“He’s getting better,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said. “You know, the thing about Trea, he's going to hit. And when he's struggling, obviously, he's not happy about it. And he's working. And anytime guys keep working and they have ability, it’s going to come, it’s going to start, it’s going to happen. If he wasn't hitting and not working, it’s different. It’s just believing that when you’re not going good you can work and stay with it.”

Brandon Marsh had three hits to raise his batting average to .322.

Bryson Stott had a double and a home run. He has a double and three home runs in his past five games.

There was a seven-game stretch in mid-April when the Phillies faced a lot of lefties. Edmundo Sosa started five of those games.

“He wasn’t getting consistent at-bats so the rhythm that you have is not the same,” Mattingly said about Stott.

Stott has started 11 of the last 12 games with the Phillies facing only one lefty in that stretch. He is batting .220 with one double, two triples, three home runs, 10 RBIs and an .817 OPS in those starts.

“He’s an everyday player,” Harper said. “When you have a guy that needs to play every day, lefty, righty, it don’t matter. He’s going to keep having good at-bats. He’s an everyday guy. He always has been. When you take an everyday guy out of the lineup, it's tough for them to get it going each day.”

Stott would love to play every day. He has said that in the past. He said it again on Tuesday.

“It’s just kind of been a career thing for me,” Stott said. “The more I can play, the more of a rhythm I can get in.”

The Phillies face A’s left-hander Jeffrey Springs on Wednesday night. Maybe Stott gets a start. Or maybe Mattingly starts Sosa, who needs to play to stay sharp, too. Mattingly could start Sosa at third base and give Alec Bohm a day off. Bohm went 1-for-3 with a walk on Tuesday.

He is batting .161 with a .440 OPS.

It sounds like Mattingly wants to let Bohm swing his way out of it. Asked when it might reach a point to try something else, Mattingly said, “Whenever that is, it's not now. I've seen Alec. He’s another big sample, he's always hit. Smaller sample, he's not hitting right now. And I think last year he may have started out slowly also. So it's not like this is totally out of the norm. Obviously, he doesn't wanna struggle, we don't want him to struggle. But from my standpoint, I'm confident in him bouncing back."