PHILADELPHIA -- Alec Bohm believes in hard work and the back of baseball cards, so he believed something good would happen to him eventually.
On Saturday, it seemed like everything good happened all at once.
Bohm hit home runs in his first two at-bats in a 9-3 victory over the Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. They were Bohm’s first two at-bats since Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly benched him in consecutive games to clear his mind and hopefully end one of the worst slumps in baseball and one of the worst starts to a season by any player in Phillies history.
Bohm hit a 2-0 fastball from Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland in the third inning for a solo homer to left field to tie the game. It was Bohm’s second homer of the season, and his first homer since Opening Day on March 26.
Bryson Stott and Trea Turner followed with singles, and Kyle Schwarber crushed a three-run home run to right field to give the Phillies a 4-1 lead. The Phillies scored another run to make it 5-1.
Bohm’s solo homer in the fourth gave the Phillies a 6-3 lead. It was the fifth multi-homer game of Bohm’s career, and his first since April 19, 2024.
Bohm needed a day like this. He talked Friday afternoon about his slump.
Life hadn’t been fun lately.
“I think when you’re struggling in baseball, I think that can make everything as a whole a little bit harder. Right?” he said. “It’s hard to not be happy when you’re hitting .300.”
Bohm had tried everything to get out of this. He had spent countless hours hitting. He had hit on the field before games. He had hit in the cage after games. He had hit off the Trajekt machine. He had tried various drills and watched video.
Nothing worked.
Maybe he just needed a break.
Bohm did not pick up a bat on Thursday at Mattingly’s request. He only worked out and watched the game. Bohm resumed his pregame work on Friday, taking BP and infield practice.
Then, it was back in the lineup on Saturday.
Bohm’s return to form is critical to the Phillies’ success. He opened the season as the cleanup hitter. He hit 11 games there before former manager Rob Thomson dropped him to seventh. Bohm has hit anywhere from sixth to eighth the past few weeks, except for a game in the cleanup spot on May 3.
The Phillies entered Saturday batting .206 against left-handed pitching. Their .623 OPS ranked 28th.
But Phillies ' right-handed hitters have been even worse against lefties. Their .545 OPS against lefties was 51 points worse than the 29th-ranked Rangers.
It would be the worst mark by any team in MLB since 1918.
Bohm can help fix that and he took a step forward on Saturday.