PHILADELPHIA -- Bryan De La Cruz didn’t miss Eric Lauer’s 91 mph fastball at the top of the zone.
He crushed a game-tying solo home run to center field in the fourth inning of Wednesday night’s 9-5 loss to the Dodgers at Citizens Bank Park. It was De La Cruz’s second plate appearance with the Phillies, who promoted him from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Tuesday to help a lineup that has not only struggled all year vs. left-handed pitching, but has struggled to get on base with an MLB-worst .303 on-base percentage.
De La Cruz might be nothing more than a short-term solution for the Phillies with the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline just 12 days away. Time will tell, of course, but the Phillies are actively looking outside the organization for help.
Expect to hear the Phillies connected to and scouting every available right-handed-hitting outfielder on the market in the coming days. Think everybody from Taylor Ward to Lane Thomas to Jo Adell to Heliot Ramos, and more.
They would love to get Harrison Bader 2.0.
The Phils entered Wednesday ranked 24th in MLB with a .683 OPS against lefties. Their right-handed hitters ranked 29th with a .638 OPS against them.
That would be the worst mark by any Phillies team since 1969 (.627 OPS).
De La Cruz hopes to help as long as he can. He hit .269 with 12 home runs, 56 RBIs and an .806 OPS with the IronPigs. He batted .251 with a .698 OPS over parts of five big league seasons with Miami, Pittsburgh and Atlanta, including a career .697 OPS vs. lefties.
De La Cruz hit a 2-1 fastball from Lauer in the fourth. It left his bat at 105.8 mph, and just cleared the center-field fence.
“It feels great,” De La Cruz said via interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “First of all, I want to thank God and this team for giving me the opportunity to be here today. Second, it’s known that I hit left-handed pitchers good.”
The Phillies had a different look on Wednesday. Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly started Edmundo Sosa in left field, Derek Hill in center and De La Cruz in right, trying to squeeze something out of a platoon advantage.
It could be a more frequent lineup moving forward vs. lefties.
All-Star outfielder Brandon Marsh started Wednesday's game on the bench. He is batting .233 with a .645 OPS against lefties this season, but just .115 with a .379 OPS against them in 13 games since June 26.
Marsh has struck out 14 times in 26 at-bats against lefties in that stretch.
“When we see the lefties coming back to back like this, we always try to give him a day in that,” Mattingly said about Marsh.
But more rest days for Marsh could be coming, too.
“It is something that I'm thinking about and looking at because, obviously, the numbers haven't been great against the lefties,” Mattingly said. “I've liked some of the at-bats early, but that seems to have been a battle as we went on.”
Marsh pinch-hit for De La Cruz in the ninth. He singled and scored.