PHILADELPHIA -- Alec Bohm believes in hard work and the numbers on the back of baseball cards, so he knew something good would happen to him eventually.
On Saturday night, it happened all at once.
Bohm hit home runs in his first two at-bats and he doubled in his fourth in a 9-3 victory over the Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. It was Bohm’s first action since Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly sat him in consecutive games to clear his mind and help him end one of the worst slumps in baseball and one of the worst starts to a season by any player in Phillies history.
“I mean, if you were going to draw it up, I guess that’s how you’d draw it up,” Bohm said.
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. Teammates couldn’t have been any happier as Bohm rounded the bases. It was his second homer of the season, and his first homer since Opening Day on March 26.
“You could say relief,” Bohm said. “Happiness.”
Bohm’s solo homer in the fourth gave the Phillies a 6-3 lead. It was his fifth multi-homer game, and his first since April 19, 2024. His two-run double in the eighth gave him his first three-hit game since Sept. 21, when he had four hits in Arizona.
“Baseball is a hard game,” Bohm said. “It’s a weird game. But I think it just kind of reinforces that things I'm doing and things I'm working on are right. I think just keep working in that direction, keep working on those same things, and take it day by day.”
Bohm talked Friday about his struggles. His .433 OPS ranked 177th out of 178 qualified players in baseball. It was the fourth-lowest OPS by a Phillies player (minimum 100 plate appearances) through the team’s first 39 games since at least 1900.
“I think when you’re struggling in baseball, I think that can make everything as a whole a little bit harder,” Bohm said.
Bohm said he had left no stone unturned. He had spent countless hours hitting in the batting cage, both before and after games; on the field before games, off the Trajekt machine. He had tried different drills, watched video and talked to teammates.
Maybe he just needed a break.
Bohm did not pick up a bat on Thursday at Mattingly’s request. He resumed his pregame work on Friday, taking BP and infield practice.
Then, it was back in the lineup on Saturday.
“Having a day to just take a breather physically, mentally, and all that, can be helpful,” he said.
Bohm’s play is critical to the Phillies’ success. He opened the season as the cleanup hitter. But it’s been a struggle for all Phillies’ right-handed hitters this year. Their .545 OPS against lefties entering Saturday was 51 points worse than the 29th-ranked Rangers. It would be the worst mark by any team in MLB since 1918.
It got to the point that Mattingly on Saturday started Edmundo Sosa in left field for the second time in his career, just to get another righty bat in the lineup.
But then Trea Turner had four hits, Bohm had three, Adolis García had two and J.T. Realmuto and Sosa each had one. That’s 11 hits by righties. It was the first time Phillies righties had 10 or more hits in a game since Aug. 18.
Turner entered the game batting .226. Like Bohm, Turner likes to hit his way out of slumps. Like Bohm, he had taken countless swings recently. He estimated maybe 1,000 over four days.
“I probably took more swings in the last four days than I had in a long, long time,” Turner said. “And then today, I didn't swing the bat until I got in the game. It doesn't make any sense, but I took seven swings [in the game] today. Literally.”
Turner said he might take 100 swings on an average day.
He said he took maybe 350 swings on Friday, when he went 0-for-6 to extend his hitless streak to 11 at-bats.
He took no swings on Saturday, when he went 4-for-5.
“That’s how dumb this game is,” Turner said. “It makes no sense.”
It might be dumb, but hitting makes everything fun.
“I think that's what's frustrating,” Turner said. “I’ve felt pretty good, but the numbers aren't there. So when I play bad, I kind of want to feel bad, so there's a way to fix it. But I’ve felt pretty good coming to the ballpark for a while now. The swing’s felt good, just not seeing results. So a little frustrating, tonight was a good step forward and just try to continue tomorrow.”