the adjustment<\/a>. He made a decision halfway through last season to think about driving the ball more. He has the quick hands and power to do it. Then, he did it well for two months last season and into spring training this year.<\/p>\nIn that ninth inning, he saw eight straight sinkers from cross-firing righty Ryan Walker. Everything was away and away. Stott worked a full count. Walker delivered a ninth fastball, right down the middle, and maybe it was a gift from the baseball gods.<\/p>\n
Stott ripped it to the right-field corner for a tying triple.<\/p>\n
It was especially gratifying because, five innings earlier, Stott struck out on three pitches with two runners in scoring position and no outs. It was one of the worst at-bats any Phillies hitter has taken this season. (That is a long list.)<\/p>\n
Stott has a .534 OPS. It\u2019s a results-based game. The results have not been good. Stott often looks like he is caught between approaches, but he has insisted that, mechanically, everything is near where he wants it.<\/p>\n
The Phillies want Stott to stick with the changes. They are desperate for some production in the middle of the lineup. Maybe, as a carrot, interim manager Don Mattingly batted Stott fifth in Thursday\u2019s nightcap. It was the highest he had batted in the order since April 12; he went 0-for-3.<\/p>\n
Looking at the lefties<\/p>\n
Thursday naturally provided a better glimpse of a tested bullpen. The Phillies entered the first game with two relievers from the Opening Day roster on the injured list, with a third (Kyle Backhus) added between games due to elbow inflammation.<\/p>\n
Mattingly said Backhus will be fine and that the club did not want to risk further injury. But the loss of Backhus, even if it\u2019s just for two weeks, is meaningful. The Phillies were prepared to make him their second left-handed choice behind Jos\u00e9 Alvarado because Tanner Banks has not pitched well.<\/p>\n
Tim Mayza, who gave up nine hits and seven earned runs in his previous nine innings entering Thursday, looked solid. Banks struck out two and gave up two hits in 1 1\/3 innings in the first game. Mattingly pulled him with two runners on in the ninth. He was not going to risk it.<\/p>\n
Alvarado, however, continued a puzzling trend. He was brought in to face left-handed Rafael Devers with the score tied in the ninth inning of the second game and quickly gave up a hit. Left-handed Jung Hoo Lee punched an elevated sinker for another hit shortly after. The Giants took the lead, though the run is credited to Brad Keller, whom Alvarado replaced.<\/p>\n
Left-handed batters are now hitting .545 in 22 at-bats against the hard-throwing Alvarado. His command and execution have not always been sharp. But it\u2019s hard to fully explain that number without a greater sample.<\/p>\n
Learning the art of the steal![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2273271379-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Kyle Schwarber douses Justin Crawford after his walk-off single in the first game. (Isaiah Vazquez \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Justin Crawford\u2019s first 30 games in the majors featured two walk-off hits. He experienced success early, then slumped. He\u2019s seen a lot already. He is now playing for a man who managed his father.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonnie kind of reminded me,\u201d Crawford said, \u201clike, \u2018Play your game. Go out there, play hard. Get on with anything you can.\u2019 It kind of reminded me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crawford used his speed in Thursday\u2019s first game by bunting for a hit and legging out the game-winning infield single.<\/p>\n
But Crawford was caught stealing in the seventh inning by a catcher (Patrick Bailey) who had thrown out only two runners in 20 attempts this season. Crawford has not been a threat on the bases; he\u2019s stolen two bags and been nabbed twice. He had an 82 percent stolen-base success rate in the minors. It\u2019s been different in the majors.<\/p>\n
A lot has to do with his poor secondary leads.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust have to be more precise, making sure I\u2019m picking good times when I go,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cGood counts. And, of course, getting a good jump. But I\u2019m getting more comfortable with it the more and more I go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entering Thursday, Crawford ranked 198th out of 214 players who had attempted a steal in \u201clead distance gained,\u201d a metric the league\u2019s Statcast system uses to measure the distance from a runner\u2019s primary lead to his secondary one. It basically means he\u2019s getting some of the poorest jumps possible when he tries to run.<\/p>\n
How Mattingly manages<\/p>\n
Cristopher S\u00e1nchez did not hide his disgust when his new manager removed him at 85 pitches with two outs in the seventh inning and no one on base. He handed Mattingly the ball, then shook his head as he walked off the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I wanted to stay out,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said through a team interpreter. \u201cI mean, 85 pitches. I just wanted to finish that one off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mattingly did not mind it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one thing about guys being upset,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cI\u2019m never \u2026 doing this long enough, guys are competitive and they want to stay in the game. We felt like it was the right spot, not to let anything get started.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was interesting, given the Phillies\u2019 plan to do a bullpen game in the nightcap, that Mattingly would not ride S\u00e1nchez longer. The addition of Trevor Richards, a bulk reliever, following Backhus\u2019 injury made it make somewhat more sense. Still, Mattingly has had a tight leash on the two starters he\u2019s managed so far; he removed Jes\u00fas Luzardo at 88 pitches in seven scoreless innings Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 There was one man left in the Phillies\u2019 bullpen Thursday in the 10th inning of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,2365,85],"class_list":["post-643103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Philadelphia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/USATSI_28846846-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n