Snakebit Bohm on slump and outside noise: ‘Guess the game's trying to teach me a lesson'

Snakebit Bohm on slump and outside noise: ‘Guess the game's trying to teach me a lesson' originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

ST. LOUIS — Alec Bohm came to the plate against Andre Pallante in the top of the seventh inning Friday night looking to do anything to spark the Phillies’ offense and break himself out of a two-week funk.

He hit a ball hard, over 102 mph toward the middle of the diamond. Cardinals shortstop Thomas Saggese was positioned well and ranged to his left to field it and throw to first.

So ended another hitless night for Bohm, who is 4-for-43 since the third game of the season despite a batted-ball profile that says he should be hitting .272 rather than .151.

Bohm has hit 14 balls this season at over 100 mph. The league average on batted balls at that exit velocity is approximately .600. Bohm is batting .286 on them, 4-for-14. And that’s after starting the season 3-for-4. The last 10 times Bohm has hit a ball harder than 100 mph, he has one hit.

He’s frustrated and he wants it to turn, but he’s also more experienced now and not beating himself up over things outside his control.

“I barreled up everything I swung at last night too,” he said. “It’s really hard. Obviously it’s nothing to do with the swing and everywhere I turn, it’s look at your expected numbers, look at this, keep your head up, it’s gonna be OK. But I just keep hitting balls hard and they keep going right at people. There’s really nothing I can do about it.

“I know eventually everything sort of evens out and I know that I’ve hit well over .400 for an entire month in this league at times. As far as me being worried about anything, no, but I’d like it to end. I certainly would like it to turn in my favor a little bit. I watched back-to-back broken-bat hits last night.

“Results are not happening right now. At some point this year, they’re gonna happen and I’ve got to think for some extended period of time I’m gonna get some luck too. I think when we look up at the end of the year, I’m gonna be right around .280, right around 100 RBIs, right around everywhere I’m supposed to be.

“I guess the game’s trying to teach me a lesson, maybe.”

Bohm was dropped from fourth to seventh in the Phillies’ batting order Friday night. He was moved a spot lower on Saturday to eighth when J.T. Realmuto returned to the lineup after a night off. It doesn’t mean Bohm will hit at the bottom of the order for the rest of the season, but right now manager Rob Thomson is looking for a way to strip some pressure off him while also better protecting Bryce Harper.

But it’s not as if Bohm has even been having particularly poor at-bats these last few nights. In the second inning of Thursday’s extra-inning loss to the Braves, he had his second-hardest-hit ball of the year, 105.3 mph off the bat against Spencer Schwellenbach. It was directly at second baseman Ozzie Albies for another lineout.

“Yeah, against Schwellenbach. It was like all right, I guess we’re doing this,” Bohm said. “If I’m gonna try to change anything or do anything different, it’s not being wise at this point. Really the only at-bats that aren’t good are the ones that I’m swinging out of the zone, and I’m not doing that a ton. Get the pitch that I should swing at and I’ve put that ball in play, for the most part hitting that ball hard.

“If there’s an obvious answer like I’m doing this, I’m continuing to swing at the high pitch, something glaring and obvious that I’m getting exposed on it, but that’s not the case. So there’s really nothing to spin your wheels about. Just see how many at-bats it takes to get lucky, I guess.”

Not every fan or observer of a baseball team knows the advanced metrics and for some, a slump is a slump whether or not the player is dealing with bad luck. For Bohm, the criticism is often even louder because of all that he’s been through as a Phillie. The “I hate this place game,” which for him ended up being a launchpad rather than rock bottom. The strong first half last season, when he looked like he might lead the National League in doubles and RBIs. The September and October skid after his hand strain, which resulted in him being benched in Game 2 of the NLDS.

Bohm has gotten better at blocking out the noise as he’s grown up, but he still acknowledges that his every action seems to be under the microscope.

“Definitely. I feel like everything is very, very overanalyzed that I do on the baseball field from the moment I step on it to the moment I step off it,” he said. “But again, that’s out of of my control.

“The longer you play in the big leagues and the more experience you get and the more comfortable you get with who you are and that you belong here, the less anything really affects you. Other peoples’ opinions and whatnot, the more you’ve been here, the more you know you’re gonna be here, the more confident you are in what you’ve done here, the more that stuff kinda fades away. People are gonna say what they’re gonna say, people are gonna think what they’re gonna think and that’s their thoughts, their opinions. We just kinda stay in this dugout and play the game.”