B/R Exclusive: Phillies Trying to Break Out of Slump Without Breaking Routine

Slump.

It’s a word the Philadelphia Phillies have heard a lot lately and frankly, it’s a word they are becoming quite irritated with.

Regardless of how many times they hear phrases like, “Every team and every major-league hitter goes through slumps,” the Phils are obviously frustrated with their offensive output over the last few weeks.

Entering Monday night’s series opener against the Cincinnati Reds, the Phillies hadn’t scored more than three runs in a game since May 13 in Atlanta and, to push the topic even further, hadn’t scored more than five runs since May 9, doing so just three times in the month of May as a whole.

Usually, however, when people around baseball talk about a slump, they’re talking about a single player. The Phillies have slumped as a whole team, though, causing some concern throughout the city.

Up and down the lineup, the Phils’ bats are struggling to get things going, and a number of players have taken hitless streaks well into double-digit at-bats.

At the beginning of the month, Raul Ibanez went hitless for so long that fans were calling for his head in left field, but he wasn’t the only Phillie they were worried about. Carlos Ruiz took his slump to the disabled list with him and joined Ryan Howard in a struggling lineup when he returned.

Luckily enough for the Phillies, the star-studded pitching rotation that they had assembled in the offseason was doing more than just keeping them in games—it was shutting down the opposition and leading the Phillies to wins.

However low the offense has gotten over the last month or so, the pitching has been well above average, leading the Phils to a National League-best record of 28-18. Who knows where they’d be without this rotation or with a bit of offense?

Regardless of that, the Phillies know that they have to get back on track offensively. Sure, guys like Roy Halladay are almost always going to keep you within striking distance of a win, but you can’t put a win in the left column unless you score runs.

Obviously, you can’t score runs if you can’t hit the ball, and that’s been the real problem with this team over the last month—too many good hitters slumping their way into offensive oblivion.

But how do you get out of a slump? If it were as simple as a quick fix, the Phils would be way up in first place.

I caught up with Phillies infielder Pete Orr over the weekend, and he provided an interesting quote about how major-league players break out of slumps—they don’t do anything differently.

“You just continue to believe in yourself and work hard, obviously,” said Orr. “You do the things that got you here and made you successful. You don’t want to do things that are out of your element.”

When you think about what Orr said, it makes a lot of sense. While half of the city is calling for a blockbuster trade for a legitimate offensive threat, the Phillies are trying their hardest not to change a single thing.

For these players, baseball is their lives. They’ve grown up working hard on their hitting, and changing something now could end their careers. For a lot of these players, Orr included, the best way to break free of an offensive slump is to weather the storm.

“You are always going to go through slumps. You just have to believe you can get out of them,” said Orr.

The Phillies are a team that believes it can hit, and why not? With the best rotation of baseball wearing the Phils jersey and a lineup filled with All-Stars from top to bottom, putting runs on the scoreboard should not be as hard as the Phillies are making it on themselves.

One guy that believes in the Phillies offense is hitting coach Greg Gross, who joined the team during an offensive slump last season. Specifically, he believes that the Phillies are only a couple of hot hitters away from breaking out of this slump for good: “Ryan Howard could get this team on track,” quipped Gross.

Like Orr before him, Gross made it resoundingly clear that changing a hitter’s approach to hitting was not going to break him out of a tough slump. In Howard’s case, a lot of people believe that with the exaggerated defensive over-shift that teams play on him, going to the left side of the field would improve his numbers.

The Phils’ hitting coach couldn’t disagree more.

“He’s the type of guy who will work his way out of a slump. He doesn’t go the other way because he is a natural pull hitter. Teams recognize this, and when they put the shift on him, they also pitch him inside. He’ll work his way out of it.”

Once again, changing a hitter’s approach is not on Gross’ agenda, and he believes that breaking out of this slump could be something as simple as being more aggressive early in the count.

Slumps have a tendency to get in the head of a hitter and they start taking good pitches for strikes. Gross believes that feeling comfortable at the plate and hitting good pitches are the keys to offensive success.

Charlie Manuel echoed those sentiments about his cleanup hitter following Saturday’s game against the Texas Rangers.

“I thought he stayed on the ball real good,” said the Phillies manager. “Pitchers like to change speeds on Howard to keep him off balance.”

He preached about how plate discipline was the key to freeing themselves of the offensive shackles that are this slump and like Gross believes that hitting is a matter of hitting a pitch you can handle.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the Phillies. Not only did the team activate their All-Star second baseman Chase Utley from the disabled list on Monday, but they also recalled slugging right fielder Domonic Brown, who Gross believes has “very good hand-eye coordination.”

When Shane Victorino returns from his injury, the lineup will look more intimidating then it has all season.

Pair that with the starting rotation that has helped them to the best record in the National League and the depth that kept them afloat as they weathered the storm, and it certainly isn’t hard to see why this team was projected as one of the best in baseball entering the 2011 season.

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