Nick Piccone
The Phillies lost to the Cubs last night, 6-4. The score was a lot closer than the actual game indicates, because the Phillies’ offense was once again a purely putrid mess. Pete Mackanin has zero answers for their offensive offense [see what I did there?], so he decided to explain such a disaster with this metaphor:
When you’re walking to school, and every time you take the one road to your school and there’s a big tough guy that beats you up and takes your lunch money … after a while I think you’re gonna take a different route.
So, likewise, the hitters got to figure out, ‘I’m not gonna keep doing what I’m doing. That guy’s not gonna beat me up and take my money anymore. I’m gonna go around him.’ That’s the kind of thing they have to do. Figure out a way to eliminate those mistakes.”
He then went on to describe Freddy Galvis’ hitting woes. It’s fairly entertaining, if not sad. You can watch him comment after last night’s game below.
Professional hitters make adjustments. There is at most two professional hitters on the team right now, and their names are Odubel Herrera and Maikel Franco. Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in professional sports, but at the Major League level, adjustments are necessary to succeed. Who’s going to make that adjustment and succeed on this offense, and give the team a chance to win games like the pitchers have through the first two months?
Sadly, probably no one.