The Phillies won the first three games of last week against the Marlins before falling pathetically to the Mets in each of their four matchups. The Phillies were outscored 40-21 in the four-game Mets series. Positively, the Phillies did manage to score an average of almost five runs per game across all of last week. After a 3-4 week, it’s time to analyze the calls from the dugout steps and manage Mackanin.
Francoeur in a Pinch: In Wednesday’s game, Jeff Francoeur was called to hit for Hector Nerris in the bottom of the eighth and down 6-3. The at-bat resulted in a soft liner to centerfield scoring Cameron Rupp. It was Frenchy’s Major League leading 10th pinch-hit RBI this season. This season, Francoeur is 10-22 (.455) with a 1.117 OPS as a pinch-hitter. In pinch-hit situations under Pete Mackanin, Francoeur is 4-11 (.364) with a homerun and four RBI’s.
Contrary to his career numbers, Francoeur, who hits from the right side of the plate, has hit right-handed pitchers significantly better this season than left-handed pitchers. Wednesday’s pinch-hit was against right-hander Tyler Clippard. It was Francoeur’s ninth at-bat opposing Clippard and just his first hit.
Catching by Committee: In last week’s seven games, Cameron Rupp was the starting catcher in four of them and Carlos Ruiz in the other three. The platoon behind the dish is nothing new under Mackanin. Since Mackanin took the managerial job in June, Rupp has started 28 games and Ruiz has started 25 despite Rupp considerably outperforming Ruiz.
Rupp’s batting average is almost 40 points higher than that of Ruiz in 2015. In the last 30 days, Ruiz is 9-49 (.184) with no homeruns. In the same span of time, Rupp is 17-52 (.327) with five homeruns. In fact, Rupp is 9-20 (.450) in the last 10 days. In spite of Rupp’s recent statistical domination relative to Ruiz, Mackanin continues to split their playing time.
