Slumping Phillies dismiss hitting coach
July 23, 2010
PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Phillies manager Charlie Manuel dismissed hitting coach MiltThompson on Friday and replaced him with Greg Gross, hoping to jump start anoffense that’s been struggling for nearly two months.
Gross has been with Triple-A Lehigh Valley for the past three seasons, andDouble-A Reading before that. He was the hitting coach for former Philliesmanager Larry Bowa from 2002-04, and played for World Series teams withPhiladelphia in 1980 and 1983.
“I looked at our hitting and thought something had to be done,” saidManuel, a former hitting coach with the Cleveland Indians. “If you would havetold me we would have hit this way, I would have argued with you forever.”
Thompson had been Philadelphia’s hitting coach since 2005, when the teamfinished second in the National League in runs. The offense has been a bigreason that the Phillies have been such a success the past few seasons, leadingthe league in runs in 2006, ’07 and last season.
“Milt didn’t swing a bat for us, didn’t chase those balls in the dirt ortake fastballs down the middle. It was one of the hardest decisions I evermade,” Manuel said. “He’s a good friend of mine, but at the same time, I feltwe had to try something.”
Injuries to Jimmy Rollins(notes), Chase Utley(notes), Placido Polanco(notes) and Carlos Ruiz(notes) havehurt the team’s consistency this season. Philadelphia ranks just 12th in the NLin batting (.254) and on-base percentage (.322) and sixth in runs, and have beenheld to one or less 23 times in 95 games.
“You don’t expect anybody to be out,” Polanco said before Friday night’sgame against the Colorado Rockies. “We’ve been around long enough to know whatwe’re supposed to be doing.”
The Phillies entered Friday trailing Atlanta by seven games in the NL East,after leading by five games on May 17. Philadelphia has a reputation forcharging back in September, as they did against the Mets in 2007 and ’08, andManuel reminded his players of that Friday.
“When we see how our at-bats are, I think we need more focus, morepreparation,” Manuel said. “We need to go back and play baseball the Phillyway. We had it and it’s gotten away from us. It doesn’t mean that changing thehitting coach will bring that part back, but I felt like we need a new person.Something like that might make a difference.
“I talked about out team. We have 67 games to play,” Manuel said. “I’veseen us make up seven games in 17 games and win our division (in 2007). All wehave to do is get back to playing baseball like we can, or the way that we’veplayed before.”
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