As soon as the calendar turned to summer, so did ’s season seemingly. Coming into Saturday night’s game, the Phillies third baseman had been en fuego in the month of July, so much so that a strong couple weeks of work (.409/.435/.795) had largely made up for two cold months.
And while Franco didn’t showcase the type of power he’s capable of, it seems fitting that he didn't have to in order to make an impact. The 23-year-old third baseman fought a 97 mph fastball off his hands for a single and the go-ahead RBI in the Phillies’ 4-2 win over the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park.
“I do, I really do,” Franco said when asked if he’s feeling good. “I see the pitch much better. Even today, my first three at-bats I didn’t do really good, but I stayed on it and I stayed positive.”
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His manager agreed.
“He looks like he’s staying on the ball better,” said. “He’s fouling off some tough pitches to right field. He’s just not flying off the ball like he has been and he’s getting results.
“I don’t think he was trying to hit a home run that last time up, he was trying to make solid contact. And he got a big hit for us obviously.”
Both of Saturday’s starting pitchers, Jerad Eickhoff and New York’s Logan Verrett, managed to pitch six innings of two-run ball despite not looking all that impressive. Eickhoff (who just so happened to crack the #PhillyRank countdown earlier this week along with Franco) saw the leadoff man reach base more frequently than he might have liked.
Eickhoff, a .194 hitter, did contribute two hits to the cause, although he didn’t showcase a ton of baserunning chops once he reached. In the bottom of the fifth inning, hit a ball off the top of the right-field wall that clearly had no chance of being caught (if anything, it almost went into the seats). Eickhoff mysteriously went back to second base and tagged up, which meant he only made it to third on a ball he easily should’ve scored on.
When drove him in later in the inning, everything was forgiven.
“Yeah, that was just terrible baserunning,” Eickhoff said after the game, which drew some laughs. “Yeah, that was just brutal baserunning.”
Reliever picked up his first major-league win, and for a stat that can often be misleading, this one was definitely deserved. Eickhoff left Ramos two runners on base with nobody out in the top of the seventh, and the 23-year-old right-hander stranded both of them.
After Franco’s go-ahead single in the bottom of the frame, and (pitching for the first time in a week) shut the door on the Mets.
In the second inning, Ryan Howard took advantage of some playing time and killed a baseball 429 feet into the Phillies bullpen in deep center field before also reaching the warning track twice later in the game. The homer was the Big Piece’s 370th of his career, which ties Gil Hodges for 77th place all-time.
“I feel good,” Howard said. “I feel like my timing has been where I wanted it to be. I just had a couple of balls that just missed, just one underneath and one off the end."
Howard was asked how he felt Franco’s swing compared to his breakout rookie season last year.
“I think he’s better than what he was last year,” Howard said. “Every year, getting that little bit more of experience helps make you a little bit better and he’s just really in a good comfortable spot right now.”
Before the game, Mackanin brought up an at-bat of Franco’s from Friday night’s loss when talking about striving for consistency. With a man on third, one out, and the infield back, Franco hit a ball to the second baseman and brought the run home.
“Early in the count he was trying to do damage and then he hit a groundball to second to get the run in,” Mackanin said. “Little things like that, you do that 15 times a year, there’s another 15 RBIs. Instead of 85, that’s 100. Now you’re a star, but you got to learn how to do things like that.”
When Franco was struggling in May and June, he was taking far too many wild swings, as if he felt pressure to supply power to a lineup that didn’t have much of it elsewhere. As we saw again tonight, he doesn’t need to hit a homer to contribute at the moment, even if we're seeing a good bit of those as well.
Franco's manager isn’t seeing the player that tore through Yankee Stadium last year, but it’s not far off.
“He’s getting closer and I think he’s enjoying it because he’s very upbeat and positive right now,” Mackanin said.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann