The Phillies were rolling when COVID-19 shut down spring training a year ago this week | Extra Innings

The Phillies’ high-powered offense went dormant over the weekend, scoring just a single run on eight hits in Grapefruit League road losses to the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees. Saturday’s lineup against Toronto was light on big-league hitters and the game was only seven innings, but manager Joe Girardi took Andrew McCutchen, Didi Gregorius, Bryce Harper and Jean Segura with him to Tampa on Sunday and the Phillies could not score in a nine-inning game that featured six New York pitchers.

The above-mentioned quartet of hitters went 0-for-11 and struck out five times. Zack Wheeler also had a rough outing, giving up four runs on four hits and walking two batters. He recorded just six outs. All four of the Yankees’ runs scored on a grand slam by Brett Gardner in the bottom of the second inning

Good news did continue to come from the bullpen as five Phillies relievers — J.D. Hammer, Ivan Nova, Bryan Mitchell. Brandon Kintzler and Tony Watson — combined for 5 2/3 shutout innings, allowing just one hit.

The Phillies are off Monday, then resume play Tuesday with another game against Toronto in Dunedin, Fla.

You’re signed up to get this newsletter in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during Phillies spring training. If you like what you’re reading, tell your friends it’s free to sign up here. I want to know what you think, what we should add, and what you want to read, so send me feedback by email or on Twitter @brookob. Thank you for reading.

— Bob Brookover (extrainnings@inquirer.com)

This was the week a year ago when life changed for all of us, including the local baseball team. The Phillies were in the midst of one of their most successful spring trainings in years under first-year manager Joe Girardi, but the season they were training for would not remotely resemble the one they would actually play, and it was more than four months away.

Friday will mark the anniversary of the spring-training shutdown. The Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays played the final game in Port Charlotte, Fla. The 8-4 Phillies win gave them a 14-5-1 exhibition record, which was the best in baseball. Any momentum they had, however, was long gone by the time the team reconvened for baseball’s first-ever “summer camp” in Philadelphia at the beginning of July.

Girardi said he has not given much thought to what might have been if the Phillies had completed the original spring training and played a normal season.

“Momentum fluctuates during the season,” he said. “That happens. I did like where we were at when we shut down in spring training and I was disappointed that we had to shut down, but I don’t know if it would have changed the season. I don’t really think too much about it.”

The actual season, as we all know, was a major disappointment. It also ended with the Phillies playing a road game against Tampa Bay, but this time, they lost a game when a win would have given them a spot in an expanded eight-team playoff field.

That’s the past, and it’s gone.

COVID-19, on the other hand, is still around and impacting the way Girardi and the Phillies conduct business down in spring training in a major way.

“I think it has changed our lives by the fact that we can’t be around loved ones sometimes when we want to be and we can’t have the same type of interaction with the team as you would like,” Girardi said via Sunday’s Zoom call with reporters.

For the record, Girardi is not a big fan of Zoom, but he has adapted.

“You have to learn different ways to do it, so a lot of times when you have meetings, they are in smaller groups when you would like to get everyone together … and hear different guys speak,” the manager said. “But you can’t do that. I think we’ll get back to that, so I almost consider it a temporary change more so than a long-term change. Those are probably the biggest things for me. It’s just the interaction with people that you really miss and you loved having, but you have to do it different.”

Girardi does not know anyone who has died from COVID-19.

“I did not lose anyone,” he said. “There were a few people I know that had it who are close (friends), but I was fortunate.”

Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins also has had that same good fortune.

“Thank God most of the people that I know and that are close to me have stayed healthy,” he said. “I know that’s not the case for a lot of people, so I’m very, very grateful for that.”

Hoskins said the year that has passed has been a time of great reflection.

“It has been a weird year,” he said. “I think there are a lot of people who have learned a lot of things about themselves. There has been a lot of reflection over the last year. I know there has been for myself. It’s always good to just sit back and think about what is important to you. Obviously, we were afforded as a society to be able to do that with what’s gone on, but I’m hoping we’re close to the end. It seems like if we can kind of be smart and make this last push, we can get to the light at the end of the tunnel.”

You want to know more about new Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham? Read this interesting biography by Scott Lauber.

It looks like pitchers are going to hit again this season in the National League and, as Lauber writes, that’s a concern for Girardi and every other manager in baseball.

Roman Quinn reached base on an infield single that showed off his blazing speed Sunday against the Yankees, but he also struck out for the fifth time in 10 at-bats this spring and a lack of contact could cost him in the competition for the Phillies’ center-field job.

The first week of the center-field competition had quite a few twists and turns, with Adam Haseley going down with an injury and Odubel Herrera looking like the guy who made the All-Star team in his second season.

The recent injury news was good for catcher J.T. Realmuto, who had the hard cast that was protecting his fractured right thumb removed from his hand Friday. He is still not hitting or throwing, but it’s possible he will be in the opening-day lineup April 1 against Atlanta.

The Phillies trotted out the vast majority of their new look bullpen during Friday afternoon’s game against Pittsburgh, starting with prized free-agent addition Archie Bradley, and it was, for the most part, a parade of high-velocity relievers. The best part was they did not allow any runs.

It’s still early, but Herrera’s bid to regain his job as the Phillies’ starting center fielder after a 21-month absence that stemmed from a 2019 domestic violence arrest appears to be gaining steam.

Today: Off day.

Tomorrow: Phillies vs. Toronto in Dunedin, 1:07 p.m.

Wednesday: Detroit vs. Phillies in Clearwater, 1:05 p.m.

March 29: Final spring training game vs. Toronto, 1:05 p.m.

April 1: Season opener vs. Atlanta at Citizens Bank Park, 3:05 p.m.

On this date in 1941, Phillies pitcher Hugh Mulcahy became the first major-league player inducted into the United States Army under the selective service act in order to fight in World War II. He had signed his most recent contract with the Phillies six days earlier, according to The Inquirer, and was hopeful that playing baseball would be part of his service.

Mulcahy, 27 at the time, reported to Cape Edwards on Cape Cod believing he’d be back in the big leagues in a year after posting a career-low 3.60 ERA for the last-place Phillies in 1940.

“I won’t be 28 until September, and they say that a pitcher’s prime comes between 28 and 31,” Mulcahy told The Inquirer. “So by the time I come out of the army I should be just about reaching my peak. My only hope right now is that baseball will be included in our recreational program in the army.”

Mulcahy’s military service lasted four years and he did not rejoin the Phillies until the 1945 season. He appeared in just 21 games and went a combined 3-7 with a 4.25 ERA in 1945 and 1946 before signing with Pittsburgh for one final season in 1947.

Mulcahy died in 2001 at age 88.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @brookob.

Question: My trick question is, independent of finances, morals, or offense, or even health, which of the five center-field candidates is the best DEFENSIVELY? As things stand now, the CF is likely to bat 8th or 9th. So they could stand a defense-first player there.

Yours, until Joyce is penciled in to start in CF ahead of all of them on opening day.

— Andy L., via email

Answer: Thanks for reading, Andy, and we’re going to start with your comment before tackling your question. I can promise you that Matt Joyce is not going to be the Phillies’ opening-day starter in center field. Joyce has started 845 games in his career, but only five in center field, with four of those coming in 2009.

Your question was much better than your comment. So who among the five center-field competitors is the best defensive player? The answer should be Quinn because he clearly is the fastest of the group, but he does not always make the best reads or get the best jumps on the ball. In fact, he broke in on a ball hit by Giancarlo Stanton on Sunday against the Yankees that went over his head for a double. He probably wouldn’t have caught it anyway, but it was clearly a bad read.

I thought Haseley played a solid center field as a rookie in 2019, but wasn’t as good defensively or offensively in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Scott Kingery made the majority of his starts in center field in 2019 and he graded out very well, then in nine center-field starts last season, he did not make an error.

I can’t comment on Mickey Moniak because I’ve never seen him play the position above low-A Lakewood. during his second season in professional baseball. Herrera, according to ratings by FanGraphs.com, was the fourth-best defensive outfielder in baseball from 2015 through 2017, but his play in the field and the plate both slipped substantially in 2018 and 2019.

I would say the Herrera who played center field in his first three seasons is the best defender in the group if that player still exists, and we should have a decent read on that by the time spring training is over.