Alec Bohm redeems himself with key homer, as Phillies power past Brewers, 4-2, to snap three-game skid

MILWAUKEE — The seminal moment of Alec Bohm’s 2022 season came in this ballpark, against this team. It was early June. He had settled in as an everyday player for the Phillies, though not like he is now, when he banged a game-tying home run against then-unhittable Brewers closer Josh Hader.

Maybe you remember it. Bohm surely does.

Fifteen months later, on a hot September Sunday, Bohm found his old Milwaukee magic. And what it lacked in ninth-inning drama, it made up for as a necessary pick-me-up, both for him and the Phillies.

Bohm led off the seventh inning with a laser into the Brewers’ bullpen at American Family Field. It tied the game, preceded J.T. Realmuto’s go-ahead homer, and started the Phillies to a sweep-averting 4-2 victory, snapping a three-game mini-skid and preserving a 2½-game lead for the top wild card.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Trea Turner reveals the secret behind his season-turning hot streak. He got a grip.

“I owed the boys a good at-bat,” Bohm said, “after Friday night.”

Ah yes, Friday night. In case you missed it, since Bohm brought it up: With the bases loaded and the Phillies leading by one run in the eighth inning, he flubbed a backhand of a routine grounder to third base. Three runs scored on the play in the Brewers’ 7-5 victory.

After the game, manager Rob Thomson expressed confidence that the error wouldn’t shake Bohm’s confidence. In past years, it would have. But the Phillies believe the fourth-year player has matured.

Just in case, Bohm received a pep talk Saturday from infield coach Bobby Dickerson. And Dickerson doesn’t mince words.

“Anybody that plays this game makes an error,” Dickerson said, recalling his message to Bohm. “Because it’s Alec Bohm, we say, ‘Oh my god, something’s going to happen here. He’s going to go south.’ No, he’s a solid major league ballplayer that’s played the hell out of third base. I think he’s past that. The kid is gone. Now he’s a baseball man.”

Just consider, Dickerson said, how Bohm has ping-ponged between his natural third base and first since the second week of the season. Dickerson admits he initially wasn’t sure if Bohm could handle it.

”Things that I was worried about at first, he handled like a long-term veteran,“ Dickerson said. “I was really pleased with how Bohm went to both sides. When he went to first, he played an outstanding first base for us. And it really didn’t affect him when he went back to third.“

Bohm was solid at third base Saturday, then moved across the field to first base for the series finale and played well, including staying with a high pop fly that went through wires on the roof of the ballpark.

But Bohm made his biggest impact with the bat. The Phillies didn’t have a hit against Brewers lefty Wade Miley until the sixth inning, when Trea Turner reached on an infield hit and Nick Castellanos followed with an RBI double to cut the margin to 2-1.

Opening the seventh inning, Bohm scorched Miley’s 2-1 changeup. Off the bat, it looked like it would split the gap in left-center rather than get out of the ballpark.

» READ MORE: Bryce Harper, $330 million bargain? Sizing up his first five years with the Phillies, and what’s ahead.

“I thought I was going to get thrown out at second, yeah,” Bohm said. “I hit first and saw it went over and was pretty relieved.”

Two pitches later, Realmuto crushed a cutter from Miley off the batter’s eye in center field, and the homer-happy Phillies had the lead.

The Phillies have homered in 16 consecutive games, tied for the second-longest streak in franchise history. They went deep in 18 consecutive games from Sept. 3-22, 2008.

“No matter where we’re at in this order, I feel like we can always do damage and get your mistakes,” Bohm said after the Phillies clocked seven homers in the three-game series. “This is a good park to hit in. Weather’s warm, day game, roof’s open, ball’s flying. It’s good to run into one on days like that, for sure.”

Especially after nights like Friday.

“Definitely in the past it could’ve affected the next couple games, kind of standing out there and not wanting the ball hit to you,” Bohm said. “But a couple years later, I understand a little bit that it’s going to happen. The only thing you can do about it is play tomorrow.”

For most of the season, the bullpen has been the Phillies’ biggest strength. And just as it began to show a few cracks this week, five relievers — Jeff Hoffman, Seranthony Domínguez, Matt Strahm, José Alvarado, and Craig Kimbrel — combined to blank the Brewers for five innings.

Alvarado and Kimbrel, in particular, bounced back from recent struggles. Making his first appearance since giving up a go-ahead two-run homer Wednesday against the Angels, Kimbrel worked around a one-out single in a scoreless ninth inning.

» READ MORE: Before Shohei Ohtani, Michael Lorenzen wanted to be a two-way player. But he’s found his calling as a starter.

“We needed that,” Realmuto said. “It’s not a secret they haven’t thrown the ball as well as they can the last week or two. To see them come in in a game we were down and shut the door and hold a really good offense — that’s a good team over there — it was good to see.”

Making his first start since Aug. 13 because of a right hamstring strain, Ranger Suárez overcame solo homers to William Contreras and Mark Canha and spotty command to complete four innings.

“I didn’t have any soreness or any pain or anything, so I felt good,” Suárez said through a team interpreter. “I was expecting to be a little rusty, but overall, I felt good.”

Suárez loaded the bases in the third inning on an infield hit and two walks. But he doubled up on curveballs to strike out Víctor Caratini and hold the deficit at 2-0.

The Phillies limited Suárez to 75 pitches but expect to increase his total for his next scheduled start Sunday at home against the Marlins.