Alec Bohm’s snapping-good defense is a reward for the Phillies’ faith in him

Alec Bohm was still on one knee Tuesday night when he started wildly snapping his fingers. The ballpark was roaring — like it should after a third baseman makes a diving stop and throws out a runner from his knees — and Bohm was snapping.

It wasn’t that long ago that Bohm would have had little chance to grab the 104 mph rocket that was hit his way in the second inning of the Phillies’ 10-0 win over Arizona in the second game of the National League Championship Series. But then he met Bobby Dickerson, the infield coach who peppers Bohm every day with ground balls and tough love. He helped Bohm — once considered a future first baseman or designated hitter — become a reliable third baseman. And he taught him to snap.

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“That’s our thing,” Bohm said after his defense helped the Phillies move to two wins shy of reaching a second straight World Series. “Anytime someone does something that Bobby likes, all the way back to spring training, he’s always doing it. Any time he sees something that gets him excited, you’ll see him doing it.”

Rob Thomson told Bohm earlier this season that the team still saw him as their third baseman even though he was playing first after Rhys Hoskins was lost for the year with an ACL injury. A year earlier, Bohm’s struggles were so mighty that he said he hated it here. Now, he was their guy. Nights like Tuesday proved why.

“That was nice to hear,” Bohm said. “He didn’t have to tell me that.”

Bohm saw a picture recently of a football field overlaid atop a baseball diamond, which showed that a throw from third to first is roughly equivalent to a 40-yard pass. He never thought of it like that. And it made it even more impressive when he threw that deep ball from one knee.

“Knees, feet, whatever,” Bohm said. “Just throwing the guy out is the most important part.”

He threw from his knee in the second, made a diving stop in the fourth to get an out at second, and fielded every ball hit his way. A night earlier, Bohm started the game-ending double play by smoothly fielding a 99.7 mph grounder. It wasn’t that long ago that every ball hit to Bohm came with the risk of a misplay. But now he makes it look routine.

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All the work — from spring-training grounders under the Florida sun to digging in the afternoon dirt in whatever ballpark the Phillies are playing in that night — is paying off for Bohm and Dickerson.

“He doesn’t tell you what to do,” Bohm said. “It’s more just ‘Catch the ball.’ We make all the right moves and all that stuff. We’ve drilled that as much as we can. He really cares and you can tell that. He’s out there working with us every single day. For me, everything that he’s preached to me, I’ve seen it translate into the game. That’s the biggest thing. You have confidence in your work and see the stuff you practice show up in the game and say ‘Oh, I made that play in practice.’ He’s seen a lot of baseball. He’s a baseball guy. He knows the game and I feel like he’s easy to trust.”

Bohm said he always considered himself an offensive player, which many would have agreed with before he started to look comfortable at third. His bat was strong enough that it would make sense for a team to find a way to hide his glove somewhere else. But then he started the postseason with five hits in his first 28 at-bats. He was brutal at the plate but the Phillies were winning and his glove — the one that surely the Phillies would have to move to left field one day — was making all the plays. They could live with his lack of pop.

But it was a welcome sign in Tuesday’s first inning when Bohm hit a ball 396 feet to the warning track in center. And then he dropped a two-run double in the seventh, starting a four-run inning that turned a blowout into a laugher. His offense, the skill that made Bohm a big-leaguer, had caught up to his defense, the skill he worked tirelessly to improve.

“He has really played well defensively lately and for a while now,” Thomson said. “But he can hit. You just have to trust that at some point he is going to hit again, and the last couple of nights, his swing has looked really good.”

Bohm, who once struggled to contain his emotions on the field, didn’t blink when that ball was hit his way in the second inning under the tension of a playoff game. His progress at third base has been more than just footwork and release points. He’s grown mentally strong, coolly handling pressure and not buckling under the pressure that once would have cracked him. The crowd — the same fans who fell for Bohm after he said he hated it here — went wild after he threw across the diamond from one knee. And the only thing to do was snap.

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