How did Brandon Marsh improve his splits against lefties? He took a lesson from Kyle Schwarber

NEW YORK — In the top of the seventh inning on Thursday night, Brandon Marsh stepped into the box against left-handed reliever Danny Young. It was an at-bat that would’ve made him uncomfortable in April, but a lot has changed since then.

Marsh took Young’s first two pitches, fouled off a sinker inside, took two more pitches, fouled off two more sinkers, and connected on a mistake — a sinker down and in. He roped it to right field for a line-drive single. It was his second hit of the game, which the Mets won, 10-6.

There was a lot to like about the at-bat, but, above all, Marsh was encouraged by how he felt.

“I’d say maybe in April that at-bat would’ve been … I’m not going to say the result would’ve been different, but the comfort level would definitely not have been there,” Marsh said. “I was in that at-bat. I was in on a lot of his stuff.”

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The Phillies outfielder knows better than anyone that he has work to do against lefties, and, for most of this season, he has done it. Since June, he’s taken more reps off of the left-handed curveball and slider machine and more pitches from hitting coach Kevin Long, who throws to Marsh in the batting cage.

He has also paid close attention to Kyle Schwarber’s cage work. Schwarber — a left-handed hitter, like Marsh — is batting .316/.425/.505 against lefties this season. Marsh noticed that Schwarber’s direction against lefties was consistent and decided that he should try to do the same.

Now, when he gets into the box against a left-handed pitcher, Marsh thinks center or left-center.

“It’s more of a thought,” Marsh said. “The approach going into the at-bat. Because a lot of lefties throw a sinker and have a sweeper off of it, or a slider, curveball, whatever the guy has. It’s always something going the opposite way of each other. So I feel like if you just center it up and try to stay up through the middle, you stand a chance on both of them.”

The adjustment has helped. Since July 31, Marsh is hitting .304/.407/.565 against left-handed pitchers (through 28 plate appearances). He’s striking out at a 25% clip and walking at a rate of 7.1%.

It’s a marked improvement from his splits against lefties from April-June. Over those 53 plate appearances, Marsh struck out at a 47.2% clip, with a 9.4% walk rate, and a slash line of .152/.226/.174.

He has not been following these numbers closely, but he knows how he feels in the box. And he feels better. The extra work with Long and the time spent in the cage with Schwarber have put his mind at ease, in a way.

Marsh pointed to his at-bat against Brewers’ lefty Jared Koenig on Wednesday as an example. He worked Koenig to a 2-1 count, but grounded out on a sinker.

“Yeah, I’ll get upset about internally a little bit, but I took my shot on a pitch, and I didn’t swing at pitches I didn’t want to,” Marsh said. “I stuck to my approach and it just didn’t pan out for me that at-bat. I’m able just to flush that and move onto the next one.”

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He added: “I feel like at the beginning of the year, I was definitely putting pressure on myself to do good in situations against a lefty. I can speak for everyone in the game that’s pressed before. It’s a game of failure. It’s hard to cope with it sometimes. But I really was putting a lot of pressure on myself to go up there, ‘I’ve really got to get a hit off this lefty,’ you know?”

Marsh and the Phillies hope that those days are over.

“He’s staying on the baseball,” said manager Rob Thomson. “His numbers vs. left-handed pitching have been dramatic. He’s so much better. Once he decided that all he was going to do is think left-center field, that improved a lot of things. It’s kind of the same as Schwarber, what he’s been doing against lefties. It’s encouraging.”

Austin Hays (kidney infection) left for triple-A Lehigh Valley on Friday. He will DH on Saturday and play left field on Sunday. The plan is for Hays to rejoin the team on Monday and — if all goes well — get activated by Tuesday. … Spencer Turnbull (right lat strain) will pitch two innings for Lehigh Valley on Sunday. He’ll return to the Phillies’ facility in Clearwater, Fla., after that, to pitch in simulated games. … Ranger Suárez (12-7, 3.13 ERA) will oppose Mets left-hander Sean Manaea (11-5, 3.26) in Saturday’s matchup (4:10 p.m., NBCSP).