Phillies remove slumping Andrew McCutchen from leadoff spot for at least a game

The Phillies have used 173 batting orders since they signed Andrew McCutchen. Throughout those two-plus seasons, they moved players up and down the order and in and out of the lineup.

But there was always one constant in those lineups when McCutchen played: He was the leadoff hitter.

That changed Wednesday night as McCutchen -- for the first time in a Phillies uniform -- hit somewhere other than No. 1. It was McCutchen’s 130th start with the Phillies and the first 129 had him batting first. He instead hit fifth on Wednesday and was replaced atop the order by Brad Miller, who batted leadoff the previous two games when the slumping McCutchen was out of the lineup.

Phillies manager Joe Girardi said earlier this week that it’s too early to platoon the right-handed McCutchen with the left-handed Miller and he said Wednesday that the leadoff job still belongs to McCutchen.

“It’s been a tough start for him,” Girardi said. “He wants to get going. We want him to get going. Had J.T. Realmuto and Alec Bohm played today, I probably would have led Cutch off. That’s the bottom line. But with the lineup kind of set up, I just had to do it this way.”

McCutchen’s .156 batting average in the top spot is the lowest among all leadoff hitters and his .538 OPS ranks third-lowest. He’s 2-for-16 with a pair of walks this season as the game’s first batter and is 2-for-26 when leading off an inning. Girardi said he gave McCutchen two days off this week to “hit the reset button.”

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McCutchen hit .254 last season in games he led off, which ranked 22nd among 35 hitters who had at least 100 plate appearances atop the batting order. His .745 OPS ranked 20th.

Wednesday marked the first time McCutchen ever started in the five-hole, as the majority of his career starts have come batting first or third. Miller went 2-for-8 in the first two games of the series as the leadoff hitter and the Phillies decided to keep him there for at least another night despite McCutchen’s return.

“He’s not a guy who’s going to walk a lot, but he’s a guy who can do a lot of damage against right-handers,” Girardi said of Miller. “He’s had some decent on-base against right-handers and had really good damage against right-handers. It’s kind of why I put him there.”

Alec Bohm had just two hits in his first 18 at-bats of the team’s road trip, which led Girardi on Wednesday to keep Bohm out of the lineup for the first time this season.

“He’s a kid who you never want to give a day off to, but the last four or five days he’s been scuffling,” Girardi said.

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Bohm is hitting .198 this season with a.538 OPS with 24 strikeouts in 91 plate appearances. Bohm struck out last season as a rookie just once per five plate appearances but is now averaging one every 3.79.

“I think it’s going to even out,” Girardi said. “Sometimes it’s even worse when you’re hitting the ball hard and making outs than when you’re not hitting the ball at all because I think the frustration can really set in. Just trying to let him reset a little bit. But I thought his at-bats were good [Tuesday] night. I really did.”

Scott Kingery is an option to start Thursday, Girardi said, as the Phillies face left-hander Kwang Hyun Kim. Kingery is not seeing much game action in the majors, but Girardi said he’s been working on his swing with hitting coach Joe Dillon and playing in simulated games. ... Ronald Torreyes remains on the injured list due to COVID-19 protocols and there is no timetable for his return. ... Aaron Nola will start Thursday’s series finale.