Phillies’ Nick Castellanos sees results after making a situational adjustment to his batting stance

LOS ANGELES — Since the Phillies’ trip to Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago, Nick Castellanos has looked different in two-strike counts. He has cut down on his movement by widening his stance and reducing his leg kick.

Quieting down movement in two strikes is something Phillies hitting coaches encourage all of their hitters to do, but Castellanos decided to try it a few weeks ago. Since then, he has been incorporating it more and more.

“I just kind of felt like doing it in the moment,” he said.

The idea is that Castellanos can be more accurate when the consequences for missing a pitch are higher. He typically has a lot of hand movement in his swing, and a bigger leg kick, which is a good way to generate power. But given how much natural power Castellanos has, he can opt for more accuracy when he needs it.

This was an area the right fielder had room to improve upon. He entered Monday’s game hitting .128/.196/.218 with a .414 OPS over 211 at-bats with two strikes. But after making that tweak in Pittsburgh, he quickly began to see results.

Castellanos got one hit with two strikes on July 19, one on July 20, and two on July 21, including a solo home run to left field. He notched three more in Minnesota. It may seem like a small tweak, but it has helped.

“Sure it’s helped [with accuracy],” he said. “Maybe just focusing on seeing the ball a little bit better with two strikes, doing a little bit less.”

Castellanos has hit a lull over his past seven games — hitting .148/.179/.185 — but has been more consistent over his last 30. He is hitting .278/.308/.461 over that span with four home runs.

Ranger Suárez (lower back soreness) threw a bullpen session of 20 to 25 pitches Monday in Los Angeles. He said it went well. Manager Rob Thomson said Suárez has been trending in the right direction.

“[He’s been] good, a lot better,” Thomson said. “If he was kind of in the same place, we might have thrown a touch and feel yesterday, but because he was feeling a lot better we moved it to today, so it’s more intensity than an actual bullpen.”

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Taijuan Walker (right index finger inflammation) is scheduled to throw another rehab start in Lehigh Valley on Tuesday. The Phillies are going to try to get him to 60 to 65 pitches. Thomson said he has been encouraged by Walker’s velocity. He hit 93 mph in his last start, when he allowed two earned runs (and three runs) on four hits over 2⅔ innings of work.

Thomson sees the velocity uptick as a result of the work Walker has done with weighted balls during his rehab.

“His velocity was up to 93 mph his last start,” Thomson said. “Hopefully he can maintain that. If he’s 93 mph — and the split was really good. He gave up a couple of hits. But nothing really major. He was throwing strikes.”

Realmuto has hit .211/.302/.211 in his 10 games since being activated off the injured list. His peripherals have been good — he has five walks to eight strikeouts over that span, and isn’t chasing at an above-average rate — but he is still getting his swing and his timing synced up.

Thomson said this could be the result of Realmuto coming straight off the injured list to see big league pitching. He didn’t go on a rehab assignment after spending over a month sidelined.

“Not seeing live pitching, I think there’s an effect there,” Thomson said. “But he’s still catching and playing very well. So hopefully the good swings continue.”

He has been encouraged by Realmuto’s progress.

“Yesterday, the last couple of days, I think his swing has looked a lot better,” Thomson said. “He’s starting to get his timing back, it looks like. Hit some balls in the middle of the diamond yesterday, hard. So, it’s tough. Guys don’t see real pitching coming off the IL, it’s tough.”