Interim manager Rob Thomson has a simple message for the Phillies ahead of their series against the Pirates

PITTSBURGH — Before the Phillies take the field for the first game of a four-game series against the Pirates, interim manager Rob Thomson and his coaching staff will explain to their players what the Pirates do well, what they don’t do well, and what their tendencies are. Thomson likes to end these meetings with a message, and tonight, his message will be simple.

“You have to go out, and you have to play your game, get the lead, step on the gas pedal,” he said. “That’s what you’ve got to do. You can’t take anything for granted. Because they’ve got 40 wins. So they’re beating somebody. So you can’t take anybody for granted.”

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It is certainly something worth reiterating, given the Phillies’ schedule over these remaining 64 games, and how they’ve opened up the last half of the season so far. While the Phillies are coming off of an impressive series win against the Atlanta Braves, a team that arrived in a Philadelphia on a 14-5 run, it was only four days ago that they were swept by the 40-57 Chicago Cubs at home.

The Phillies will face 12 teams who currently have records below .500 before the end of the season. Capitalizing on those series will be imperative if they want to end their 10-year postseason drought.

Sticking it to the Pirates, who enter this series with a record of 40-58 and have lost eight of their last 10 games, would be a good place to start.

The last time Alec Bohm batted third was on Sept. 22, 2020, when he was a 23-year-old rookie with only 135 at-bats under his belt. A lot has changed since then. Expectations were high for Bohm after that season, when he batted .338/.400/.481 and finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting. In his second season, he stumbled. But this season, his third, he seems to have found his stride.

Bohm still will make the occasional error, but has cleaned up his defense considerably. He had 12 errors by this point in the season last year; as of July 28, 2022, he has nine. Thanks to his work with infield coach Bobby Dickerson, Bohm now is able to make tougher defensive plays than he was capable of making in previous years.

But the biggest difference between last year and this year is easily his offense. The reason Thomson penciled Bohm into the three-hole on Thursday was as much about Bohm’s recent production as J.T. Realmuto’s absence.

“Instead of moving a bunch of guys around, we just flipped (Bohm into that spot),” Thomson said. “Because he’s swinging the bat so well. Tomorrow we’ll probably go back to where he was at.”

Bohm is batting .442/.474/.615 over his last 15 games. He has hit safely in a career-best 12 straight games since July 8 and is striking out at a lower rate than he ever has in his career (19.6%, down from 26.6% in 2021).

Second baseman Jean Segura — who was transferred to the 60-day injured list on June 14 with a right index finger fracture — played the second game of his rehab assignment Wednesday night in Lehigh Valley. Thomson said Segura told him he felt good.

“He was fine,” Thomson said. “He had four at-bats, struck out once, had some ground balls. But I talked to him today and, like normal, his timing is off, but he looked good defensively and threw the ball fine.”

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Segura will play again Thursday in Durham, N.C., at second base. It’s possible Segura will take a rest day Friday, depending on how Thursday goes. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Segura could be activated as soon as Sunday, while the Phillies are in Pittsburgh, but Thomson emphasized that it’s all dependent on how these few games with Lehigh Valley go.