Phillies prospect Mick Abel is learning how to pitch through adversity

Phillies farm director Preston Mattingly has watched Mick Abel pitch since he was a sophomore in high school, but he’d never seen him pitch as well as he did with double-A Reading through four innings on Friday. It wasn’t just that the Phillies prospect’s stuff looked sharp. It was that he was getting ahead in counts. He was on the attack.

Facing the Harrisburg Senators, the double-A affiliate of the Nationals, Abel struck out the side in the first and allowed just one base runner in the second and one in the third. He allowed a solo home run in the fourth but bounced right back, inducing a pop-out and his ninth strikeout.

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Then came the fifth. Abel abruptly lost his command. He walked the first two batters he faced, then allowed a single and another walk. He threw only four strikes in those four at-bats. He induced a fly out, allowed a sacrifice fly, a single, another walk, and a two-run double before he exited the inning. Abel’s final line: six earned runs on six hits in 4⅔ innings with nine strikeouts and four walks.

Some of this was bad luck. But most of it was an inability to make quick, in-game adjustments. It’s easy to forget that Abel, the Phillies’ No. 2 prospect, according to Baseball America, is just 21. He was drafted in the first round out of high school. He is still young. And he is very much still learning.

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A big part of his development, at this point, is learning how to pitch through adversity. How to allow one run instead of five. How to pitch when you suddenly lose your command. Learning to make an adjustment after one batter instead of three. Mattingly thinks this will come with experience — but it’s already something that Abel is working on.

He has placed a big emphasis on the mental side of the game this season. At times, Abel has tried to be too perfect — which is often when he struggles. He points to his outing on May 12 as an example. Abel was challenged immediately, allowing five walks and nine earned runs in 3⅔ innings against New Hampshire.

“A couple of outings ago, when I gave up nine runs, I was trying to make pitches that I shouldn’t have been throwing,” Abel said. “I was trying to be perfect on every single pitch. I think on the outings aside from that I’ve done a good job of recognizing the outings when I am trying to be perfect. And getting back to who I am.”

In his next outing, on May 19, he didn’t allow an earned run, giving up two hits and three walks in five innings against Somerset. He thought the walks were a bit high but was otherwise encouraged. He has done a good job this season of making sure he doesn’t let one outing impact the next.

“I think I’ve had times in pro ball where I’ll be out there trying to get a bounce-back outing down and the thought comes back in my head,” said Abel, who has a 5.45 ERA in eight starts at Reading. “Can’t let this be like my last outing. It has happened.

“But my high school coach did a really good job of teaching me that if I have a bad day on the mound, you’ve got until midnight. Either you close your eyes and flush it or you see the clock hit midnight and you’re like, ‘I’m done. I’m done with that day and I’m on the next.’ So I try to remember that. From that night on, it’s like I’m on to my next outing. How am I going to prepare for my next outing? How am I going to get back on track?”

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Of course, success isn’t linear. After bouncing back on May 19, Abel still had his nightmare fifth inning on Friday. But Mattingly thinks Abel will learn how to stop the bleeding. And Abel believes his mindset will be a big part of that.

“I think the biggest thing for me has been my mentality on the mound,” Abel said. “I don’t care about their batting average. I don’t care about their name. It’s a righty or a lefty in the box, and I’m going to attack them with my strengths.”