PHILADELPHIA -- Max Kepler struck out looking against Nationals left-hander Jose A. Ferrar on Thursday night, and it bothered him.
It was a five-pitch at-bat that ended with a changeup down the middle. Kepler said he felt “weird visually” against Ferrar. Maybe because it was his first at-bat against a lefty in five days. So, before Friday night’s 3-2 victory over the Diamondbacks at Citizens Bank Park, Kepler asked Phillies hitting coach (and left-hander) Kevin Long to throw BP to him in the cage inside the Phillies’ clubhouse.
“Ramp it up and chuck it in there and make it kind of like a real at-bat to lock me in,” Kepler said. “I felt like my whole positioning was off. I think that was the first lefty I saw in … I don’t know how long. But it seemed like a while.”
A few hours later, Kepler hit a game-winning homer to right field against Diamondbacks left-hander José Castillo in the seventh. It happened just minutes after Kyle Schwarber’s game-tying homer against Castillo.
Kepler needed it.
The Phillies touted Kepler as a potential everyday player when they signed him to a one-year, $10 million contract in December. They said they believed he could hit left-handed pitching, which would allow him to play almost every day in left field.
But Kepler, who batted .221 with a .655 OPS against lefties in Minnesota, had batted just .174 (4-for-23) with one double, one walk, eight strikeouts and a .426 OPS against lefties this season. His early struggles in part prompted the Phillies to DFA and later trade Kody Clemens and recall Weston Wilson from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Wilson started against Mets left-hander David Peterson on April 23 and Nationals left-hander MacKenzie Gore on Tuesday.
Wilson is expected to start in left against Arizona left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez on Sunday.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t have confidence in Kepler,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “I think that [Bryson] Stott and [Kepler] have a chance to hit lefties.”
If Kepler wants to work his way into the starting lineup against lefties, he might have to take advantage of his opportunities against lefty relievers.
It won’t be easy.
“I’m going to continue to take BP off Kevin and compete in there with him and have some fun,” Kepler said. “Because, yeah, I just have to see a lefty arm from time to time. If I’m going to face lefties in the eighth and ninth and they’re throwing 95-plus with sink and cut, then I’m going to have to lock it in the cage.”
“I saw it a lot better tonight than I did yesterday. But yeah, I hope I get some more shots here in the near future against lefties.”
In the meantime, it’s more Long in the cage.
“He brings it,” Kepler said. “I like it close up, so I keep my swing short. But yeah, he’s sweating, huffing and puffing and we’re battling in there.”
It is clear there is a level of trust between the two.
“Kevin is an easy guy to get along with,” Kepler said. “He’s very open. Some days I see him like a therapist. He’s always willing to make you feel good about yourself. You need one of those guys in your corner when you’re going out there every day playing baseball, which is a game of failure.”
The Phillies found themselves within striking distance in the seventh inning because Jesús Luzardo grinded through 5 1/3 innings, allowing two runs. Luzardo has a 1.94 ERA in his first seven starts with the Phillies. It is the lowest ERA by a Phillies pitcher through his first seven starts with the team (without a relief appearance in between) since Roy Oswalt’s 1.89 ERA in 2010.
“Every time he’s on the mound, I feel relieved,” Kepler said about Luzardo.
Schwarber’s game-tying blast was his third homer in four games. He is batting .333 (14-for-42) with six homers, 11 RBIs and a 1.295 OPS against lefties. He is batting .303 with a .949 OPS against lefties the past two seasons. He hit .191 with a .724 OPS against them from 2022-23.
Schwarber turned it around against lefties. Maybe Kepler still can.
“The trust with the hitting coaches is where I got most everything from, learning and trying to formulate an approach,” Schwarber said. “I see [Kepler] in there all the time, talking to the hitting coaches and the drills that they do. He’s working. It was cool today. He put in the work. He got a result. Right? He got the pitch that he wanted and he didn’t miss it.”