Herrera 'on a mission' to mash in leadoff spot

PHILADELPHIA -- Earlier this season, Odúbel Herrera looked like the Phillies’ answer in center field.

Then he went cold.

Herrera stopped hitting in mid-June. He landed on the injured list with tendinitis in his left ankle in July, but both ankles have bothered him the past couple of months. He played less upon his return from the IL, falling out of the leadoff spot and seemingly out of favor as others played better. But Herrera is heating up again. He sparked the Phillies to a 7-0 victory over the D-backs on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, moving them to 65-64 and 4 1/2 games behind the Braves (69-59) in the National League East.

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“I feel healthy, and when I’m healthy I think I’m capable of doing a lot of things,” Herrera said through the team’s interpreter. “I can play my game, the game I know how to play. I know I can hustle. I can hit the ball well. I can run well. I can play defense well. So when I feel free, when I feel like nothing stops me, I play much better.”

Herrera ripped a 1-1 slider off the right-field wall for a leadoff double in the first inning. He moved to third on Jean Segura’s infield single and scored on Bryce Harper’s broken-bat sacrifice fly to right to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead.

Herrera crushed a 2-0 fastball into the second deck in right for a solo homer in the third to make it 3-0. Segura followed with a homer to make it 4-0.

Herrera batted .234 with six homers, 27 RBIs and a .663 OPS in 282 plate appearances through July. He is batting .316 with six homers, 13 RBIs, a .369 on-base percentage and a 1.001 OPS in 85 plate appearances in August.

“When you’re sore, sometimes you can get out of what you do,” Phillies manager Joe Girardi said. “You can’t necessarily use your legs as well. I think it messes you up. I think now that he’s healthier, it’s really helped out.”

If Herrera produces anything close to his August numbers in the season’s final 33 games, it would be a godsend to a banged-up Phillies lineup, especially with Rhys Hoskins lost for the season, J.T. Realmuto playing with a sore right shoulder, Ronald Torreyes (and not Alec Bohm’s expected offensive production) playing third base and Andrew McCutchen currently limited in left field with a left knee issue.

Girardi said he likes Herrera hitting leadoff. He hit leadoff 27 times in 30 games from May 30 through July 7, when his left ankle started to bother him. Girardi tried Segura, Realmuto and Travis Jankowski in the top spot since then, but Herrera has hit there six times in the last seven games.

“I really like being at the top of the lineup,” Herrera said. “It actually motivates me because it keeps me engaged. It’s important to get on base. I know the guys hitting behind me are doing pretty well, so it’s important for me. It’s like I’m on a mission. I’ve got to get on base for them.”

Segura went 3-for-4. He was batting .087 (4-for-46) in a 12-game stretch from Aug. 12-25. He is batting .467 (7-for-15) with two homers in his last three games. Didi Gregorius tied a career-high with three doubles. The Phillies need to get him going, especially if he continues to hit fourth or fifth in Hoskins’ absence.

Phillies right-hander Kyle Gibson pitched six scoreless innings. He is 4-2 with a 3.16 ERA in six appearances (five starts) since joining the Phillies in a trade with Texas. José Alvarado, Héctor Neris and Sam Coonrod pitched three innings of scoreless relief.

Gibson sees good things for the Phillies down the stretch. They finish their series on Sunday against Arizona. They play their next six games on the road against the Nationals and Marlins.

They are winnable games.

“We show a lot of fight, we show a lot of grit,” Gibson said. “Just because it’s the Diamondbacks or the Marlins or the Nationals or whoever it is, teams want to be spoilers. Teams want to disappoint the teams that are fighting for the playoffs. Every night we take the field it’s going to be a dogfight. We’re the veteran team. I like our chances to win those dogfights and come out on top.”