Phillies fighting offensive funk in different ways 

This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki's Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. LOUIS -- Bryce Harper wore a red gaiter around his head at Citizens Bank Park on April 2, when he hit three home runs against the Reds in frigid, windy and rainy conditions.

He wore the gaiter again on Monday at Busch Stadium.

It was 76 degrees.

Teammates told Harper to give the gaiter a shot. Because … why not? It couldn’t hurt as the Phillies’ offense struggles to find its footing. Harper went 0-for-3 with two walks on Monday against the Cardinals. He ditched the gaiter on Tuesday. He went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.

It has been that kind of April.

It is only 11 games. It is early. But the Phillies’ first 11 games have not gone according to plan. They said this spring they believed they were better positioned for a fast start because they had everybody healthy, they had everybody in camp (as opposed to key players being away at the World Baseball Classic last spring) and they expected their young players to take steps forward offensively.

But the Phillies entered Wednesday’s series finale in St. Louis ranked 23rd in baseball in runs per game (3.73), 16th in batting average (.235), 15th in on-base percentage (.316) and 20th in slugging percentage (.354). They are 27th in average exit velocity (87.7 mph), 22nd in hard-hit rate (36.8 percent), 28th in barrel rate (3.7) and 24th in expected slugging percentage (375).

They ranked in the top 10 in each of those categories a year ago.

“That’ll change,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said. “I have full confidence that we’re going to score runs.”

Only three Phillies regulars finished Tuesday with a .750 OPS or higher: Brandon Marsh (.996), Harper (.852) and J.T. Realmuto (.788). It has been a struggle for Bryson Stott (.552), Nick Castellanos (.421) and Johan Rojas (.418).

“You’ve just got to relax and get back to your game plan,” Thomson said.

Interestingly, Castellanos and Rojas have said in the past couple of days that they have been too tentative at the plate. Both have been focusing on not chasing pitches out of the strike zone. So instead of being aggressive, they’ve almost geared not to attack.

That’s not good.

“We have to be careful sometimes because we talk about, ‘Don’t chase, don’t chase, don’t chase,’” Thomson said. “You want to have balance there, because you want to maintain your aggression in the strike zone.”