Overcoming errors, Bohm sparks winning rally

PHILADELPHIA -- Alec Bohm loves this place.

“Yeah, you know what?” he said. “I do. Yeah.”

Bohm experienced both sides of Phillies life in Monday night’s 5-4 comeback victory over the Mets at Citizens Bank Park. He joins a long list of Phils players, including Mike Schmidt, who once said, “Philadelphia is the only city where you can experience the thrill of victory and the agony of reading about it the next day.” Bohm put the Phillies in a three-run hole in the first inning with the first of his three throwing errors. Then he sparked a five-run rally in the eighth inning with a leadoff walk. Following the game, he offered a mea culpa for a moment of frustration caught on TV in the second inning.

It happened after Bohm made a clean play on a ground ball. Fans cheered, but only because he had already made two throwing errors on the first four balls hit his way.

Bohm, exasperated, muttered to himself.

“I [expletive] hate this place,” he said.

“Look, emotions got the best of me,” Bohm said afterward. “I said it. Do I mean it? No. It’s a frustrating night for me, obviously, you know? I made a few mistakes in the field. But these people, these fans, they just want to win. And, I mean, you heard it. We came back. They’re great. I’m sorry to them. I don’t mean that. The emotions just got the best of me.”

“I think it’s a kid that was frustrated,” Phillies manager Joe Girardi said. “I don’t think the kid was referring to the City of Philadelphia, the fans. I think he was referring to the situation he was in … I’ve been there. I’ve had three passed balls. I’ve had passed balls lose a game. In that situation, you hate everything. Think about what he was probably feeling out there. He’s a young man who’s worked really hard and has to overcome some things. It was not a fun situation to be at the time.”

After Bohm’s third error started the third, he walked in the bottom of the inning. He started a 5-4-3 double play to end the fourth. He hit a rocket to left-center field for a double in the fifth. It was the hardest-hit ball of the night at 108.8 mph, until J.T. Realmuto’s two-run homer in the eighth registered at 109.4 mph.

Then came the eighth-inning rally.

“Alec walks and it leads to a little flair,” Girardi said.

Bohm went from first to third on Johan Camargo’s pinch-hit single to right. He scored on Kyle Schwarber’s fielder’s choice. Realmuto’s two-run homer to left cut the deficit to one. Nick Castellanos walked with two outs and scored the tying run on Rhys Hoskins’ double to left. Didi Gregorius doubled to right-center to score Hoskins, giving the Phillies the lead.

“That was a Phillies win, for sure,” Castellanos said.

He then made a point to praise Bohm.

“First off,” Castellanos said, “coming from a third baseman who’s made three errors in a [game] before, for him to separate defense and offense is incredible. He had the best at-bats all night. And usually, for me anyway, when I was his age, if it was going that way on defense, it was going to go like that on offense, too. That’s a testament to him and his maturity and his growth as an individual. He knows how proud of him I am today.”

“He started it, he got a walk,” Gregorius echoed. “That shows you that he’s still in the game. Things happened. Forget about it. That just shows you that he’s maturing and he’s doing what he’s supposed to do.”

But what comes next? Bohm is 3-for-3 with two doubles and three walks in his two starts this season. He can hit, but he is a liability defensively. Girardi removed him from Saturday’s 4-0 victory in the seventh for defensive purposes. Camargo again finished Monday's game at third.

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“We have to get [Bohm] better,” Girardi said. “I look at the first error, which I think led to the next couple. He was trying to do too much. He should have [held] the ball. I think he rushed the throw and it led to an error, and it kind of led to a couple more. But [I'm] proud of his at-bats. The progress that he’s made offensively, I think he’s growing up a little bit. We’ve got to do some more, but I think he’s growing up.”

Bohm certainly learned something on Monday.

“The win is what helps me leave feeling good,” Bohm said. “I put us in a little bit of a hole. You saw those at-bats in the eighth inning. Everybody was locked in. Everybody had a great at-bat. It was really special.”