Alec Bohm is finding his groove at the plate; Johan Rojas and Brandon Marsh continue their platoon

TAMPA, Fla. — Alec Bohm finished in the semifinals of the home run derby at last year’s All-Star weekend, more than holding his own against some of the league’s heaviest hitters.

This year, however, the long ball has been hard to come by. Bohm’s homer in the second inning against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday snapped a drought that had lasted since Sept. 20, 2024.

“I think I went through a pretty long stretch early on here where didn’t matter if I hit it hard, soft, or anywhere in between, it was just at somebody or somehow found its way into a glove,” Bohm said.

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Bohm’s average dropped as low as .150 this season amid his early struggles. But even throughout his slump, he’d still been hitting the ball well. Bohm’s hard-hit rate this season is 49.1%, which is in the 80th percentile in MLB.

“He’s barreling up balls,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Now the barrels are landing. Early in the season, the barrels weren’t landing.”

Bohm said he didn’t make many adjustments to his swing or his routine to try to get some mojo back during his slump. He just stuck with himself, trusting that eventually things would turn back around.

While it was good to get the first one out of the way, his home run total doesn’t matter as much to Bohm as simply producing does.

“I’m not going to go up there searching for home runs,” he said, “and try to do that. I’m just trying to go up there, put myself in a good position, and hit the ball hard.”

But he hopes this recent stretch is a sign that his luck has turned for good.

“They say it all evens out,” Bohm said. “I guess we’ll find out.”

After the Phillies’ 8-4 win on Tuesday, Thomson called Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas into his office to devise a plan.

Every starter the Phillies are scheduled to face on this current road swing in Tampa and Cleveland is right-handed. When Marsh is healthy, most of Rojas’ opportunities to start in the outfield come against lefties, but Thomson doesn’t want him on the bench too long.

In his three games since returning from the injured list, Marsh is hitting .429 with a 1.071 OPS. Rojas, on the other hand, is hitting .302 on the season.

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“They’re both playing well, both swinging the bat well. I don’t want them, either one of them, to get rusty,” Thomson said.

Thomson mapped out a plan for the next nine days to allow both of them to get opportunities to stay sharp. Marsh was on the bench to start Wednesday’s game against Rays right-hander Shane Baz, with Rojas slotting in center field instead.

Baz entered Wednesday with better numbers against left-handed batters, holding them to a .212 average, while right-handers had hit .240 against him. He had given up three homers to righties and only one to a lefty. Those splits were part of the calculation, Thomson said, as well as the fact that Rojas faced Baz before.

“It’s going to be back-and-forth for a bit, and then towards the end of this run, towards the end of the nine days, there’s a back-to-back for Rojas, and then a back-to-back for Marsh,” he said.

The string of right-handers also means fewer opportunities for right-hander Edmundo Sosa, but getting the utility man in the lineup is less straightforward.

“[Bryson] Stott saw 24 pitches [Tuesday] in the leadoff spot and hit two balls right on the nose, almost hit a home run to center field,” Thomson said. “Bohm hits a home run. He’s on a bit of a streak here. And Trea [Turner] seems like — knock on wood — he gets at least a base hit every night. So it’s tough to fit [Sosa] in. But I’d really like to."

José Ruiz (neck spasms) played catch on Tuesday. Thomson said he’s “still a little sore, but much better.” … Jesús Luzardo (3-0, 1.94 ERA) is scheduled to start the series finale on Thursday against Rays right-hander Ryan Pepiot (2-4, 4.23).