Phillies Must Shake Up Batting Order in Game 6 of World Series

Can the Philadelphia Phillies the likes of Rhys Hoskins, Nick Castellanos, or J.T. Realmuto heat up in time to save the team's championship run?

Author:
Alex Carr
Nov 5, 2022 12:00 PM EDT

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Philadelphia Phillies

There is no way to sugarcoat it: the top of the Philadelphia Phillies lineup has fallen into utter dismay following the team's strong offensive showing in Game 3 of the World Series.

In their combined efforts through games 4 and 5, the Phillies one-through-five hole hitters have managed a ghastly 2-for-36 stretch with a whopping 17 strikeouts. They've played some ugly, ugly baseball.

Chief among the team's concerns are the bats of Rhys Hoskins, Nick Castellanos, and especially J.T. Realmuto, who is hitless across his last three contests.

Hoskins' hot-and-cold nature at the plate has been on full display under the postseason lights. One game, he's belting multiple home runs and executing vicious bat flips. The next, he's hitless with countless strikeouts and errors in big-time moments.

It's been a bumpy ride to say the least for the Phillies' first baseman. He's tallied a singular extra-base hit in these first five games of the World Series, and has been a total dud behind the electric bat of Kyle Schwarber.

Expectations for Nick Castellanos weren't entirely high this postseason after a disappointing regular season, but no soul could have predicted that the designated hitter's glove would be the highlight of his playoff resume. His .390 OPS in the World Series has sabotaged the Phillies' lineup out of the five-hole, and his bat has followed that same trend over the entirety of the postseason.

J.T. Realmuto is the most surprising straggler of the bunch. Arguably the Phillies' MVP through the entirety of the regular season, and a key player in their postseason run thus far, the superstar catcher seems to have run out of gas here in November. He's had a dreadful Fall Classic, striking out in over half of his at-bats, and managing a putrid .143 average across these first five games of the series.

Yet, who can blame him? The iron man hasn't taken a game off throughout the entirety of the postseason, catching a whopping 16 games straight. Yet, the struggling catcher continues to bat at the most integral spot in the lineup.

A day off will help the likes of Realmuto, who is surely dog-tired after a rough homestand. However, that same excuse does not apply to both Rhys Hoskins and Nick Castellanos, who've displayed consistent mediocrity in this series.

Luckily, the bats of Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper have kept the Phillies afloat against the Houston Astros. Schwarber's .997 World Series OPS is closely trailed by Harper's .929, and both have displayed consistent excellence since the close of the National League Division Series.

Yet, two men does not a batting order make. The Phillies desperately need their scuffling hitters to wake up, and Game 6 of the World Series might just be their last shot to do so.

In order for the Phillies to jump-start their offense, Rob Thomson has to seriously consider shaking up the team's batting order on Saturday. (Or at the very least bump Nick Castellanos anywhere but the five-hole.)

Perhaps Alec Bohm, who is having a spectacular World Series thus far on both sides of the ball, is due for a bump up in the order? The third baseman is hitting a strong .278 alongside an impressive .906 OPS, and fared well enough against Astros' Game 6 starter, Framber Valdez, when they last met in Game 1.

The Phillies simply can not afford to trot out the same one-through-nine they sent to bat in Thursday's disappointing Game 5. Doing so would only further plunge the offense into stagnation prior to one of the most crucial games in franchise history.

It's win-or-go-home for the Phillies on Saturday night. Something's got to give.