Phils Slugger Makes it 4-in-a-row

Franco has harnessed the 4-slot.

Wednesday, Maikel Franco batted cleanup once again, and the Phils won again.  At the twilight of his career, Ryan Howard watched from the dugout as his reign of power was officially transferred to the 23 year-old Dominican Third Baseman.

Franco hit a HR for the 4th straight game and the Phils won their 4th game in-a-row.  Franco became the first Phillies hitter to belt a home run in 4 straight games since Ryan Howard did it in '12.

It was the 7th straight game and 8th of 9 that Franco has batted 4th.  The Phils are 8-1 in that span.  The Phillies are 9-2 in their last 11 games, and Franco is hitting .395 with 1.237 OPS, 5 HR and 12 RBIs in that span.

"He looks like he's more under control," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "It could a byproduct of the fact that other guys around him have started to chip in, to where he doesn't feel like he has to do it all by himself."

Franco conferred:

"When you see the team not do really well, that's the first thing you think about," Franco said. "You want to go out there and try to do something. Obviously, at that point, you try to do too much. But right now, I just feel comfortable at the plate. The team's showing a lot of energy."

His opposite field HR in the 6th traveled 373 feet, tied the score at 2.  It was Franco's 17th HR and his 9th since June 1st.  Franco's 17 HR rank 15th in the NL.

Franco is combining poise and power.

"I'm just really comfortable at home plate," Franco said. "I see the pitch much better. That's what I'm doing right now, trying to see the ball and trying to put good contact on it."

The Phils would fail to take the lead and fell behind again 3-2 when reliever Hector Neris faltered in the 8th, surrendering a run on 3 hits to raise his July ERA to 3.33, after a 3.77 May and June.

In the bottom half of the 8th, it was Franco leading off.  He worked the count full after an initial called strike.  The team needed 1 run to tie it and keep hopes of a sweep at the Bank alive.

With their power hitting cleanup hitter at the plate, Franco seemed poised to swing for the seats in hopes of tying it with one sweet stroke.

After all, his opponent was the Braves' hard-hurling Arodys Vizcaino, who had already offered Franco 6 fastballs in this one at-bat.

Instead, Franco showed poise and maturity while watching another fastball just miss low and outside at 100-mph.

"If you a betting man, you wouldn't bet that he'd take a walk because he was trying to tie the game up," Mackanin said. "But he had a great at-bat there."

Carlos Ruiz singled, then after Tommy Joseph grounded into a double play with Franco now at third base.  SS Freddy Galvis drew 2 quick balls, then fouled one off, followed by called strike 2.  On the 5th pitch of the at-bat, Galvis brought Franco home with his 8th HR, a 389 foot shot to right field that put the Phils on top, finally, 4-3, the score that reliever Jeanmar Gomez made stick with a clean inning to notch his 23rd save of the season (#5 in the NL).  

Franco showed trust in his teammates by not swinging for the fences.

Galvis' hits have been clutch, though infrequent.

"Before, I'm not taking 3-2 in a one-run game," Franco said. "When I do that, it means I'm working the right way and I see the pitch the right way."

And his teammates noticed:

"After he gets some hits," Galvis said of Franco, "his confidence just goes up. And when his confidence goes up, everybody wants to be like Mike."

Although his .221 average (.150 in July, .178 in June) has been a disappointment, Galvis leads the Phils with 8 game-winning RBI.

The Phillies' record for consecutive games with a HR is 5, which has been accomplished 5 times, including twice by Chase Utley in the 2008 season. Bobby Abreu, Mike Schmidt and Dick Allen have also homered in 5-straight games for Philadelphia.

Franco will have his chance to tie that mark on Thursday in hitter-friendly Coors Field when the Phils open a 4-game series before heading into the all-star break.

CF Obdul Herrera, named to the NL All-Star squad yesterday, added 2 hits and an RBI of his own, lifting his average to .305 (#15 in the NL).

Hernandez has been scalding hot.

2B Cesar Hernandez continued his extended torrid streak, as well.  After quietly hitting .304 in June, including games of 4-4, 4-5 and 3-5 in the final week, Hernandez is 10-22 thusfar in July, batting .455.  He is now 22 for his last 46, hitting .478 since June 20th.  In that time, his average has blossomed from .248 all the way up to .287.  The 26 year-old is making $510,000 this year.

His teammate, Maikel Franco, is making just $393,797. His 17 HR are 1 behind Jay Bruce of the Reds ($12.5 million) and 1 behind reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper ($5 million).  Franco is hitting .262, Harper .258, Bruce .268.  Franco's average is up from .235 on June 23rd.

Wednesday, veteran starter Jeremy Hellickson continued to pitch well.  He allowed just 1 earned run in his 6 innings of work to keep his team within striking distance.