Turner heating up; Wheeler's reworked pitch; Strahm (shoulder) throws

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Trea Turner fouled off five consecutive Tarik Skubal pitches in the first inning of Saturday's 2-2 tie with the Tigers at BayCare Ballpark.

Turner struck out swinging on the seventh pitch of the at-bat -- a 98.3 mph fastball above the zone. But he followed that up with a single to left-center field on an 0-1 changeup in the third and a sacrifice fly to center on an 0-2 fastball in the fifth against the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner.

“I feel like, in two weeks, one of those pitches I fouled off in the first at-bat, I’ll hit hard somewhere,” Turner said. “He struck me out, but I liked the first six pitches. That last one was up, but the battle was there. The approach is coming. It’s getting there.”

Turner has three hits in his past six at-bats, as well as three walks and two sacrifice flies -- and just one strikeout.

He started the spring hitless in his first 15 at-bats, with three walks and seven strikeouts in that span.

“I think Trea’s moving in the right direction right now,” Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long said recently. “I think he’s starting to feel more comfortable with his decision-making, and then being aggressive as well. Probably caught in between, just a little bit, because he came [to camp] trying to back the ball up, trying to use the other field. And I think he got to the point where it was almost too much. Now, he’s starting to get the feel again.

“He said, 'You know, three or four days before we start [the season], if I’m feeling good, I’m happy with it.' He’s not really concerned about his Spring Training average or [number of] hits. He just wants to start feeling more comfortable in the box with what he’s doing.”

Turner concurred.

“I feel like there’s a little bit of a false flag when you start out [the spring] really hot, at least for me,” Turner said. “I feel like the pitching changes a little bit. Guys start to throw different pitches. Sometimes, early in camp, they’re working on stuff. Toward the end, they start trying to do certain things. I feel like we’re so overmatched early on if a guy is coming out 95-100 [mph] and we haven’t seen a live pitch.

“So, I feel like that success early on can be a false flag. When you get toward the end of camp and you start struggling, I think that’s kind of a bad thing, so I like the opposite. I like ‘struggling’ for a little while and locking it in later on. I like where I’m at.”

Wheeler's slider/cutter
Zack Wheeler allowed two unearned runs in five innings against the Tigers. He threw a cutter 17.3% of the time (13 of his 75 total pitches), which is higher than last season’s average of 9.6%.

But ... two or three of those cutters were actually sliders.

“It kind of gets mixed up, unless you look at the numbers,” Wheeler said.

Statcast said Wheeler threw 301 cutters last season. He estimates that 50-60 were actually sliders.

Wheeler has focused this spring on bringing back a harder slider, which can be different than his sweeper.

“We were trying to bring it back more last year,” he said. “I still throw it in the bullpen [sessions], but I’ve been trying to perfect it. It’s been working. I was trying to bring it back in the middle-to-end of last year, and so far this spring. It just opens up another pitch, getting something going down and in to lefties. That’s kind of the biggest thing.”

The Phillies have not made an official announcement, but Wheeler is lined up to start Opening Day on March 27 in Washington.

Strahm resumes throwing
Matt Strahm has not pitched since March 5 because of inflammation and a bone bruise in his left shoulder. A recent MRI exam revealed no structural damage.

But Strahm is now pain free in his shoulder, so after passing a strength test Saturday, he threw from 75 feet. It went well and Strahm will throw from a farther distance on Sunday.

Is there any shot Strahm could be ready by Opening Day?

"I think there's a chance, OK, but we still have to lengthen him out -- bullpen [sessions], [pitch in a] game," Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. "Those things take some time."