PHILADELPHIA _ This 162-game adventure is a continued hunt for pebbles. The Phillies _ even at 10-9 with a positive run differential after their latest triumph, a 7-4 win Wednesday over Miami _ are not viewed as contenders. They want these games to separate who belongs and who does not. They will be loyal to their youngest players, especially during prolonged slumps, to search for slivers of evolution.
That is what Maikel Franco and Vince Velasquez provided in the season's 19th game. Velasquez, with a restored confidence and approach, pitched into the seventh inning. Franco pulverized three Marlins pitches for three hits; the loudest connection was a third-inning grand slam.
Both 24-year-olds are potential cornerstones for the Phillies. Both did not start the season well. Both have applied adjustments.
That is how the Phillies can measure progress in 2017.
Start with Franco, who raised his batting average by 32 points and OPS by 88 points in one night. He worked a 3-1 count to start the second inning against Marlins left-hander Wei-Yin Chen. He stroked a double to center and advanced to third on a wild pitch but was stranded there.
An inning later, he delivered the hit his teammates could not muster. Three singles loaded the bases. Franco fell behind 0-2 to Chen. He took two off-speed pitches and fouled another. Then, Chen countered with a 92-mph fastball. Franco did not miss it.
Franco has crushed two grand slams in the first 19 games. The last Phillies hitter with three grand slams in a season was Ryan Howard in 2009. Franco was tormented by bad luck in the first two weeks of the season. He is seventh on the team in strikeouts, a sign that he has adopted a more disciplined approach. The results are beginning to show.
Same for Velasquez, who has supplied two quality starts after two bad ones. Velasquez threw 68 of his 97 pitches for strikes. It was the third-highest strike total he had ever thrown in a game; the only two higher totals were in starts when he tossed 113 and 111 pitches.
He was efficient. Just one of his six innings required more than 16 pitches to complete. He traded high strikeout totals for ground-ball outs. The Marlins hit some balls hard. Velasquez made important pitches when he needed them.
He looked like a big-league starter who could escape trouble and adjust to skilled hitters. The vaunted middle of Miami's lineup _ Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton, and Marcell Ozuna _ was 0 for 8 with a walk against Velasquez.
The first inning showcased some maturation. Dee Gordon slashed the first pitch Velasquez threw, a get-me-over fastball at 90 mph, for a triple. Velasquez did not allow the inning to spiral. He struck out Martin Prado, induced a run-scoring groundout from Yelich and escaped with a deft catch in center by Odubel Herrera on a well-struck Stanton fly.
Six innings later, after Pete Mackanin took the ball from his brash pitcher, the Citizens Bank Park fans offered tepid applause for a solid performance. That, in 2017, is what progress looks like.
