SAN FRANCISCO — Having been through this before, Alec Bohm doesn't think fielding 100 extra grounders or obsessing over his defense after a bad day is the solution.
Bohm had a rough afternoon in the field Monday in the Phillies' series opener at Oracle Park, committing two errors on hard-hit balls that resulted in three runs in an 8-4 loss.
Both balls were just to his left. He also missed a sharp groundball to his right that was ruled a double.
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"When you play 162 games, there are gonna be days when you just straight-up suck," he said. "Everybody's human, nobody's immune to it. I think just forgetting about it is the best route.
"I'm not gonna go panic and just take a bunch of groundballs for no reason. I missed a couple of balls, I didn't make a play and it just is what it is. It's a hard game. It'll humble you. Just get back to it tomorrow."
Bohm had been solid defensively for the better part of two years prior to this last week. Really, it's been ever since that three-error game against the Mets on April 11, 2022, a night that began horribly for Bohm but ended on a high note as he keyed a game-winning rally and fessed up to saying, "I (bleeping) hate this place," three hours after being caught on camera mouthing it.
That night could have derailed Bohm's career. Instead, it was almost a launching point.
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The National League's RBI leader has made four errors in his last six games. Bohm may have Tuesday off, not because of the brief rut he's been in at third base but because he's dealing with a few nagging nicks and bruises, according to manager Rob Thomson.
"It's the big leagues, everybody in the league's dealing with something," Bohm said. "It's not an excuse or anything like that.
"The game's hard. It is what it is. There's gonna be times where plays you normally make, you don't make. That's just the game."
The Phillies played sloppily and gave the Giants too many extra outs in the Memorial Day loss. Whit Merrifield also dropped a pop-up in short right field. Taijuan Walker allowed six runs over six innings, falling into a three-run hole, then giving up the lead in the fifth inning after the Phils scored four times off Blake Snell in the third and fourth.
And so, for the first time since April 23-24 in Cincinnati, the Phillies have lost consecutive games. It will happen plenty more times with 107 left to play in the regular season.
Going 15 straight series without losing one is not normal. The Phillies did so until dropping two of three over the weekend at Coors Field. It was actually the longest single-season stretch in franchise history without a series loss.
"Over 162 games, I think you're probably likely to lose back-to-back games eventually throughout that stretch," Bohm said. "Stay the course, keep doing what we've been doing. We're not naïve, we know we're not just gonna flow right through a season with no adversity, no struggling and everybody's just happy-go-lucky and you show up and win every day. That's not how it works. You just keep going."