Why Don Mattingly is confident Alec Bohm will eventually hit

PHILADELPHIA — Alec Bohm is not in the Phillies’ starting lineup for Thursday night’s series finale against the Athletics.

Don Mattingly’s lineup has Edmundo Sosa batting seventh and playing third base against right-handed starter J.T. Ginn. Sosa went 2-for-4 with a two-run go-ahead single in the bottom of the eighth inning of a 6-3 win. In 53 plate appearances, Sosa is batting .294 with a .733 OPS.

Mattingly called it a “reset day” for Bohm.

“I encouraged him not to hit today,” Mattingly said pregame. “Because he’s been working so hard, hitting extra all the time. You can never tell a guy you have to not hit because you still would use him today. … It encourages him to take a reset day from the standpoint of grinding, grinding, grinding, take a step back and get back after it.”

Bohm is in a deep slump. Since homering on Opening Day, the Phillies third baseman is batting .154 with three extra-base hits and a .398 OPS in 137 plate appearances. Bohm was replaced by a pinch hitter for the first time in his career on Wednesday. The left-handed hitting Bryson Stott batted for Bohm in the seventh.

Don’t call it a benching. Mattingly was adamant that Bohm will hit.

“I’ve said it probably a lot at this point that he’s gonna hit and I’ll believe that until the day I’m not on this Earth,” Mattingly said.

Mattingly was asked at the beginning of the A’s series if the Phillies were considering a change at third base.

“Whenever that is, it’s not now,” Mattingly said on Tuesday. “I’ve seen Alec. In a big sample, he’s always hit. Smaller sample, he’s not hitting right. I think last year, he started off really slow. It’s not like this is totally out of the norm.”

Bohm had a rough April in 2025, but he started to pick things up around this time. He ended March/April with a .526 OPS, but went on a hot streak from May 3 to May 27. In that span, Bohm batted .359 with four home runs and a .971 OPS.

Mattingly thinks that hot streak will come eventually.

“You guys are going to forget what happened in May when he’s hitting down the stretch and driving in runs,” Mattingly said. “He’s part of our club. He’s gonna be a part of it and he’s gonna hit.”