Philadelphia Phillies Get a Boost From Altherr, Eickhoff

The Phillies season has been over for a while at this point, but with just a few games remaining on the schedule Philadelphia has been seeing some strong performances from their younger players. On Friday night it was left fielder Aaron Altherr and starter Jerad Eickhoff who stole the show with Altherr hitting a pair of home runs, the first of which was an inside-the-park grand slam off of soon-to-be-free-agent Jordan Zimmerman in the third, and the second a solo shot off Zimmerman in the fifth. What may be the most remarkable part of the inside-the-park granny is that it took him just over 14 seconds to round the bases.

Altherr finished the night 4-for-5, adding a double to his home runs, and was responsible for bringing home five. With the impressive hitting display, Altherr is now batting .252 with 5 homers and 16 RBI in the Majors this season, spanning 104 at-bats over 31 games played. In those games Altherr has accumulated an overall WAR of 1.0 according to ESPN, with both offense and defense carrying the same weight. To put that number in perspective, if Altherr were to hold steady with these numbers, which is not much to ask, and play in 155 games, he’s looking at a 5.0 WAR. This season that would rank 28th in baseball in between Rangers third baseman and potential Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre (5.02), two-time AL MVP Miguel Cabrera (4.97) and World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner (4.96). Again, this is while hitting just .252.

In the minors this season the 24-year-old split time between Double-A Reading and Triple-A Lehigh Valley, batting a cumulative .293 with a .367 on-base percentage, 14 homers and 67 RBI over 111 games. He also added 16 steals.

The other standout on Friday night was Eickhoff, who was acquired in the Cole Hamels deal at the deadline. The righty went seven innings for the fourth time in seven starts, holding the Nationals to two runs on five hits and a walk while striking out ten, a new Major League high for Eickhoff. One of the runs allowed came on a solo blast off the bat of Jayson Werth in the sixth, while the other came on a Werth single in the first, driving in Anthony Rendon who has led off the game with a double to left.

Eickhoff is sitting on a 2-3 record, but in two of the defeats he actually had a quality start, both coming against the Mets and their dynamic offense in late August. In his two pervious starts this month against he Cubs and Braves, Eickhoff was given no-decisions even though he totaled 14 innings pitched and just one run allowed, so the Phillies’ offense has not been kind to the righty.

With a full season of Aaron Altherr and potentially the addition of J.P. Crawford to the club next season, Eickhoff could be looking at some extra run support in his first full Major League season.

In three starts against the Phillies this season, Zimmerman is 0-2 with a 7.37 ERA, including Friday night’s 8-2 loss.

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