Samuel Starting to Shake Slump

Juan Samuel’s batting slump produced two mysteries this season.

Just as he could not explain his seven-week slump to start the season, the Phillies second baseman can find no reason for his sudden resurgence at the plate.

“I’m definitely swinging better,” Samuel said after going 10-for-21 in his first five games after manager Lee Elia returned him to the leadoff spot. “I don’t know what it is but I’m swinging the bat better.”

When the Phillies started their longest home stand of the season on May 24, Samuel was batting only .227 and showed little of the form that made him the first player in major-league history to reach double figures in doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases in his first four years.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Samuel said when asked about his problems at that time. “I just want to forget about it.”

Two games later, Elia, seeking to shake up the Phillies’ offense, which had been struggling along with Samuel, moved his second baseman back into the first spot in the batting order.

Samuel had batted leadoff for most of the first month without success. But hitting in the third, fifth or sixth spot had also failed to get him out of the hitting doldrums.

“It just seems when he moved me into the leadoff spot now, everything fell into place,” Samuel said. “At the beginning of the season, I was leading off but things were going tough for the team. I just think it was my time to break out of it.”

Samuel also sparked the Phillies, leading the team to four wins in his first five games as the leadoff hitter while driving in six runs during that span.

“When Sammy does some things, he’s a catalyst for the ballclub,” Elia said. “He swinging the bat a lot better. He’s still not 100 percent comfortable at the plate but we can take him at less than 100 percent for now.”

Feeling comfortable at the plate was the one thing Samuel said he was lacking for most of the first two months of the season.

“I was trying different things every day trying to get comfortable,” Samuel said. “If you’re not comfortable at the plate, you’re not going to hit. I don’t care about your hands or your feet. If you’re not comfortable, you’re not going to hit.”

Samuel credited the return to the leadoff spot with helping him regain some of his form.

“I think so,” he said. “My concentration is better. I’m taking some pitches and making the other guy work a little bit out there. I’m working the count a little bit.”

And getting better pitches to hit.

“Like I said, I knew I wasn’t going to stay in this slump for the whole season,” he said. “It was going to change.”

The slump was actually the first prolonged one for Samuel, who hit .272 with 28 home runs and 100 RBI last season, while stealing 35 bases.

He broke Granny Hamner’s team records for RBI and homers by a second baseman, topping the old marks of 92 and 21 set in 1953. He had a career-high 60 walks and his 329 total bases were the 13th highest in team history.

He led the National League with 15 triples and became the third second baseman in history to record 80 extra-base hits in a season, joining Charlie Gehringer of Detroit and Rogers Hornsby of the Cardinals.

His past performance made his slump this year all the more unexpected.

“You can’t tell (why it happens),” he said. “When you’re in a slump, you swing at balls and take strikes. You sit and guess and you guess wrong. You guess fast ball and get a breaking ball. You’re always guessing wrong when you’re in a slump.”