By Jack Ryan
When the Phillies sent Maikel Franco to minor league camp on Friday, that handed the starting third base job to Cody Asche, and his performance so far this spring has been encouraging to the club.
Asche homered for the second straight day on Friday afternoon against the Pirates at McKechnie Field. After launching a homer off the Yankees’ Esmil Rogers on Thursday night, Asche crushed an 0-1 pitch from former Phillies starter Vance Worley over the boardwalk beyond the right-field fence.
The 24-year-old third baseman hit .252/.309/.390 with 10 homers and 46 RBIs, but Asche struck out 102 times in 121 games for the Phillies last year. Manager Ryne Sandberg said the club asked Asche to make a few adjustments over the offseason, and the Phils like what they’ve seen so far as Asche is off to an 8-for-30 (.267) start at the plate.
“I think he’s having a real good spring, just from making adjustments on what he needed to work on from last year,” Sandberg said. “He has a real good two-strike approach. He’s putting balls in play, and he has a short, nice, sweet stroke resulting in some balls hit hard and home runs here in the camp. I think he took to heart our suggestions over the offseason, and he’s showing results through the camp.
“I think he’s one of our more solid hitters as we speak.”
