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Phils' Freddy Galvis makes signature play

Saturday’s highlight-reel dive and throw up the middle is just part of Galvis’ stunning start.

Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis throws to first base for the out on a grounder by Atlanta Braves' Nick Markakis during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, April 25, 2015, in Philadelphia. Atlanta won 5-2. (Matt Slocum/AP)
Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis throws to first base for the out on a grounder by Atlanta Braves' Nick Markakis during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, April 25, 2015, in Philadelphia. Atlanta won 5-2. (Matt Slocum/AP)Read more

AS GOOD AS it was, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

If you thought the diving stop and throw up the middle Saturday night is the best that Freddy Galvis has to offer, think again. That wasn't even his best play in the past 6 months.

"No, it was not my best," Galvis admitted yesterday. "I had one that was better, playing winter ball in Venezuela this year."

That's saying something, because Saturday's play might have been Galvis' signature moment. This was Jeter, diving into the stands; Ozzie, barehanded up the middle.

For Phillies fans mourning the absence of Jimmy Rollins, this is a serious In Case You Missed It.

With two out and the bases empty in the sixth, Braves leadoff man Nick Markakis scorched a one-hop ground ball up the middle. Galvis took three steps and dived. The ball was hit so hard that Galvis had to reach toward the outfield to corral it.

That mattered, because Galvis' dive took him backward; he could not gather himself to pop up and throw, as he normally would. Markakis is fast. He bats from the left side. Galvis knew he had no time to lose.

"I didn't have time," he said. "I just had to get rid of it."

He did, brilliantly.

Galvis rose to his right knee and rolled toward first base. That's how he got the throw off, like a human catapult.

"I was shocked. I thought, 'That's up the middle,' " Markakis said. Asked if he had ever had a better play made against him, he thought for a moment: "No."

Galvis' throw took him totally off-balance again. He fell directly onto his left elbow. The elbow drove into the left side of his ribcage. He winced, and onlookers cringed. It looked like a shoulder strain.

Nope. Just a flesh wound.

"A monkey bump in his ribs," said manager Ryne Sandberg, pulling out some childhood slang for a bump. "He's all right today. He was all right by the time he got into the dugout."

Indeed, Galvis returned to the game, then started yesterday. Really, the Phillies, who scored five runs in their four previous games, couldn't afford to have him sit.

In a chilly April made less comfortable by his teammates' cold bats, Galvis stayed hot: 3-for-3, which moved his batting average to .361, fifth in the National League and by far the best on the team. He scored twice in the 5-4 win, the second time from second on a ground-ball error, a fine piece of baserunning.

His defense always has been his ticket, from Venezuela to Reading to Philadelphia, but this offense was not expected. Galvis, 25, entered this season hitting .218 in 171 major league games, usually as an injury replacement for Rollins or second baseman Chase Utley. As a rookie, Galvis' development was derailed in the middle of 2012 by a back injury and a 50-game suspension for PED use; then, last season, by a MRSA infection in spring training.

Now, healthy, clean and playing regularly, Galvis is showing the talent that made him the club's top minor leaguer in 2011. Assured an everyday spot, Galvis, a switch-hitter, is swinging freely.

"One-hundred percent," Galvis said. "If you go 0-for-4, you have the opportunity to do something the next day. It gives me a lot of confidence."

Case in point: Galvis went hitless Saturday.

His first two hits yesterday came from the left side, where he is hitting .286 (16-for-51). He is 6-for-10 on the right side.

"In spring training, we explained to him what his job is on the team as an offensive player on the team: a good line-drive, ground-ball stroke," Sandberg said. "And he's choked up on the bat."

"It's the approach I had in Reading," said Galvis, who hit .278 between Double A Reading and Triple A Lehigh Valley in 2011.

Sandberg, who won nine Gold Gloves as a Hall of Fame second baseman, adores good defense . . . even defense that he could not replicate.

"No. I never made a play like that," Sandberg said. "That's one of the better ones I've seen."

Yesterday, Galvis saved a run with another diving stop up the middle, but Sandberg liked Galvis' charge on a two-hopper for the first out of the ninth inning just as much.

"He always makes the routine play routine," Sandberg said.

And there always is a chance that something spectacular might happen.

Asked to recount that great play in his home country, Galvis, shy and modest, reluctantly obliged.

"We had two outs with runners on second and third in the top of the ninth, and it was tied at 1. I had to go into the hole toward third base. The ball was hit hard and took one hop, but the hop came up about this much," he said, leveling his hand about 4 feet above the ground. "I had to dive to get it. I didn't have time to get up. So, I threw it from my knees. We got the guy, and we won the game."

How about that?

Galvis' best might be yet to come.

On Twitter: @inkstainedretch

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