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Ford: Mackanin's positive approach working for Phillies so far

It took 31 years of beating both the backroads and the highways of baseball across the United States for Pete Mackanin to enter spring training as a major-league manager, so he began this season with the Phillies knowing that when good things happen in this game, they don't always happen quickly.

It took 31 years of beating both the backroads and the highways of baseball across the United States for Pete Mackanin to enter spring training as a major-league manager, so he began this season with the Phillies knowing that when good things happen in this game, they don't always happen quickly.

That kind of journey develops patience but also a determination to keep going. Mackanin has a mostly inexperienced team, and young players can't be expected to be patient. It is the other quality he seeks.

"We just need to get something going," Mackanin said after the Phillies lost their first four games this season. "I need to keep everybody positive and not get down on themselves. Everybody is trying so hard."

Mackanin found the same need for a positive approach when Ryne Sandberg quit last June and he took over the team on an interim basis. That job was tougher than the one he has now, because even though neither team was burdened by expectation, the 2016 club has hope for the future. That wasn't the case a year ago. What that team had was an uncomfortable mix of jaded veterans, journeymen, and possible prospects united only by their desire to reach Oct. 4 and a sincere hope that Sandberg didn't reach it with them.

The Phillies lost 14 of their first 17 under Mackanin before the wheels began to grind into motion again. Then it was as if a pressure valve had been opened and the game was allowed to be a game again. You might win, you might lose, but it won't kill you either way.

Since that shakedown portion of the cruise, and including the unlikely start to this season, the team was 49-47 under Mackanin before Monday's game in St. Louis. Take a look at the roster from last season and the current one and consider that for a moment. Since mid-July, the Phils have played over .500 baseball. I don't care if it doesn't last. In fact, it's more impressive because it doesn't seem possible to last.

The Phillies went into the first game of a 10-game road trip on Monday walking the thinnest of baseball tightropes. Since that 0-4 start, they had unexpectedly won 15 of 21 games. They hadn't done it entirely with mirrors but with good pitching that overcomes dreadful hitting, a combination every bit as fragile.

"We know what we're up against," Mackanin said of the challenge. "We're not going to be the best-hitting team in the league, but I don't think we're the worst-hitting team in the league. We've hit good pitchers before."

They aren't the worst, but close enough - second-to-lowest in batting average and scoring an average of 3.3 runs per game. They had scored three or fewer runs 16 times this season already, but the incredible flip side of that is they won eight of the games.

If you really want to know the most amazing stat from the start of this season, it is that, despite being a bottom-dweller in nearly every major offensive category, the Phils had yet to be shut out. Even on their limpest days at the plate, they managed to at least scratch out a run or two. Maybe it's too much to ascribe that tenacity to the manager who keeps them looking ahead, but you find another reason this team ever scores.

Mackanin has tried everything to squeeze as much as possible from the offense. He has reluctantly put Darin Ruf back into left field after Cedric Hunter and Tyler Goeddel didn't hit, even though Ruf is batting .189 himself. He has tried multiple ways to construct a lineup around his only two productive hitters, Maikel Franco and Odubel Herrera. He has even reverted to that hope-of-the-hopeless, batting the pitcher eighth instead of ninth, the first time the Phillies have done that in more than 35 years.

The fact remains that the Phils don't have enough major-league hitters and they are still wed to, and weighted down by, one of the greatest in team history. Ryan Howard was batting .195 before Monday, had one home run in his previous 42 at-bats and was on a pace to strike out at a higher rate than any season since 2007 (when he had 47 home runs and 136 RBIs).

For his part, Mackanin preferred to enjoy the 15-10 start and six-game winning streak rather than focus on its tenuous nature. All those long years in the game have taught him, in the words of Crash Davis, to respect a streak while it lasts. That's because they always end, and this one will for sure.

"I choose not to look at it that way," Mackanin said after the Phils finished off a sweep of Cleveland on Sunday.

If the man on the top step of the dugout sees it another way, maybe the rest of the dugout will as well. It's worth a shot and, incredibly enough, one month into what is supposed to be a lost season, the Phillies still have one.

bford@phillynews.com

@bobfordsports