Phillies' Brandon Marsh makes personal history that's a good omen for breakout season

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Phillies' Brandon Marsh makes personal history that's a good omen for breakout season originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Philadelphia Phillies, since Don Mattingly took over for a fired Rob Thomson, have really turned things around. They've yet to lose a series and are 8-1 overall.

Following Wednesday night's win over the Athletics, there was one major takeaway for the Phillies: Brandon Marsh might have finally turned the corner. He's had a ton of potential but has also struggled to meet it. This year might be different.

As MLB.com's Paul Casella highlighted, Marsh accomplished some personal history against the A's on Wednesday, which is a good omen for success going forward. Marsh, the lefty hitter, finally had three hits vs. a lefty pitcher in a game in his career.

Brandon Marsh finally records personal history vs. lefty pitcher​

"Marsh had three hits against lefties on Wednesday, raising his overall season average to .336 (third in the Majors)," Casella writes. "It marked the first time in his career that Marsh. - who entered the night with a .574 career OPS vs. left-handers (.806 vs. RHP) - tallied three hits off southpaws in the same game."

Marsh has not hit well against left-handers in his MLB career, as he's primarily been a platoon player who can hit well against right-handers.

But, if he can begin to find success against lefties, not only can Marsh be a legitimate every-day player, but he might finally break out into an All-Star caliber player this season.

MORE: Don Mattingly and Preston Mattingly make father-son MLB history for Phillies

In 33 games this season, he's put up 1.3 bWAR with 40 hits, 18 runs scored, seven doubles, one triple, four homers, 19 RBIs, a .336 batting average, and an .875 OPS.

Against lefties, he has a .280 average with a .693 OPS. That's not great, but compared to his career marks of a .217 average and .587 OPS, this is a great omen. Marsh might finally be breaking out as a hitter capable of starting vs. lefty pitching.

He is an elite hitter if he simply puts the ball in play, holding the second-best BABIP (Batting average on balls in play) in MLB history at .372, only a little behind Ty Cobb at .387 for the all-time best mark in MLB history since 1900.

With his good base-running, great defense, and now his ability to hit both lefties and righties, Marsh looks to finally be turning into the player fans have been hoping to see for a long time.

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