Tommy Joseph stepped into the batting cage last month at Citizens Bank Park and let his friends search for the source of his struggles. The Phillies first baseman started his major-league career with a stretch strong enough to push Ryan Howard to the bench. Then he began to sink. Joseph limped into July with eight hits in his last 65 at-bats.
Joseph's start was starting to look like a flash. And that's when the advice of teammates Cameron Rupp and Cody Asche helped lift Joseph out of the first slump of his major-league career.
The diagnosis, Rupp said, was simple.