In 2019, J.D. Hammer opened the season with Reading, made just two quick appearances with Lehigh Valley and then went to the majors to pitch for the Phillies.

His time in Philadelphia went well, producing a 3.79 ERA in 20 appearances, but the truth was that Hammer really was not the pitcher he could have been.

In some respects, he was a bit of a gimmick. With the long hair and oversized glasses, comparisons to Charlie Sheen’s ‘Wild Thing’ character in the movie Major League was easy to make, especially with 31 walks in 55 innings throughout his three stops during the season.

Add to that a diet and training regimen that was more fitting of a couch potato than a major league pitcher, and Hammer’s accomplishments are somewhat surprising.

While Hammer had some success, the walks continued to be an issue at the major league level. The Phillies optioned him back to Lehigh Valley that season, hoping he would be able to throw strikes more consistently, but instead, he was getting hammered by opposing hitters.

Hammer soon realized that his attitude of showing up at the ballpark and just throwing as hard as he could wasn’t going to be good enough, and he made changes.

“The end of 2019 was definitely difficult,” said the right-hander, who celebrated his 27th birthday on Monday. “You dream of being in the big leagues, and I was there for a little while and had a little success, but I came down here and had my butt handed to me.

“It was eye-opening. I needed to make adjustments because what I was doing was not working.”

Now, Hammer is a different pitcher.

While he can still throw with impressive velocity, he now mixes in different pitches using a curveball and slider to keep hitters guessing.

It’s possibly not a coincidence that he returned to the majors recently after a key outing against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when he struck out four of the six batters he faced, two of which were Trey Amburgey, one of the best pitchers in Triple-A, and Derek Dietrich, a former major leaguer. Of his 31 pitches, 26 were for strikes.

The outing showed that he had command of all of his pitches and was also able to throw more than just one inning, two things the Phillies are looking for in a reliever.

“This year, the biggest thing is just learning how to pitch,” Hammer admitted recently on a Zoom call. “We sit in the bullpen talking about how to attack a guy, watching their swings and getting reactions off of that.”

The changes that Hammer has made to his diet, workouts and pitching approach have all been positive and have left him better prepared mentally and physically to face major league hitters. His recent recall to Philadelphia could mark the beginning of a long stint in the majors if all goes well.

“His fastball has been overpowering pretty much all season,” said IronPigs pitching coach Aaron Fultz. “The thing he’s been working on is getting his offspeed pitches in the zone more often and using them more.

“He’s shown that his fastball can play here pretty much every outing, but it is getting him to use and trust his off-speed pitches a little more.”

In his first outing of the season for the Phillies, Hammer got off to an unimpressive start, hitting a batter, giving up a single and then a walk to load the bases with nobody out. The good news is that he was able to strike out Michael Chavis and Rafael Devers, and then get Hunter Renfroe to fly out to center field to end the threat.

SANCHEZ TO PHILADELPHIA ... When the Phillies had to place four players on the COVID list early Sunday morning, the move created openings for four IronPigs to head for Boston to join the club. Cristopher Sanchez, Mauricio Llovera, Damon Jones and Nick Maton all headed to the majors. The Phillies developed an unorthodox plan and went with Brandon Kintzler to face the first four hitters and then turned things over to Sanchez, who threw three solid innings and recorded his first win as a major leaguer. Sanchez was the only one of the four to get into the final game before the All-Star break for the Phillies.

POWER OUTAGE ... The IronPigs are currently last in the Triple-A East with 35 home runs, with 11 of those coming at the friendly confines of Coca-Cola Park. Ryan Cordell leads the team with 11. Omaha leads the Triple-A East with 105. Coinciding with that is the fact that the IronPigs are hitting .209 (107-for-512) this season with runners in scoring position, which is also last out of 20 teams in the Triple-A East. The team has left 432 runners on base this season, which is second to last in the Triple-A East. Only the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders have left more runners on base this season (452).

BIG D ... On the other side of the ball, the IronPigs have been one of the best defensive teams in all of Triple-A East this season. The team currently has a .986 fielding percentage, and has only committed 27 errors, good enough for second in the league. The Memphis Redbirds lead the Triple-A East in fielding percentage (.988) and have committed the least errors (25).