J.P. Crawford stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday with the Phillies trailing by three, a man on first and one out.

With a hit or a walk, on-deck hitter Aaron Altherr would have represented the tying run against Marlins closer Brad Ziegler.

But Crawford looked at all five pitches he saw and was called out on strikes.

Another weak at-bat and another quiet game from Crawford, who is 1 for 23 on the season, hitting .043.

That strike-zone control we heard about for years and that Crawford displayed regularly on his way up the minor-league ladder? Even that has escaped the Phillies' rookie shortstop early in 2018. He has one walk and eight strikeouts.

Manager Gabe Kapler keeps expressing confidence and optimism with Crawford. What else is he supposed to say? No rookie manager wants to throw a rookie player under the bus. The internal conversations the Phillies are likely having right now about Crawford are not being relayed to the media, and that's fine. But right now, Crawford, as talented as he is, is essentially an automatic out at the bottom of the Phils' lineup.

The most glaring flaw with Crawford at the plate currently is his long swing. It's far too long for a non-power hitter.

"I'm just trying to get shorter," he admitted after Sunday's 6-3 loss. "It feels long right now, but once I get that taken care of I think I'll be good.

"It's tough. You can be fine in the cages and whatnot, but then when the game comes you get all anxious and you get over-excited and that's when you get into trouble, trying to get all big. You have to remind yourself to stay short."

Crawford has started slowly before. Last season at Triple A, he hit .145 in April, and even after 75 games he was hitting .211 with a .329 on-base percentage. Then, armed with the motivation of then-Baseball America analyst John Manuel declaring that some thought Crawford was no longer a prospect, Crawford's bat heated up immediately. He pinned a tweet and took off. From that date until he was called up by the Phillies, Crawford hit .286/.383/.523 with 24 extra-base hits in 52 games.

"I started bad last year, too," Crawford acknowledged Sunday. "It's not how you start, it's how you finish. ... I'm not tripping. I'm not mad at all. I know the results will come. Keep putting in work every day I know the results will come."

For Crawford's sake, they'd better come soon. He's not in danger of being written off by the organization, but if he continues to struggle at the plate, the Phillies could choose to send him to Triple A temporarily to rebuild confidence and play Scott Kingery at shortstop. That might not be a long-term solution, but right now Crawford isn't the solution either.