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The Phillies are Making Embarrassing and Preventable Mistakes
By Luke Arcaini
Published:
The Phillies dropped two of three to the Los Angeles Dodgers at home, and it looked like they forgot how to play fundamental baseball for a good chunk of those three games.
Mistakes are going to happen in baseball. You’re going to have errors, you’re going to have bad stretches of hitting, and you’re going to have off nights for pitchers. It happens. It’s a 162-game season, a grinded-out seven months.
When those mistakes start to leak into simple baseball fundamentals that the 26 players on the Phillies roster learned in Little League at seven years old, that’s where the problems begin.
Baserunning
The J.T. Realmuto Play
The three games against the Dodgers may have exhibited the worst baserunning I’ve ever seen from the Phillies, and that says a lot because it was really only two plays that are making me say this. But both plays were costly.
Everybody saw the clip of the J.T. Realmuto blunder on Tuesday night. I, along with everybody, along with Realmuto himself, have no idea why Realmuto broke back to 2nd once Justin Crawford was running back to third base.
Crawford was going on contact there. It was a risk, or a gamble, that the Phillies agreed to take, according to Don Mattingly. Except Crawford was going on contact… unless the ball was going to third. I’ll give Crawford the benefit of the doubt a little bit here; that is an incredibly tough situation in his spot. Your brain is immediately wired to break for home the second the ball is hit in play, even though the ball went to the one place where he was supposed to stay on third.
Where Crawford went wrong was the hesitation. He was supposed to go back to third, and he didn’t. At that point, he just needs to sprint home. If he’s wrong, he’s wrong, and J.T Realmuto goes to third…you’d think!
What Realmuto did is just bad, and even he knows that. Realmuto said it after Tuesday night’s game; he doesn’t really know why he ran back to second base. He’s not the only one that doesn’t know why; in fact, there isn’t a person that knows why he ran back to second base.
The Bryson Stott Blunder
Wednesday night, if you take the swing and impact of the game out of it, was a worse baserunning decision than the Realmuto/Crawford play on Tuesday night.
Bryan De La Cruz started off the 5th inning with his first home run as a Phillie, tying the game up at 3. Bryson Stott then ripped a double to the wall. Rafael Marchan, who would later leave the game with an injury, failed to get the sac bunt down, and popped it up for an out.
Trea Turner grounded out to third base with one out and a man on 2nd base. That situation is the most textbook “watch the ball, wait for the throw” baserunning play. Instead, Bryson Stott ran on contact to third base, and ran right into the 2nd out of the inning.
Even the Dodgers broadcast had no idea what Stott was doing:
That simply can not happen. That inning was a major opportunity for a swing in the game, and potentially a Phillies lead. Instead, Bryson Stott ran into an out and the Dodgers got out of the inning unharmed.
Bullpen Usage
Don Mattingly has lead this team to a great record since he took over for Rob Thomson, there is no doubt about it. But Mattingly has made some questionable bullpen decisions over the last few days that have me worried.
Sanchez to Kerkering on Monday Night
I want to start this off by saying the Phillies won this game, so in hindsight, I guess this doesn’t matter as much as I’m about to say. But this move was concerning to me, and it needs to be talked about.
Cristopher Sanchez was through 5.1 innings on Monday night and suffered two singles to Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez, giving the Dodgers 1st and 2nd, 1 out. Sanchez, at this point, had 99 pitches. There is an argument to let him finish the inning here, but that’s not even my main issue with what went down.
Sanchez should’ve come out a batter early. Hernandez, although his splits this season don’t really show it, is a much better hitter against left-handed pitching than righties. Hernandez is 7 for 21 (.333) with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs against Sanchez. He has not logged a hit against a single righty in the Phillies bullpen. That, right there, should’ve been Kerkering, not a batter later. Ultimately, the decision made Kerkering come into a 2 on, 1-out situation, when, by the numbers, there’s a good chance it would’ve been 1-on, 2-outs to Muncy. It also brought Shohei Ohtani into the inning, which no matter his splits at Citizens Bank Park, should always be avoided.
The Feel of Aaron Nola
Aaron Nola tossed 5 innings of 3-run ball on Wednesday night… before he came back out for the sixth inning. It never made sense, no matter his pitch count, which was in the high 70s. Freddie Freeman’s OPS is 230 points lower against lefties than righties. Max Muncy, who still has an .800+ OPS against lefties, does not historically hit them well.
That was an obvious spot for Tim Mayza, who would eventually come in later in the game. Jose Alvarado pitched back-to-back nights, so I’ll assume that he was down on Wednesday night. But leaving Nola, the righty, who we all know has struggled deep in games, in for Freeman and Muncy, felt like a disaster waiting to happen:
It all just feels like a lot of preventable mistakes right now for this Phillies team, which can be a good thing and a bad thing. The good news? It’s July. They have a little time to figure some of these things out. The bad news? The things they need to figure out are a lot of simple baseball fundamentals. Matchups, baserunning issues, and miscues all over the diamond.
The trade deadline is in 11 days. The Phillies will play 9 more games until then. Three against the Yankees, three against the Marlins, and three against the Orioles. They need some outside help, but the guys inside the clubhouse also need to start playing consistently like the professionals that they are.
Luke Arcaini has been writing about the Phillies for 6 seasons, and is now in his 2nd year covering for Phillies down at Citizens Bank Park for Crossing Broad. Follow him on Twitter @ArcainiLuke