Had Seranthony Domínguez and Craig Kimbrel successfully closed out a win over the Cincinnati Reds Sunday, the conversation may have been put off for another day.
But bad baserunning has been at the forefront of the 2023 Philadelphia Phillies season thus far, and it’s partially to blame for a disappointing 3-6 start by the defending National League Champions.
Kyle Schwarber ran through a stop sign from third base coach Dusty Wathan in the bottom of the first inning Sunday, and it actually worked out, as he was hit by the throw coming home and scored when he otherwise would have been thrown out:
However, as you can see above, Nick Castellanos then tried to come home after the ball ricocheted off of Schwarber, which proved to be a pretty disastrous decision.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Brandon Marsh sliced a ball down the left field line that left fielder Will Benson wasn’t able to get to. The ball kicked away and allowed Marsh to reach third base.
However, as Marsh was approaching third base, Wathan initially waved him. Marsh then looked down and by the time he looked back up to see that Wathan had changed his mind and was trying to get him to stop at third base, it was too late and he ended up in an inning-ending rundown.
“Guys, as far as the baserunning is concerned, gotta run with their head up,” Rob Thomson said in his postgame press conference, seemingly referring to the Marsh play.
“At third base, I always tell baserunners ‘You get into that 15, 10-foot area before you touch the base, you pick up the coach, watch yourself touch the base and then you pick up the coach again, in case he has to change his mind. We just have to clean it up.”
Thomson, a former third base coach himself, would go on to say that Wathan wasn’t late in adjusting his directions for Marsh.
But Marsh’s mistake wasn’t the final baserunning blunder of the day. With the Phillies holding onto a one-run lead at the time, Schwarber singled into left field in the bottom of the eighth inning and then took too wide of a turn around first base and ultimately was tagged out. That took a potential insurance run off the basepaths.
J.T. Realmuto and Darick Hall are among the other Phillies who have made questionable decisions while running the bases so far this season. Certainly, the Phillies miss Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins, and need their starters to begin to go deeper into games. But the baserunning seems like an issue that should be relatively easy to correct.
“Guys are trying to make plays,” Alec Bohm said of some of the baserunning mistakes so far this season. “Trying to score runs and make plays … guys are trying to take the extra base so it’s just kind of part of it, you open yourself up to that when you’re trying to be aggressive.”
There’s a balance, though, between trying to take the extra base and running into outs. Far too often early this season, the Phillies have made objectively bad decisions when running the bases, and instead of stealing an extra run or two, they’ve cost themselves the chance to score more runs.
Runs will likely be at a premium Monday against the Miami Marlins, with reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcántara slated to take the mound at Citizens Bank Park. It would behoove the Phillies to correct their baserunning woes in the next 24 hours, because if you run into outs against Alcántara, he’ll throw a complete game against you.
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