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Phillies news and rumors 10/22: Corbin Carroll still hasn’t stolen a base in NLCS

J.T. Realmuto and the Phillies have limited the Diamonbacks on the bases. (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire)

The 84-win Arizona Diamondbacks stormed into the National League Championship Series behind a young, athletic core that can create havoc on the bases. Led by rookie sensation Corbin Carroll and his 54 steals, the D-backs swiped 166 bags this regular season while taking the extra base throughout the year and putting pressure on pitchers.

But as the Philadelphia Phillies have taken back control of the NLCS after Saturday’s Game 5, they’ve seemingly been able to neutralize Arizona’s speed advantage.

“Yeah,” right-hander Zack Wheeler said after getting the win in a 6-1 Phillies victory at Chase Field. “Coming into the game, coming into the series, we all know they’re fast, they’re speedy, and they like to take bases. So we all talked about it before the series. When a guy gets on, you have to be careful with him. You have to change up your looks. You have to change up your time to home. Maybe do something a little different here and there.”

Phillies pitchers have mixed it up and gotten quicker on the club’s way to a 3-2 series lead with the action set to return to Citizens Bank Park for Game 6 on Monday night. Philadelphia has limited the Diamondbacks to just one steal on one attempt so far in the NLCS — a ninth-inning swipe by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in Game 3. Carroll, one of the best base stealers in baseball, hasn’t tested his luck at all in the series. And while it doesn’t hurt to have an elite backstop in terms of stopping baserunners, Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto credits his pitchers’ quickness to the plate for preventing the damage on the bases.

“Even with a plus-plus baserunner, it’s really hard to steal on that,” Realmuto said.

Despite some late bullpen collapses in Game 3 and Game 4 in Arizona, the Phillies have had good pitching performances overall, especially from their starters. This has been a main source of preventing the D-backs from running wild. The opportunities to steal haven’t been too plentiful, and Philadelphia is being cautious when they’re there.

“I think the most important thing is,” Realmuto said, “for the most part, we’ve kept their guys off the bases. They had a couple of big innings on us, but the pitchers have done a good job of changing speeds, changing their times to the plate, picking off, changing their looks. With the guys that they have on the base paths, you have to do that or they’ll have free steals.”

Wheeler showed it best on Saturday night scattered six hits over seven innings while allowing just one run on a home run. He limited damage of all kind while delivering a crucial deep start, much needed with a taxed Phillies bullpen.

Jeff Hoffman, Seranthony Domínguez and Matt Strahm combined to take down the last two innings in relief to send the Phillies back to Philadelphia with a chance to clinch their second straight NL pennant.

“I thought they were really good,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said of his pitching staff. “Wheels holds runners really well, which shuts down the running game a little bit. But our pitchers tonight, all of them for the most part — I think all of them — first pitch strikes, got ahead and then attacked. Two walks on the night. … I thought they were really good.”

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