The Phillies won the game, but the path there was messy enough to make history for all the wrong reasons.
Cristopher Sanchez gave Philadelphia everything he had in the second game of the series against the Los Angeles Angels. Over seven shutout innings, he scattered two hits, walked one and struck out eight. The only problem was that the offense never gave him much to work with, so he left with a 1-0 lead and no decision.
That lead disappeared quickly after Sanchez exited. Jonathan Bowlan was tagged for a run in the bottom of the eighth, and Zach Neto’s solo homer tied the game at 1-1. The inning had already been poisoned by a brutal stretch on the bases from the Phillies, and that’s what turned a normal late-game sequence into something rare.
It started promisingly enough. Trea Turner singled, stole second and Bryce Harper drew a walk, putting two runners on for Luis Arraez.
Then the wheels came off. Turner was picked off and then caught stealing third, with Philadelphia challenging the call before it was upheld.
Not long after, Harper tried to steal home and was initially ruled safe at the plate. The Angels challenged that one, too, and the replay reversed the call.
That sequence put the Phillies in an ugly slice of team history. As shared by Paul Casella of MLB.com, Philadelphia became the first team to have a runner caught stealing third base and home in the same game since the Washington Nationals on July 24, 2022.
The last time it happened in the same inning was all the way back on April 22, 1992, when the Chicago White Sox did it against the New York Yankees. Don Mattingly was in the Yankees lineup that day, and now he was on the wrong side of the milestone with the Phillies.
"I don't mind Trea's, because we're trying to get third [base] ... so just being aggressive. I think he was safe anyway," Mattingly said. "And then Harp's really isn't necessarily a bad play either."
The baserunning issues didn’t stop there. In the top of the 10th, Brandon Marsh began as the ghost runner at second base, only to be thrown out at third on the very next play.
J.T. Realmuto hit a ground ball to Zach Neto at shortstop, Marsh broke for third, and he was cut down easily.
"The Trea one, I'm OK; with Harp I'm OK," Mattingly said. "But the Marsh one, when he's in scoring position, it's a ground ball, it's right at the guy."
Even with that extra-inning blunder, Philadelphia still found a way to finish the job. Justin Crawford, Kyle Schwarber and Turner all delivered hits in the 10th to push the lead to 4-1, and Jhoan Duran handled the bottom half in his second inning of relief.
So the Phillies escaped with a win, stayed hot, and trimmed their Magic Number to 22. The box score will show a victory. The baserunning line, though, was a nightmare.
In Other News...
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Over his last six starts, Wheeler has not looked like the version of himself that usually gives Philadelphia a chance to exhale, with home runs and walks becoming part of the problem. The good news for the Phillies is that this does not appear to be a case of a pitcher simply drifting, as Wheeler and pitching coach Caleb Cotham believe the fix is tied to mechanical adjustments. The question now is how quickly he can make those corrections stick, because the standings no longer leave much room for a prolonged search. [Read more 🡒]