Dodgers beat Phillies on inexplicable game-ending baserunning gaffe

PHILADELPHIA –– Nothing will top the championship significance, or defensive intuition, of the now-famous wheel play the Dodgers turned in the National League Division Series against the Phillies last October.

But on Tuesday night, in the same ballpark where the Dodgers produced that unforgettable highlight to escape a near-collapse in Game 2 of that NLDS, their infield conjured some more ninth-inning magic.

Only this time, with the help of an inexplicable baserunning mistake from veteran Phillies catcher JT Realmuto.

To finish off a rain-soaked 2-1 win against the Phillies, the Dodgers turned a game-ending double-play by catching two Phillies players in no-man’s-land on the bases.

There were runners on second and third with one out. Tanner Scott was in danger of blowing a five-out save. But on what should have been a routine rundown, the Phillies instead ran themselves right out of the game.

With only third baseman Max Muncy playing in on the Dodgers infield, Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh hit a ground ball straight to him. The runner at third, speedy pinch-runner Justin Crawford, tried breaking for home, but got caught in a pickle as Muncy fired a strike to catcher Dalton Rushing, and Rushing zipped the ball back to shortstop Mookie Betts to make the tag near third.

The real disaster was what came next, with Realmuto suffering a stunning “lapse of judgement,” as he put it, by running all the way from second to third –– only to turn and try retreating to second again.

Had Realmuto stayed on third, only Crawford would’ve been out, the Phillies would have still had runners on the corners, and their comeback bid, which had been fueled by a leadoff single from Alec Bohm and one-out double from Realmuto, would’ve still been on.

Instead, Realmuto’s scamper back to second was too late, allowing Betts to turn after tagging Crawford and fire back across the diamond to second baseman Tommy Edman.

“When I saw JT going back, I think that’s like the first time I’ve yelled on the field,” Scott said. “I was like, ‘Mookie, two!’ Crazy play.”

So it went in a game that began with a one-hour, 20-minute rain delay, was played through steady showers from the second inning onward, and saw the sloppy conditions from the sky mirrored by sloppy play on the field.

Way back in the third inning, the Dodgers had committed their own baserunning gaffe. Shohei Ohtani got thrown out trying to turn a two-out RBI single into a hustle double. Even worse, baserunner Eliezer Alfonzo hadn’t even crossed the plate yet after jogging obliviously down the third-base line, wiping away a run that would’ve erased an early 1-0 deficit.

The Dodgers responded in the fourth, however, when Muncy flipped the score with a two-run homer off Phillies ace Zack Wheeler –– a blast that tied him with Ron Cey for second-most home runs in the franchise’s Los Angeles history.

And from there, the team held on, getting a 6 ⅓-inning gem from Justin Wrobleski, then another miraculous escape on the Citizens Bank Park infield. 

“The way Mookie kind of threw it and tagged, it kind of gave me a little bit of flashbacks [to last year], yeah,” Muncy said.

“You can’t really think about it [on a play like that]. You have to hope that all the work you put in in pregame and just from the start of the season kicks in, just instincts. That’s where the experience really matters in those types of situations. And with us, we always have a ton of experience out there.”

What it means

First and foremost, that the Dodgers won’t have to play a second double-header in the space of four days on this East Coast road trip.

Things seemed to be heading that way for most of the afternoon, with stormy forecasts and flash flood warnings threatening to postpone Tuesday’s game to Wednesday afternoon.

But then, a window in the weather opened. And the Dodgers –– who played a double-header at Yankee Stadium on Sunday –– were happy to squeeze the contest in.

Winning the way they did was only an added bonus.

“Big adrenaline, big win,” Roberts said. “Real fun ballgame to be a part of.”

Who’s hot

Wrobleski picked up where he left off in the first half of the season, continuing his breakout, All-Star season with yet another quality outing. 

As usual, he was efficient, needing only 89 pitches to rack up 19 outs (he could’ve gone longer, but manager Dave Roberts said pregame that the team has “got to be mindful of the workload” with Wrobleski as he compiled more innings than he ever has in his career).

In the continuation of a promising recent trend, he also got plenty of swing-and-miss, striking out seven batters while walking only one on a night his fastball was once again effective (getting seven whiffs on 22 swings).

After recording only 53 strikeouts over his first 86 ⅓ innings this year, Wrobleski has now amassed 27 over 20 ⅓ innings in his last three outings.

It’s been the latest development in his breakout season, helping him lower his ERA on Tuesday to 2.62 (fourth-best in the National League).

Who’s not

Ohtani’s base-running mistake was bad enough.

But more concerning has been his slow start offensively coming out of the All-Star break.

With a 1-for-4 performance on Tuesday, Ohtani now has just four hits in 21 at-bats over five games to begin the second half. Bad weeks happen, but Ohtani’s has come in the wake of a lubricant injection he received during the All-Star break to address a lingering left knee injury –– one that is currently preventing him from making pitching starts in the Dodgers’ rotation.

So did Roberts think Ohtani’s knee was starting to have an impact on his swing?

“I don’t think that’s the case,” he insisted pregame. “I would argue that if it was the right knee, potentially, because that’s kind of you’re turning on that knee, hitting off the front side. But with the left knee, I still see the intent there.”

Up next

With the threat of a double-header averted, a rubber-match game in this series now looms on Wednesday, when Eric Lauer (4-5, 4.81 ERA) will face Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola (3-7, 5.68).

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