With Hoskins in rundown, Santana swipes home

NEW YORK -- The Phillies figured they had to steal a run or two from Mets ace Noah Syndergaard on Wednesday at Citi Field.
Carlos Santana did exactly that in a 4-2 loss to the Mets. He stole home plate after Rhys Hoskins purposely got caught in a rundown trying to steal second in the third inning. It tied the game at 2.
Hoskins, who had stolen third base in the second, stopped running as the throw from Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki reached second baseman Asdrúbal Cabrera. Cabrera started to run Hoskins back to first base as Santana began to inch toward home.

Cabrera finally tossed the ball to Mets first baseman Adrián González, who attempted to tag Hoskins. Hoskins dodged the tag. Gonzalez then threw home, but the throw was late as Santana made a nice slide to score.
"First, Rhys is an exceptional baserunner," Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said. "He's got that instinct. He knows when to take a base and he knows when to stay put. In that particular case, all the credit goes to [first-base coach] Jose David Flores. It's a play that he's been thinking about a lot. He identified that we had to find a way to steal a run from Syndergaard there.
"We've discussed various possibilities that were going to be important. He knows how slow Syndergaard is to the plate. He's having constant conversations with our baserunners. He identified a moment in the game to steal a run, and our guys executed it beautifully."

Mets manager Mickey Callaway asked first-base umpire Todd Tichenor if Hoskins stepped outside the baseline.
"They said that he wasn't far enough out of the baseline to make that call, and the second-base umpire agreed as well," Callaway said afterward.
It was the first time Santana stole home in his career, and the first time a Phillies player stole home since Andrés Blanco did on May 25, 2016.