The Phillies perfectly played a bunt into a double play -- but not without a defensive adventure
By
Andrew Mearns
On Tuesday night, the Mets tried to counter Maikel Franco's 2-for-4 heroics by pushing him off the bases, so when he had the chance to turn a heads-up double play in retaliation on Wednesday, he was ready to jump on it. In the third inning, Jacob deGrom popped up a bunt off Vince Velasquez that went right toward Franco at third. He could have caught it easily, but he realized that he could potentially turn two if he let it drop. So that's exactly what Franco did, and he threw toward first. All looked to be going swimmingly ... until Carlos Santana cut the ball off:
You can understand Santana's logic: deGrom wasn't anywhere close to first yet and Santana wanted to make sure that they could eventually get the lead runner, Amed Rosario. The play just looked a little weird when he immediately flipped it to second baseman César Hernández, who was covering first mere feet away. There was no harm done, as the Phillies still executed the double play. Santana's hurried shovel pass beat deGrom and the Phillies got Rosario into a rundown between Hernandez and Scott Kingery at second base. Revenge is all yours, Maikel.
