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Don’t worry, Don Mattingly said something.
The Phillies made a couple of baserunning blunders late in Tuesday night’s 6-5 loss to Houston, and Mattingly said he talked individually with both Brandon Marsh and Edmundo Sosa about them. No, he didn’t jam his index finger into their chests and demand answers. Both players knew they messed up as soon as it happened.
“I think you just have to remind [them], make sure we’re thinking correctly,” Mattingly said on Wednesday afternoon. “Most of the time, you’re asking what they’re thinking in that situation.”
The Phillies might have won Tuesday if Marsh hadn’t been doubled up at second base on a line drive in the seventh inning, or if Sosa had run hard out of the batter’s box on a fly ball off the right-center-field wall that ricocheted into center field.
“I totally forgot to run the bases there,” Sosa said via interpreter Diego D’Aniello.
“It's a huge mistake by me,” Marsh said. “Really no excuse."
Mistakes like that will happen during a 162-game season. But with Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series on Sept. 29 – the Phillies and Cubs currently would meet in a best-of-three series – poor fundamentals in a close game could send the Phillies on another early vacation, like last fall, when miscues cost them in Games 1 and 2 against the Dodgers in the NL Division Series.
“It’s simply not happening again,” Sosa said. “I respect the game a lot, and I try to show that. That’s one of the things I don’t tolerate from the game – just lack of hustle and not running.”
But is there enough time for the Phillies to tighten up everything before the postseason?
“Oh, for sure,” Mattingly said Wednesday afternoon. “I know you guys are looking at the Phillies and you look at windows of games, things that have happened. But the Phillies have actually rated [as] a really good baserunning team over the last few years -- one of the best in baseball. This has been a good baserunning team. Not that it's bad now, but I think you have to keep teaching and keep making sure everybody understands what you look for in that situation. And hopefully learn from it, and those mistakes don't happen again.”
The Phillies are the fourth-best baserunning team in MLB with +8 runs created, according to Baseball Savant’s Baserunning Run Value metric. Baserunning Run Value measures runs created or lost via stealing bases and taking extra bases on the basepaths.
The Phillies rank fourth over the past three seasons with +21 runs created.
But how about running into outs? Because it sure feels like they do that a lot. Right?
The Phillies have made 35 outs on the bases this season, according to Baseball Reference. They’re tied with the Dodgers and Brewers for 21st in baseball.
Here is the Phillies breakdown by base:
Outs at first base: 11 (t-3rd)
Outs at second base: six (27th)
Outs at third base: 10 (t-7th)
Outs at home plate: eight (28th)
To prevent future mistakes and to make sure they are prepared for October, Mattingly said they will continue to talk about being smart on the bases.
“Oh, I think you should always learn from it and you should always stay on it,” he said. “It is one of the things that I've noticed in the game all over the place. Players are better probably now than they've ever been. Obviously, pitchers are throwing harder and tougher to hit than they’ve ever been. Baserunning for me has kind of [gone] a little backwards in a lot of scenarios, and not just here, but all over the place.”