Dodgers beat Phillies on inexplicable game-ending baserunning gaffe
PHILADELPHIA –– After a one-hour, 20-minute rain delay at the start of Tuesday night’s game at Citizens Bank Park, the Dodgers and Phillies played one inning in dry weather.Then, the rain came back again.So it went in the Dodgers’ 2-1 win, with sloppy conditions from the sky being mirrored by sloppy play on the field.There were only 12 total hits.There were a pair of glaring baserunning blunders by the Dodgers that cost them a run in the third inning.
And then, after the Dodgers took the lead on a two-run Max Muncy homer in the fourth, there was an even worse (and more stunning) gaffe from the Phillies on the bases to end the game.With Tanner Scott attempting a five-out save, the Phillies were threatening to flip the game in the ninth.They got a leadoff single from Alec Bohm, who was then pinch-run for by Justin Crawford.They got a double from J.T.
Realmuto, putting runners on second and third with one out.Then, disaster struck.With only Muncy playing in at third, Brandon Marsh hit a ground ball straight to him.Crawford tried breaking for home, but got caught in a rundown, eventually getting tagged out near third base after catcher Dalton Rushing threw the ball to shortstop Mookie Betts.Even worse for the Phillies: Realmuto was caught in no-man’s-land too, having run from second to third, then inexplicably back again during Crawford’s pickle.His slide back to second was too late, with an alert Betts quickly turned to fire a strike to second baseman Tommy Edman.Just like that, a rain-soaked game came to an unbelievable finish –– with the Phillies somehow topping the baserunning mistake the Dodgers had made earlier in the game.Back in the third, the Dodgers appeared to have erased a one-run deficit after a two-out double from backup catcher Eliezer Alfonzo and a line-drive base hit from Shohei Ohtani. However, Ohtani made an ill-advised decision to go for a double.
Alfonzo jogged past third oblivious to his decision.And when Ohtani was tagged out ...