On Saturday, the Phillies won Game 5 of the NLCS 6-1, taking a 3-2 series lead back with them to Philadelphia. Zack Wheeler was great on the mound, giving his team length when they really needed it. Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper both homered, tying Jayson Werth for the most postseason home runs in Phillies franchise history.
But before all that, the Phillies scored two runs in the top of the first inning. Bryson Stott notched a much-needed RBI single to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead. Schwarber scored and Harper went from first to third on the play, setting up a runners-on-the-corners situation with two outs. With that, Rob Thomson’s club took an aggressive approach to manufacture their second run of the inning.
J.T. Realmuto was up after Stott, and on the second pitch of his at-bat, the Phillies successfully attempted a double steal. Stott stole second, while Harper stole home, becoming the first Phillie to do so in the postseason.
On the play, Stott stopped between first and second base, hoping to draw a throw from Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno. After the game, the Phillies second baseman said he didn’t get his best jump on the play and that’s why he slowed up, “[First base coach] Paco [Figueroa] said, ‘If you don’t get your A-jump, [Zac Gallen] is quick to the plate and [Moreno] can really throw. If you don’t [get your A-jump] pull up’.”
Usually, in such a situation, a catcher will fake a throw to second to maybe catch the runner at third leaning. But this time, Moreno made a throw to second that was caught short of the bag. Ketel Marte then fired a throw back to his catcher because Harper had broke home on Moreno’s throw.
Thomson said the Phillies had scouted Arizona and how they handle such situations, “Yeah, they have the return play. That’s what we call it. We knew it, but we were going to take a shot.”
With a play like that, there are a lot of moving parts. The pitcher’s pitch, the catcher’s throw down to second and the middle infielder’s return throw. The Phillies knew that, took advantage of everything needing to be almost perfect for Harper to be thrown out and it worked.
Stott and Thomson mentioned all of that, “There’s a lot of stuff that has to go into that [play],” the 26-year-old middle infielder said. “[Moreno] has to make a good throw to second, [Marte] has to throw it back to home and [Moreno] has to tag [Harper]. It’s a risk [we were] willing to take.”
“Really, we just wanted to put pressure on them,” Thomson stated. “There was two out there at the time, and they have to make two good throws. And I think that the catcher’s throw was a little bit low, so it causes a little bit of a rush for the second baseman, so it worked out.”
Thomson was asked if his players executed the play on their own or if the call came from the dugout. The Phillies skipper said the call did come from the dugout and his players executed it perfectly.
On the play, Stott said, “Yeah, I knew [Bryce] was gonna go. Usually, you like to get a little closer to second base. I didn’t get my A-jump [but it worked].” Harper noted he knew Stott was going on the pitch,”Yeah, I think [third base coach] Dusty [Wathan] just told me [to] be aggressive… Bryson had the green light. He went, and I just tried to make the best decision to get there and make it happen to score that run.”
Thomson reiterated that the play was his call. When asked if it was on him if Harper was tagged out on the play, he responded, “Absolutely.”
Philadelphia’s skipper also noted that they wanted to put some pressure on Arizona and that’s why the double steal was called, “[We] wanted to add on a run if we could, put a little pressure on them.” Both players involved on the play preached how good the opposing pitcher was and how scoring another run was important at the time.
Stott said, “It’s the postseason and Gallen is really good and you don’t know how many chances you’re gonna get.” As for Harper, he said, “Knowing how good [Gallen] is on the bump and trying to take advantage of that moment, being able to score [is huge].”
Aggressive baserunning isn’t new for Stott, Harper, or the Phillies. Stott led the club with 31 regular-season steals, while Harper swiped 11. Harper has always been an aggressive runner. In Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, he blew past Wathan’s stop sign as he rounded third base to score a late-inning insurance run.
As a team, the Phillies stole the seventh-most bases during the regular season with 141. Through 11 postseason games, they’ve stolen 15 bases, the most of any team.
When asked about his team’s willingness to go for it on the bases, Thomson replied, “Well, from the start of the playoffs, sort of the message to everybody was let’s put pressure on people… Putting pressure on the outfield, thinking about going first to third, good turns. Forcing them to maybe make some mistakes.”
Two of the biggest developments for the Phillies this postseason has been their ability to hit the long ball, along with how well their pitching staff has performed. Philadelphia’s 23 home runs and 1.78 ERA as a team are both first in their respective categories this October.
And while their power hitting and pitching are the biggest reasons why they’re one win shy of returning to the World Series, their aggressiveness on the base paths has helped, too.
Harper and the Phillies just want to win, and they’ll do anything to do just that. “I just want to win,” the two-time NL MVP said after his team’s Game 5 victory. “That’s it. I mean, whatever that takes, whatever that’s going to be, whatever that’s going to look like.”
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