The Phillies have struggled to sustain rallies this season, and one of the causes of this is that the players are getting picked off on the bases.
Too often throughout this season, the Phillies have had baserunners picked off at an alarming rate. Opposing catchers have been constantly able to catch baserunners off guard, in every way imaginable.
Remember several weeks ago, as the Phillies were rallying in a game against the Florida Marlins, all three outs in the inning came as a result of poor base running decisions. The worst of the three was when Florida caught Jayson Werth in a trance while he was on second base.
Similar incidents have been a recurring theme throughout the season with Werth, Shane Victorino, and other players.
These problems reached a new low this week when Jayson Werth allowed himself to be picked off of second base during an intentional walk. Werth has been a constant target, it seems like he is rarely paying attention to the game going on around him.
What is most alarming is that the Phillies seem to have learned nothing from these season long problems. A night after Werth was embarrassed by being caught during an intentional walk, Ben Francisco was picked off of third base during a crucial point in the game. The team had a chance to take the lead from the Astros in the 6th inning, but Francisco’s head was somewhere other than third base, and it cost them.
While the Phillies players seem to not realize they have had a fundamental problem with baserunning all season, the other teams in the league have. And they will continue to pick these players off until something is done about the problem.
There isn’t any excuse for this team to be so careless. This team’s margin for error is growing slimmer with each passing day. A team that is struggling mightily to get any kind of rally going can’t afford to have these mistakes continue to drag them down.
the lack of fundamentals has hurt this team all-season with poor base running,lack of being able to move runners,sacrifice bunts, hitting cut-offs and overall Defense was not very strong this year..
Maybe C Manuel and coaches were a little sleepy at the wheel also, while in spring training,they didn’t emphasize the small things that they used to excel in.. The Phillie collectively have not had the energy level as past teams and especially from their supposed leaders..(Utley,Rollins,Shane,Werth)