Managerial Malpractice: Rob Thomson stated that he was trying to tie the game when he gave Bryson Stott the call to bunt down a run with zero outs and Nick Castellanos on second

Not sure about you, but I spent the majority of night being extremely mad at Rob Thomson and his ridiculous call to have Bryson Stott lay down a bunt with a runner on second and zero outs, down one in the bottom of the ninth inning last night at Citizens Bank Park.

Not that it’s necessary, but I’m going to breakdown the entire sequence of the ninth inning. Make sure you have the sound on because that’s important. Alec Bohm hits a single to center which set up JT Realmuto, who ripped a double to left, giving the Phillies runners on second and third with zero outs. 

Alec Bohm goes 1st to 3rd on JT Realmuto Double – Zero Outs

Citizens Bank Park finally had some life. They waited eight innings to see some fight from this team and Realmuto delivered. Now you have Nick Castellanos, who fell behind in a 1-2 count before slapping a double to left field, pulling the Phillies within one-run.

Casty beat the tag at second too, giving the Phillies a runner in scoring position, still with zero outs, and Citizens Bank Park going absolutely bonkers.

Nick Castellanos 2-RBI Double – Zero Outs

In comes Bryson Stott. Before we get into what happened next, it’s important that we remember what happened in last year’s NLDS when the Phillies were about to go down 2-0 in the series to the New York Mets.

With runners on the corner, Bryson Stott slapped a triple to right field that plated Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos, all the way from first base to give the Phillies the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. They would go onto win this game and even the series before disaster struck in Queens, but you get where I’m going.

Throwback: Bryson Stott 2 RBI Triple NLDS Mets

Okay so now Bryson Stott comes up to the plate. Zero outs. Casty on second. Down one run. The entire “era” of Phillies baseball hanging in the balance. Rob Thomson and presumably Kevin Long give him the call to… bunt.

Yes. A fucking bunt. First attempt didn’t work. Casty clearly saw the Dodgers set up in the wheel formation. I guess no one in the dugout said a damn thing about it, so Bryson Stott goes for the second bunt attempt and honestly, laid down a beauty.

The problem, was that the Dodgers knew it was coming. Castellanos wasn’t fast enough to get to third base, he was thrown out, and now all of the sudden, the Phillies don’t have anyone in scoring position. Bryson Stott is on first base, there’s one out, and that tidal wave of momentum that crashed into Citizens Bank Park thanks to Bohm, Realmuto, and Casty completely disappeared.

There’s a million things wrong with the call to bunt in that situation. There was some analytics floating around social media last night that showed just how bad the call truly was, with the win probability plummeting with an out at third.

Basically, if the Phillies did nothing and Casty remained at second with no outs, they had roughly a 44% to win the game. A successful sac bunt, moving Casty to third and Stott out at first would have dropped that percentage to 42%. 

Fine. Whatever. An unsuccessful bunt however, where Casty is out at third, and the Phillies cut their win percentage all the way down to 21%. Just a ridiculous call there from Rob Thomson and honestly, a fireable offense given the circumstance. 

Rob Thomson on the Bunt: “Left on left, we’re trying to tie the score. I liked where our bullpen was at.”

Rob Thomson to @TimKellySports, on the Bryson Stott bunt decision:

“Left on left, we’re trying to tie the score. I liked where our bullpen was at.”

(via @GraceDelPizzo) pic.twitter.com/Yz6iUwmtno

— On Pattison (@OnPattison) October 7, 2025

I mean seriously, there couldn’t be a worse response than that. 

What did Rob Thomson like about the bullpen? He already burned Orion Kerkering, Matt Strahm and Tanner Banks. Jhoan Duran was already on the mound.

Is Rob Thomson saying that he liked having Duran on there and was confident he could come back out and throw another inning in extras? If not, then are we assuming that Topper was fine with David Robertson taking the bump in extras to win this game? 

The entire thing makes zero sense. It’s a fireable offense. The play call was enough to get Topper canned and the reasoning at the podium almost makes it a sure thing.

Plenty more on last night right here >>

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