9th inning base running dooms Phillies, in 2-1 loss to the Dodgers

The Phillies had second and third, nobody out, bottom of the ninth, trailing 2-1 against the Dodgers at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday night.

That’s a situation where The Fightins score the tying run roughly 90 percent of the time if you do literally anything competent on the basepaths. Instead Crawford broke for home on a squibber to Muncy at third, got caught in a rundown, and while the Dodgers were tagging Crawford out, Realmuto retreated from third toward second for absolutely no reason and the Dodgers nailed him for a game-ending double play.

JT Realmuto & Justin Crawford Disasterclass

"OH NO, JT! Oh no."

John Kruk as J.T. Realmuto runs the Phillies out of the game vs. the Dodgers on a ridiculous double play. ⚾️🎙️ #MLB pic.twitter.com/9HUVUmy9vD

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 22, 2026

Two outs on one play with the tying run 90 feet from home. That’s how the Phillies lost to the Dodgers on Tuesday night. Not because LA had better pitching or better hitting or more talent but because the Phillies ran themselves into a double play in the ninth inning of a one-run game against the best team in baseball.

Sorry, but what were the actual instructions? Why were any even needed?

Mattingly said Crawford was supposed to run on contact regardless of where the ball was hit. Crawford said he was told to go on contact unless the ball was hit to third.

Those are two completely different instructions and the fact that the manager and the runner are telling reporters two different versions of the same play in the postgame press conference is a communication breakdown that should embarrass everyone involved because you cannot have a discrepancy in the baserunning signals in the ninth inning of a one-run game against the Dodgers. One of them is wrong and the result of whoever was wrong is a double play that ended the game.

Crawford owned it by saying “no excuses, it can’t happen, especially when my job is to be a good base runner” because the kid was brought in specifically to pinch-run for Bohm and his entire purpose was to use his speed to score the tying run.

Realmuto owned it by saying “once Craw is in a rundown I’m on third, there’s no reason for me to go back to second, it was a lapse in judgment, you can’t make two outs on that play.”

Both runners made mistakes. Both know it. The game is over because of it.

The talent gap between these teams is small. The execution gap is enormous. The Phillies have enough talent to beat the Dodgers on any given night and keep proving it in games like Monday’s 10-7 win. But the Dodgers keep winning the games that are decided by one play in the ninth because LA makes the right play every time and the Phillies keep making the wrong one.

Zack Wheeler Deserved The Win

Wheeler went seven innings, gave up two runs, struck out nine, walked nobody, and lost because the offense gave him one run of support. The only damage came on a Muncy two-run homer in the fourth on a first-pitch cutter that Wheeler had already used to strike Muncy out in the second inning.

Wheeler knew the cutter was the wrong pitch. He knew Muncy would be sitting on it after getting beaten by it earlier. He threw it anyway because the pitch clock was running and he didn’t want to shake off Realmuto and risk a violation.

Max Muncy gives the @Dodgers the lead with a rocket to straightaway center! pic.twitter.com/vF3dph0AAr

— MLB (@MLB) July 22, 2026

“I second-guessed the pitch in my head but you get jammed up with the pitch clock these days.”

That’s Wheeler admitting the pitch clock forced him to throw a pitch he didn’t believe in, Muncy hit it 421 feet, and the Phillies spent the rest of the night trying to overcome a one-run deficit against a Dodgers pitching staff that was never going to crack.

The best pitcher on the staff wanted to throw something else, couldn’t because the clock was ticking, and the result was the only two runs the Dodgers scored all night.

The Offense Is Dead Last in OBP and It Shows

Five hits through eight innings. Eleven strikeouts. One walk. One run of support for a pitcher who threw seven innings of two-run ball. The Phillies have the worst on-base percentage in Major League Baseball at .303 and on nights like Tuesday it shows in the most painful way possible because the lineup can’t generate enough baserunners to sustain rallies against quality pitching even when the ace is dealing at a level that should produce a win every fifth day.

One run for Wheeler against the Dodgers isn’t enough. One run for Wheeler against anyone isn’t enough. The Phillies need to figure out the OBP problem before the deadline or the best rotation in baseball is going to keep getting wasted by an offense that can’t get on base consistently enough to take advantage of the pitching it’s getting.

Series Tied 1-1 With the Rubber Game Wednesday

The Phillies won Monday 10-7 behind Turner’s five RBI and lost Tuesday 2-1 on a baserunning double play that will be replayed on every sports broadcast for the next 48 hours. Wednesday is the rubber game and a chance to take the series from the best team in the NL at home heading into the deadline.

Taking two of three from the Dodgers would be a statement. Getting swept in the final two games after Monday’s offensive explosion would be a gut punch that confirms everything the baserunning disaster already suggested about the gap between these two teams.

The Phillies are 55-46. The rotation is elite. The offense has power but can’t get on base. The baserunning and the defense keep costing them against the best competition. The trade deadline is 12 days away and Dombrowski needs to address the OBP problem, the bullpen, and the rotation depth before August 3 or the Phillies are going to keep losing one-run games to elite teams because the margins that decide those games keep going against them.

Wheeler deserved better. The baserunners let him down. The offense let him down. The pitch clock forced a pitch he didn’t want to throw. Everything about Tuesday night was a reminder that the Phillies are close to being a championship-caliber team and keep falling short in the moments that separate close from actually getting there.

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