Don Mattingly addresses his team's baserunning failures one-on-one originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Phillies manager Don Mattingly didn’t wait long to address the baserunning blunders that his team made in Tuesday night’s 6-5 loss to the Houston Astros. He spoke to the guilty parties one-on-one before everyone went home.
Mattingly’s conversations with Edmundo Sosa and Brandon Marsh were not punitive tongue-lashings. Both players knew where they went wrong.
“I think you just have to remind (them), make sure we’re thinking correctly,” Mattingly said before the Phillies got back to work Wednesday night. “Most of the time, you’re asking what they’re thinking in that situation.”
Marsh, who was doubled off second base with the Phillies down two runs in the seventh, explained himself after Tuesday night’s game.
Sosa, who did not run hard out of the box on a no-out double that could have been a triple in the bottom of the ninth, spoke with reporters Wednesday.
“When I hit the ball, I kind of surprised myself,” he said through Diego D’Aniello, the team’s Spanish-language interpreter. “I watched the ball travel and totally forgot to run the bases. I was focused on the ball. That caused me not to get to third base. It was a big mistake that might have cost us the game right there.”
In the moment, it looked like Sosa thought he’d hit a game-tying homer to right-center. A day later, he said he did not believe the ball was going to reach the seats. Instead, it hit high off the wall and ricocheted to center field.
“I know this stadium,” Sosa said. “I didn’t think it was gone. It was just a lack of focus on my end not to run and get to third base. A lack of focus in that moment.
“I respect the game. Not running at full speed there is something that won’t happen again. It’s all said and done. I look at that and say it’s not happening again.”
Mattingly believes the Phillies will tighten up their baserunning after Tuesday night’s issues.
“For sure,” he said. “The Phillies have actually rated out the last few years as a good baserunning team, one of the best in baseball. And this has been a good baserunning team. But you have to keep teaching and make sure everybody understands what we’re looking for in those situations, and hopefully you learn from it and those mistakes don’t happen again.”
According to Statcast, the Phils rank fourth in MLB with eight runs created from baserunning this season. They are also fourth in that metric over the last three seasons.
Overall, however, Mattingly does believe that baserunning in today’s game leaves a lot to be desired. He mentioned on Tuesday that he’s seen that fundamental slip over the last decade.
“I don’t think they play enough games young,” he said. “But that’s really no excuse. We should still be able to do it. I think there’s less emphasis on it overall. I’ve been saying it a lot the last five to seven years as I’ve noticed it.
“In general, there’s less situational-type stuff. A lot of things that happen on the field you learn from it happening in game situations. You play the scoreboard, the outs, the inning, the situation. If you’re not in those situations a lot …
“And usually, the best players don’t spend a whole lot of time in the minor leagues now. They’re kind of burning their way through the minors pretty quick. So, I’m not sure there’s as much situational stuff that goes on as in the past. That’s just my spitball theory.”
Mattingly pointed out that changes in the structure of batting practice may be affecting baserunning adversely.
For as long as there was baseball, teams hit on the field before games. When a player got in the cage, he laid down two bunts. He then hit behind a runner to move him up a base before getting him in from third. All the while, the previous hitter was on base, reading balls off the bat, getting jumps and reacting to situations. It wasn’t game speed, but it was good practice.
Now, many players take pregame batting practice in indoor cages where they can hit off high-velocity machines and curveball machines while getting real-time data feedback on their swings and reactions to pitches. There’s certainly merit in that. But there was also merit in the old way of doing things, as well. Mattingly believes that was seen on the basepaths.
File all this under the evolution of baseball. And always run through the first-base bag.
