“What are these guys doing?”
Dodgers play-by-play voice Joe Davis asked the question Wednesday night after Bryson Stott ran from second to third on a ground ball hit directly in front of him. Max Muncy was waiting. Stott supplied the out.
“Down to third to Muncy, and Stott runs into an out,” Davis said on the SportsNet LA broadcast. “What are these guys doing?”
“No clue,” analyst Orel Hershiser replied.
The exchange lasted only seconds, but it summarized two nights of careless Phillies baseball.
Stott’s mistake came one night after J.T. Realmuto retreated from third base during a rundown, creating the final out of a game-ending 5-2-6-4 double play in a 2-1 loss. The next night, Stott ran into the second out of the fifth inning with the score tied. Los Angeles went ahead in the sixth on its way to a 9-5 victory and a series win.
The Phillies should hear those words. More importantly, they should be bothered by them.
Not because Davis and Hershiser work for the Dodgers. Not because an opposing broadcast embarrassed them. The sting should come from how little explanation was required. Two experienced broadcasters watched the Phillies surrender another out and sounded genuinely bewildered.
That is not where a veteran club with postseason expectations should be in late July.
The Phillies have enough talent to survive sloppy stretches. That is how fundamental problems can linger. A club wins enough games that the mistakes become annoyances rather than emergencies.
October changes the calculation.
A playoff game can be decided by one advancement, one relay, one runner staying put or one pitcher making the correct throw. The opponents are better. The chances to recover are fewer. Every available out becomes more valuable.
A rival scout told the Philadelphia Baseball Review that the concern extends beyond this Dodgers series.
“It’s not been a secret about the lack of fundamentals, it’s been widely known in most scouting circles for a while now,” the scout said. “Those things may not matter in Game 59 or 108 or whatever, but they most certainly will matter come playoff time.”
That assessment should be more troubling than any television sound bite.
The Dodgers did not uncover a hidden weakness. They placed a spotlight on something opponents may already believe they can exploit.
Realmuto accepted responsibility, calling Tuesday’s decision “a lapse in judgment.” Don Mattingly later described a communication breakdown between the bench and third-base coach Anthony Contreras over the instructions given to Justin Crawford, although he made clear Realmuto knew he should have remained at third.
Accountability matters. Correction matters more.
Dave Dombrowski can add a reliever, starter or right-handed bat before the trade deadline. He cannot acquire sharper situational awareness for an entire roster. That work belongs to the players and coaches already inside the clubhouse.
It means reviewing contact plays, rundowns, sacrifice situations, relays and defensive responsibilities. It means treating baserunning periods and pitchers’ fielding practice as essential rather than remedial. Most of all, it means veteran players demanding cleaner baseball from one another before the standings make every mistake feel survivable.
The Phillies should already understand the consequences.
Their 2025 season ended at Dodger Stadium with the bases loaded and two outs in the 11th inning of Game 4 of the National League Division Series. Andy Pages hit a routine comebacker toward Orion Kerkering. The reliever failed to field it cleanly, recovered and hurried a throw home instead of taking the out at first base.
The ball sailed over Realmuto as Hyeseong Kim scored, giving Los Angeles a 2-1 victory and ending the Phillies’ season. Realmuto had pointed Kerkering toward first as the ball rolled in front of the mound.
It would be unfair to place an entire postseason failure on Kerkering. The Phillies scored only one run and produced four hits. But the final play remains relevant because it showed how quickly something fundamental can become season-defining.
Afterward, Matt Strahm questioned why the pitchers had not done more fielding practice. His point was simple: it is difficult to expect a play to be executed correctly under extreme pressure when it has not been practiced enough.
That was the lesson at Dodger Stadium last October: know the situation, secure the baseball and throw to the correct base.
Those details can feel small in July. They did not feel small when the Phillies watched the Dodgers celebrate around them.
This week, the Dodgers broadcast asked what the Phillies were doing.
The Phillies cannot allow October to provide the answer again.
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