Phillies? Postseason? Run!

The FanGraphs Newsletter, October 11, 2023 [READ IN BROWSER]( October 11, 2023 Amidst all the headlines last fall about the Phillies’ postseason run, perhaps the repetition of the phrase had a subconscious influence on the team. Phillies? Postseason? Run! That might explain why they’ve been taking those words so literally this October. In four postseason games, the Phillies have stolen nine bases on ten attempts. They’ve advanced on five wild pitches, one failed pickoff, and a lofty throw that wound up in center field. Bryce Harper legged out an infield single; Nick Castellanos stretched a bloop hit into a double. Trea Turner hasn’t stopped moving in over a week. Most recently and most dramatically, Harper ran his way into a game-ending fly-out/throw-out double play at first base, in an aggressive bit of baserunning that wasn’t nearly as foolish as the Gameday description would have you believe. It’s not as if we’re seeing a baserunning bonanza across the board, either. In fact, the Phillies are doing more than their fair share to hold up the postseason stolen base rate. In the regular season, the league averaged 1.44 steals per game. So far in the wild card and division series, we’ve seen 22 stolen bases in 18 contests, an average of only 1.22 per game. That’s still up from last year, when the league averaged 1.02 steals per game during the season and 0.85 in the playoffs. But if you remove the Phillies and their nine stolen bags, the overall numbers take a pretty big hit: Nine steals in ten attempts across four games is already impressive enough, and all the more so when those nine swiped bags account for over 40% of league-wide steals throughout the playoffs. The Phillies have also taken several additional bases on wild pitches and errors, and they deserve more credit for those events than the box score gives them. [READ MORE]( [Freddie Freeman Lost His Poor Meatball]( Freddie Freeman laid off a couple good pitches during the first two games of the NLDS. How much can should we read into two swings he didn't take? | by Davy Andrews [Rangers Sweep Orioles with 7-1 Game 3 Romp]( Texas has looked unstoppable this October — Tuesday night was just another example. | by Ben Clemens [Dominant Javier, Unstoppable Alvarez Push Twins to Brink of Elimination]( Behind Cristian Javier's effectively wild outing and another monster game from Yordan Alvarez, Houston stands one win away from a seventh straight trip to the ALCS. | by Kyle Kishimoto 🎧 Wild Episode 2070: Playoff Hand-Wringing Returns [DOWNLOAD THE FANGRAPHS APP]( [FanGraphs & Effectively Wild Merch Is Now Available at BreakingT!]( [ORDER HERE]( [How the Dodgers can 'flip the script,' starting with Game 3]( by Juan Toribio, MLB [Despite Orioles' ALDS loss, the future is bright]( by Tim Kurkijian, ESPN [In Cleveland, MLB’s longest and quietest title drought reaches 75 seasons]( by Zack Meisel, The Athletic ($) [5 Reasons the D-backs Should Wear Their Retro Uniforms in the NLDS]( by Renee Dechert, Pitcher List [@fangraphs]( [FanGraphs]( [FanGraphs]( [RSS]( [FORWARD]( [SUBSCRIBE]( Copyright © 2023 FanGraphs Inc, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the FanGraphs Newsletter. Our mailing address is: FanGraphs Inc 1200 N Hartford St. Apt 312Arlington, Va 22201 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](