2025 NLDS Game 2 Analysis: Philadelphia, Behind The Wheel

It seems that all the coverage about the Dodgers' NLDS Game 2 victory centers around the "wheel play" that the Dodgers successfully pulled off in the ninth inning, to squash the Phillies' threat, regain a bit of momentum, and maintain the Dodgers' narrow 4-3 lead.

From ESPN:

The key play of the game, however, came earlier in the bottom of the ninth, after the Phillies had scored two runs on Nick Castellanos' half-swing bloop double to shallow left field to make it 4-3 with nobody out -- with Castellanos somehow avoiding a tag at second base from Edman, a call confirmed upon replay review. With Alex Vesia entering to face Bryson Stott and the Dodgers expecting a bunt, the Dodgers huddled up and called for the wheel play -- when the third baseman charges hard with the shortstop sprinting to cover third base, a play third baseman Max Muncy said the Dodgers don't even practice in spring training.

"Immediately, Mookie was like, 'Hey, we need to be doing this,'" Muncy said. "It speaks to his baseball IQ and his intuition in that situation. We were all thinking it, but Mookie was definitely the one that brought it up and said we need to do this."

Betts, who just finished his full season at shortstop, explained his thinking. "It's just another learned behavior," he said. "I've got to give that credit to Miggy Rojas. I think we did it earlier in the year in Anaheim, and I remember asking him, 'When's a good time to do it?' He said, 'In a do-or-die situation,' and he and Woody (Dodgers coach Chris Woodward) have really helped me a lot just learning situations."

Manager Dave Roberts gave the go-ahead. If the Dodgers failed, it would put runners on first and third with nobody out.

"I think it just speaks to the experience that a lot of us have been in a lot of these big games before and we have a lot of experience doing these types of things," Muncy said. "Doc trusts us as much as we trust Doc and it's not an easy thing to gain, and so that's why in that moment, Doc heard us talking and right away he was on board with it."

The first pitch to Stott was a slider out of the zone. In a sacrifice situation, the batter's job with a runner on second is to push the ball down the third-base line. With Muncy charging and Betts hustling to third, they were worried they might have blown their cover.

"When it comes to the wheel play as a third baseman, your first job it obviously to field the ball, and then you've got to make a good throw," Muncy said. "But the one thing no one talks about is you got to make sure the guy's there to catch the throw."

Betts got there.

"God blessed me with some athleticism, so I was able to just kind of put in on display there," Betts said.

"It's tag play, too," Woodward explained. "Running the wheel on a force out is a lot easier because the third baseman just has to catch it. But if you have a tag him, it presents a more difficult play. For Muncy to field it, know right away, make a good throw. Mookie hung in there. That was the play of the game."

Get this: The Dodgers didn't have a 5-6 putout all season, the only team in the majors without one, according to ESPN Research.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson went on to discuss the key element to this episode: how Betts' deception made this defensive play even viable in the first place:

In an era with few sacrifice bunts, the attempt itself was debatable strategy. Indeed, the Phillies had just 16 sacrifice bunts all season. Manager Rob Thomson explained the decision: "Just left on left," he said, referring to Stott against Vesia. "Trying to tie the score. I liked where our bullpen was at, compared to theirs. We play for the tie at home."

He praised the Dodgers' execution.

"Mookie did a great job of disguising the wheel play. We teach our guys that if you see wheel, just pull it back and slash because you've got all kinds of room in the middle. But Mookie broke so late that it was tough for Stotty to pick it up."

Here's the LAT's coverage, with Muncy and Betts interviewed in the embedded video:

Awesome stuff. Credit Mookie Betts' IQ and athleticism, but also credit Max Muncy--not always the smoothest at third base--for making a perfect throw.

The Dodgers are up 2-0 in the NLDS, with Game 3 at home Wednesday.

POSTSCRIPT 10/7 8.29a: Fabian Ardaya also had a great breakdown of the wheel play in The Athletic:

All the momentum they’d taken from the Philadelphia Phillies was 180 feet away, with the potential tying run at second base with no one out. That’s when the manager looked at his players during the pitching change. “You guys figure it out,” Roberts said.

Mookie Betts made a suggestion. The six-time Gold Glove-winning right fielder, making just his fourth career postseason start at shortstop, did not think. He just spoke.

Betts’ comfort at his new position allowed him to propose something the Dodgers had hardly considered since spring training, much less practiced or executed: the wheel play. It’s a scheme that aggressively shifts their defenders around in the middle of a bunt attempt to try to get the lead runner.

It worked. [...]

They’d escaped a disaster because of the trust Roberts put in Betts, the former MVP who made a seemingly impossible transition to shortstop at age 32.

“Somebody’s gotta do it,” Betts said. “I figured if there was ever a good time to make a decision and roll with it, that was the time.”

The Dodgers got that precious last out just as their makeshift bullpen needed it, and it took a strategy they hardly ever attempt.

“For me, that was our only chance, really, to win that game in that moment,” Roberts said.