How J.T. Realmuto described his astonishingly poor base-running mistake to end game

Theoretically, professional baseball players should be well versed in the rules of baseball. After all, they play it for a living. But even a 13-year MLB veteran can forget how to baseball, apparently.

With the Phillies suddenly in a battle with the Braves in the NL East race, Philadelphia was in prime position to force extra innings or win it in the ninth against the Dodgers on Tuesday. With Brandon Marsh at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, the Phillies had two runners in scoring position and one out.

One of those runners was J.T. Realmuto, and you’d be hard pressed to handle that situation worse than he did on the base path.

When Marsh sharply hit a ground ball to third, Justin Crawford was caught leaning towards home. At that point, Crawford was going to be out in a rundown. All Realmuto had to do was advance to third and stay there.

That’s not what he did.

Baserunning blunder to end the game. pic.twitter.com/56MXGdpfdO

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 22, 2026

Once Realmuto saw that Crawford was about to be tagged out, he panicked. Instead of just staying at third and giving his team a chance with the tying run 90 feet away, he started running back to second.

John Kruk on the Phillies broadcast could even be heard saying, “Oh no, J.T.!” He couldn’t believe an MLB vet was about to make the kind of mistake you’d see in Little League.

Realmuto was tagged out to end the game. And he spoke to reporters to describe what happened.

He couldn’t really offer a reasonable explanation besides calling it a lapse in judgement.

Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto called the last play of their 2-1 loss to the Dodgers a bad base running play and a lapse in judgement.@SportsRadioWIP@KYWNewsradiopic.twitter.com/xqOTmEaeDV

— Dave Uram (@MrUram) July 22, 2026

I mean, that’s one way to put it. It was a mistake that really can’t happen at that level.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: How J.T. Realmuto described his astonishingly poor base-running mistake to end game