PHILADELPHIA — As Austin Romine took off for third on a wild pitch, he was greeted by a worrying sight when he peeked toward home plate — the ball had ricocheted off the brick wall behind home plate and bounced right back to Phillies catcher Andrew Knapp.
Knapp plucked the ball out of the air and fired it to third base, where Maikel Franco reached back to slap a tag on Romine. Except Romine was not there.
His contortionist slide — popping up early and dead legging his way around Franco’s glove — was not the type of derring-do that would be expected from someone who had stolen just one base since 2013 entering Tuesday.