June 11: The Most Painful Baserunning Blunders in Phillies History

The Main Event

• June 11, 1952 – The Phils lose to the Cubs 3-2 due to a baserunning error by Tommy Brown. With the score tied 1-1 with two out in the sixth, Brown was on first with two runners in front of him. Richie Ashburn singled to center, the leading runners scored, and Brown advanced to third. Brown, though, had missed second base. The Cubs threw to the base and Brown was called out, ending the inning and negating the runs.

Baseball has a long, unforgiving memory. Unlike other sports, where a single mistake can be swallowed by the next play, a baserunning blunder in baseball tends to freeze in time — replayed, dissected, and passed down through generations of frustrated fans. The Philadelphia Phillies have had more than their share of those frozen moments. Some are buried deep in the box scores of forgettable afternoons. Others ended entire seasons. All of them hurt.

Tommy Brown and the Missed Base That Erased Two Runs (June 11, 1952)

On June 11, 1952, the Phillies and Cubs were locked in a tense game at 1-1 heading into the sixth inning. With two outs and the bases loaded — Tommy Brown at first, two runners in front of him — Richie Ashburn singled to center. Both runners in front of Brown scored, and Brown advanced to third base, seemingly giving Philadelphia a 3-1 lead. But Brown had missed second base on his way around the bag. The Cubs appealed, the umpire called Brown out, and just like that both runs were wiped from the board. The inning was over. Philadelphia ultimately lost 3-2.

The timing made the gaffe especially bitter. Brown was in the last chapter of a career that had once been filled with remarkable promise. He had made his major league debut at 16 years of age with the Brooklyn Dodgers — on August 20, 1945, at just 17, he became the youngest player in major league history to hit a home run. Nicknamed “Buckshot,” Brown had been a genuine prodigy. But by 1952, he was a utility man struggling to hold a roster spot. He was languishing with a .138 average (4-for-29) when the Phillies sold him to the Cubs on June 15 — just four days after the botched baserunning cost the Phillies the game. Once with Chicago, the team he had committed his baserunning blunder against, Brown parlayed himself into being an almost everyday player, hitting .320 in sixty-one games. The cruel irony: the player whose mental lapse cost the Phillies a win was rewarded with a better opportunity the moment he left. Philadelphia lost the game, then lost the player, both to the same club.

Odubel Herrera‘s Chronic Confusion on the Bases

In the 2010s, Odubel Herrera gave Phillies fans plenty to cheer about in center field — and plenty to groan about on the basepaths. In one 2017 loss to the Mets, Herrera attempted to advance from second to third on a flyball to medium-depth center field, but failed to look at his third base coach or the runner ahead of him. If he had, he would have seen that Juan Samuel had signaled Freddy Galvis to hold at third. Galvis stayed put. Herrera ran anyway, creating an easy putout. A bases-loaded, nobody-out situation with genuine run-scoring potential evaporated in seconds. A bases-loaded, no-out situation quickly morphed to first-and-third, two outs. Herrera’s mistakes were not isolated incidents. That same season, he had also run through a stop sign and been picked off of third base. The pattern continued into 2022, when interim manager Rob Thomson chatted with Herrera after a game against Pittsburgh, where Herrera had slowed up between second and third on a ball hit off the right-field wall. Thomson said he wasn’t sure Herrera would have scored at full speed, but took issue with him not giving himself the chance. Over time, Herrera’s baserunning became an organizational frustration — a recurring storyline that undercut a player who had genuine offensive ability.

Travis Jankowski Freezes Between Bases (June 4, 2021)

Some baserunning blunders involve the wrong decision. This one involved no decision at all. Travis Jankowski was a 30-year-old outfielder and lifelong Phillies fan who had spent two years on the fringes of the major leagues. Wearing a Phillies uniform for one of the first times, he was sent in to pinch-run in the ninth inning of a 2-1 game against Washington. When a pitch in the dirt skipped away from catcher Alex Avila, Jankowski broke from second. Then he stopped. Rather than choosing to head back to second or try to steal third, Jankowski just stayed in the middle. Avila took advantage by faking a few throws and simply chasing Jankowski down to tag him out. Jankowski’s massive blunder cost the Phillies an opportunity to even the score. The Nationals escaped with a 2-1 win. Despite the awful baserunning mistake in one of his first appearances, Jankowski persevered and carved a valuable role with the Phillies as an extra outfielder, even becoming a brief fan favorite. But for one agonizing moment in the ninth inning, he was simply frozen — a pinch-runner who couldn’t decide which way to run.

The 2024 Early-Season Epidemic

The Phillies’ baserunning woes are not always isolated to a single player or moment. Through their first nine games of 2024, the Phillies had made six outs on base, not counting pickoffs and failed stolen base attempts — while simultaneously leading the league in being caught stealing six times. The names involved read like a lineup card: Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Bryson Stott, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, and Johan Rojas had all been thrown out at least once while attempting to steal. Harper was particularly candid after one miscue: “A totally bad read on my part. I wanted to get to third base there. By the time I realized I was going to get caught, I was just way too far off the base. That’s got to get cleaned up by me.” Schwarber, meanwhile, ran through a stop sign from third base coach Dusty Wathan and actually scored after being hit by the throw home — but later in the same series took too wide of a turn at first base on a single and was tagged out, removing a potential insurance run from the base paths. Even Alec Bohm seemed resigned to the chaos: “Guys are trying to make plays. Trying to score runs and make plays … guys are trying to take the extra base so it’s just kind of part of it.”

From Tommy Brown missing second base on an otherwise-ordinary June afternoon in 1952 to team-wide baserunning issues in 2024, the Phillies have never been short on painful execution failures at the wrong moment. The game has a way of finding those moments and making them permanent. Phillies fans, perhaps more than most, know that feeling well.

Philadelphia Baseball Events for June 11

• June 11, 1873 – The largest crowd of the year‚ 10‚000‚ jams the grounds at 25th and Jefferson to see the Athletics play the Philadelphia White Stockings. The Whites score five runs in the seventh to win, 7-5.
• June 11, 1875 –  George Hall of the Athletics hits two consecutive homers as Philadelphia trounces visiting Washington‚ 21-4.
• June 11, 1927 – The Philadelphia Athletics field a team of seven future Hall of Famers in the ninth inning: Ty Cobb (RF), Mickey Cochrane (PH), Eddie Collins (2B), Jimmie Foxx (1B), Lefty Grove (P), Al Simmons (CF) and Zack Wheat (LF). After five wins in a row‚ the A’s lose to the Tigers‚ 5-4. Cy Perkins starts as catcher, batting seventh‚ but when Cochrane pinch-hits for him in the last inning‚ seven Cooperstown-bound players are in the lineup. On May 24, 1928‚ the A’s will again field seven HOF’ers and combine with the Yanks to showcase 13 Hall of Famers.
• June 11, 1956 – Catcher Stan Lopata steals home on the back end of a double steal, as the Phils earn a 6-2 win in Milwaukee.
• June 11, 1977 – After the first three Phillies reach base to start the game, Greg Luzinski hit one out for a grand slam to help the Phillies beat Atlanta 13-10. On base were Larry Bowa, Rich Hebner, and Mike Schmidt. Luzinski had a three-run double later in the game, putting him one short of the team record for RBI in a game.
• June 11, 1983 – Steve Carlton strikes out nine in a 9-7 win over Pittsburgh, bringing his season total to 101. It was his 17th season with more than 100 strikeouts, tying Warren Spahn‘s National League record.
• June 11, 1985 – Von Hayes became the 21st player in major league history to hit two home runs in a single inning, when he connected twice in the first during a 26-7 pounding of the Mets. In all, the Phils collected 27 hits, including 10 doubles (three by Bo Diaz). The runs, hits, and total bases (47) are all team records for the Phillies and is also the record for the most given up by the Mets.

ICYMI

• Philly Baseball News – Reading’s Dante Nori Goes on IL; Neunborn to LV
• Philly Baseball News – Johan Rojas’ Elbow Injury to Sideline Him For All of 2026

Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for June 11

• Frank Thomas (born 1929) – Played part of the 1964 and 1965 seasons with the Phillies as a right-handed first baseman and outfielder. Hit .282 in 74 games with the Phillies.
• Dave Cash (born 1948) – A 12-year MLB veteran, Cash played arguably his best seasons with the Phillies from 1974-1976. He led the majors in at-bats all three seasons, led the majors with 213 hits in 1965 and led the National League with 12 triples in 1966. He was named to the NL All-Star team all three seasons.
• Ron Jones (born 1964) – A second round pick of Montreal in 1983, Jones played four seasons with the Phillies beginning in 1988, hitting .272 in 97 games. His four-year MLB career was cut short by knee injuries.
• Jorge Alfaro (born 1993) – Played his first three MLB seasons with the Phillies (2016-2018) as a catcher. He is currently playing at Double-A Northwest Arkansas in the Kansas City organization.
• Colin Peluse (born 1998) – Currently pitching for Reading, the right-hander signed a minor league deal with the Phillies this season after being released by Oakland. Between Triple-A and Double-A, Peluse is a combined 2-2, 7.89 in 17 relief appearances.
• Christian Cairo (born 2001) – A versatile infielder/outfielder playing at Lehigh Valley. Currently hitting .257/.402/.318/.720 with 18 stolen bases. Also has more walks (48) than strikeouts (42).

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