Phillies’ same old story takes a new turn in walk-off win over Dodgers | Bob Brookover

Had the late Yogi Berra been in Gabe Kapler’s office before Tuesday’s game at Citizens Bank Park, he’d have pulled out one of his most famous Yogi-isms: “It’s déjà vu all over again.” And had Berra stuck around for the game, he’d have repeated himself after the Phillies nearly turned another big lead into another deeply disturbing defeat.

Had Dallas Green been alive, he’d have been on morning radio loudly announcing that “this team is a disgrace and the manager is responsible for the continued lack of hustle and overall lackadaisical play.” A few expletives would have been mixed in, too.

There were, however, some refreshing twists to the same, old story about the Phillies the day after their lopsided loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers that included another player failing to run on a ball in play and an entire collection of players failing to realize how many outs there were at the end of the top of the fourth inning.

We learned, for example, that Kapler is “not [bleeping] Dallas Green.” Also, for the first time, the manager benched one of his players after Maikel Franco clearly failed to hustle Monday night on a grounder to third base with two outs and the bases loaded. It is a peccadillo other Phillies have committed, but they remained in the lineup with nothing more than a warning.

The most encouraging turn for the Phillies, however, occurred in the bottom of the ninth inning, after closer Hector Neris went to the mound following a 22-minute rain delay and surrendered a leadoff walk, a broken-bat single, and a pinch-hit three home run to Matt Beaty that allowed the Dodgers to take an 8-6 lead in a game they once trailed 6-1.

The Phillies had felt this gut punch before, and a huge contingent of Dodgers fans rubbed it in their faces after Neris was ejected for hitting David Freese in the back. Kapler was ejected, too, and he admitted that the entire sequence of events was stunning. This looked like it was going to shoot straight to the top of the list of disturbing defeats for the Phillies, and that’s a list with an impressive top 10.

“I mean, certainly,” Kapler said. “That sort of tests your character. Do you quit at that moment? Obviously, we showed that we don’t. I think that’s the calling card of our team. We don’t quit. We fight.”

Bryce Harper provided the knockout blow in this heavyweight fight that included a combined eight home runs. After a three-run homer in the fifth, Harper doubled home two runs off Dodgers closer Kanley Jansen for his first walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth.

The déjà vu conversation before the game returned to Kapler’s method of managing.

“I think many people are looking for me to behave in a certain way,” Kapler said. “Who are the managers who stand out through history who are respected in these [turbulent] situations? It’s Lou Piniella. It’s Dallas Green. Right? These are guys who you expect to see handle these situations. It’s not my personality. It’s not who I am. I don’t think it’s the best way to motivate people, so I don’t do it.

“I’m not going to apologize for that. I’m not going to say like, ‘Man, I should be Dallas Green.’ I’m not … Dallas Green. I never will be. I’ve shared this a million times – the World Series championship manager I played for in Terry Francona, I’m not sure I ever saw him raise his voice. Not once. He just called people into the office and had conversations.”

How things get done does not matter as long as they get done. The problem for Kapler is that Franco’s failure to run to first was preceded by Cesar Hernandez’s failure to run on a fly ball that landed in left-center field in Washington, and a couple of instances in which Jean Segura failed to run out balls in play. They were not benched, but after the Hernandez incident, Kapler talked to the team about the issue.

Still, Kapler declined to flat out say he was sitting Franco for his failure to run. Instead, he provided a convoluted explanation that involved a meeting in the manager’s office, video of the play in question, and a discussion about the third baseman’s sore groin.

Franco wanted to return to the lineup Tuesday, but Kapler started Brad Miller at third base instead. Franco did pinch-hit in the sixth. Kapler’s reasoning for leaving Segura and Hernandez in the lineup was that they gave the team the best chance to win. Franco’s sore groin gave him a reason to do something different.

Franco “said he was ready to play today,” Kapler said. "I said, ‘I still can’t put you in the lineup today, because if you’re not 100 percent effort down the line in that situation last night, it’s not right for you to start today.’ He understood that and accepted full responsibility for that.”

This was not the first time that Kapler said one of his players understood the situation and accepted full responsibility. He said the same about Segura in San Diego and Hernandez in Washington, so Kapler can’t blame anyone for wondering why it keeps happening.

Kapler listened to questions about his coaching staff and his way of doing things and came to this conclusion: “When all is said and done, did you win enough games? Really that’s all that matters.”

Even Dallas Green would agree with Gabe Kapler on that, and the Phillies finally won one Tuesday against the best team in baseball.