Utley's "Little Things"
Rather than dwell on the fact that Adam Eaton let Rod Barajas of the Blue Jays -- yes, that Rod Barajas -- beat the Phillies almost single-handedly tonight, lets focus for a second on two very heady defensive plays made by Chase Utley.
On the first play, Jayson Werth did the majority of the work, making a great throw from deep center field to Utley, covering second base as Marco Scutaro was attempting to advance from first base on a fly ball out. Utley's back was to Scutaro and as he caught the throw from Werth and as he did, he knew enough to place his left foot in such a way to cause Scutaro to take the slightly longer way to the base, giving Utley just enough time to tag him out.
Again, most of the hard work was done by Werth, making a tough throw, but it was a great example of a player, Utley, doing "the little things".
The second play came later in the game on a double steal. On the play, Hector Luna took off from third for home as Phils catcher Chris Coste threw to Jimmy Rollins at second base. Noticing what was happening, Utley ran towards the pitcher's mound, cut off the throw, and threw home in time to get Luna.
There's no doubt, Clutchly's greatest value to the Phillies comes from his 165 OPS+, but my guess is that if there was a statistical category called "field awareness", he's lead the league.
After all, remember this play? "Chase Utley, you... are... the... man!"
