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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Andrew Joseph

Craig Kimbrel committed a super casual intentional balk to prevent the Marlins from stealing signs

Craig Kimbrel Marlins De La Cruz Josh Bell Phillies Baseball

The Philadelphia Phillies took Game 1 of their wild-card series against their NL East rival Marlins on Tuesday, but it wouldn’t be a Phillies game without some late drama.

With a three-run lead in the ninth, Phillies closer Craig Kimbrel allowed a lead-off double to Josh Bell to give the Marlins hope for a rally. He was able to get Jazz Chisholm to pop out the next at-bat, and a Jake Burger ground out wasn’t enough to advance Bell to third base.

Now, Kimbrel obviously had the advantage here with a three-run lead and two outs. But the Phillies closer really didn’t want to take any chance with a runner on second base against Bryan De La Cruz. So, he did something you rarely see pitchers do on purpose: He balked.

Kimbrel stepped on the rubber and casually dropped the ball for a balk. He actually had to get the umpiring crew’s attention to be like, “Hey, I balked!” But in a high-pressure situation like that, Kimbrel would rather face De La Cruz with a runner on third base than risk the Marlins relaying signs from second base. It was a brilliant call from Kimbrel, actually.

Kimbrel, who doesn’t utilize the PitchCom system, had a similar intentional balk last season. And the strategy clearly worked as he got De La Cruz to ground out to end the game.

This was how Twitter reacted

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