DETROIT -- Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Odubel Herrera's night ended early when the 24-year-old was benched by manager Pete Mackanin for not running out a routine grounder in the seventh inning of the club's 5-4 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park on Monday night.
Instead of hustling to first base after hitting a grounder to Detroit reliever Justin Wilson, Herrera appeared to take a more casual route down the line. Normally it would not have been costly, but considering Wilson ended up stumbling and almost bungling the play, it could have been the difference in a base hit and an out in what was at the time a tied ballgame.
"He didn't run," Mackanin told reporters after the game when asked about his decision to pull Herrera and put in David Lough as a defensive substitution once the Phillies took the field. "One of the ingredients to our success to this point is the fact that these guys play with energy, they play hard, and we're training them to play the game the right way. And not running is not the right way. And that's why it's more important for me to set that tone than to take our best hitter out of the lineup."
Mackanin admitted it was not an isolated incident with Herrera, giving the manager even more reason to call attention to the issue and discipline the young player.
"I've seen it in the past, and it's been trickling in," Mackanin said. "I just, I didn't like it, and I just made a decision."
Mackanin made it clear to Herrera why he was pulling him. How did he take it?
"He was very matter of fact about it. He knows he should've run," Mackanin said. "It was nice to see, as I was approaching Herrera, Ryan Howard walked up to him and told him to make sure he runs that stuff out."
Herrera, the team's leadoff hitter, began the game with a ground-ball single to center following a 14-pitch battle with pitcher Mike Pelfrey, singled in a run in the third inning and added another base hit in the fifth before his last at-bat.
The surprising Phillies are in third place in the NL East with a 25-20 record but have lost three of four.