What is the wheel play? How Mookie Betts and the Dodgers pulled off baseball's rarest defensive gem to save Game 2 of the NLDS against the Phillies

Baseball has a way of sneaking magic into the margins. The game can sit still for hours, pitch after pitch, moving at a snail’s pace, until — in the blink of an eye — something extraordinary unfolds that only the most devoted of fans recognize for what it truly is.

On Monday night at Citizens Bank Park, in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 2 of the National League Division Series, that magic arrived in the form of something so rare, so perfectly timed, that it sent baseball purists reaching for their scorebooks — the wheel play.

The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t just spin the wheel; they redefined it.

Here’s a breakdown of the defensive strategy that everyone is talking about after the Dodgers hung on to defeat the Phillies 4-3, on Monday night in Game 2 of the National League Division series.

The Setup

The tension at Citizen’s Bank Park was thick enough to slice with a rosin bag. The Dodgers led the Phillies 4-3, clinging to a one-run lead after Nick Castellanos roped a two-run double off reliever Blake Treinen. The crowd in South Philly, notorious for its electricity and edge, was roaring. The tying run stood on second with no outs.

Dave Roberts stepped out of the dugout, slow and steady, to make a change. Lefty Alex Vesia trotted in from the bullpen. But before Vesia even threw a warm-up pitch, the Dodgers huddled on the mound, a small army of blue plotting how to defend their season in the face of a likely bunt from the Phillies next hitter, Bryson Stott.

And that’s when Mookie Betts spoke up.

According to third baseman Max Muncy, “I’m going to credit Mook, [Mookie Betts] it was his idea. He kept saying ‘we gotta go wheel play.’ A wheel play is not something we traditionally do. But me, Mook, and Tommy started talking about it and when Doc came out and made the pitching change we talked about it and everyone was on board. We talked about how we were going to do it and we executed it to perfection.”

Roberts wasn’t sure at first, but after talking with Betts, he agreed on the strategy.

“It was an impromptu play that, I just told Mookie, ‘you know Stott’s going to bunt. He’s a good bunter. Let’s just run a wheel play. And, Max, be aggressive, field it. And, Mookie, get over there and beat Castellanos there,’ said Roberts of what he told his players when they suggested to do the wheel play. “Those guys executed it to perfection.”

Betts, the team’s do-everything shortstop and unofficial field general, nodded. He knew the math. Castellanos, not known for his speed, could be beaten to third. If the Phillies tried to bunt him over, Mookie would get there first.

Breaking Down the Wheel Play

For the casual fan: the wheel play is baseball’s version of a defensive chess gambit. It’s a rare, aggressive counter to the bunt — a move that teams practice in Spring Training but may never use all year. It’s called the wheel play because the infield–and the outfield for that matter–are all moving to different positions so quickly it mimics the mechanism of a wheel.

Here’s how it works:

The third baseman and first baseman charge toward home plate, anticipating a bunt.

The shortstop sprints to cover third base while the second baseman covers first.

The pitcher shifts to back up the play.

If the bunt goes down the third-base line, the fielder who fields it — usually the third baseman — throws to the shortstop at third base to get the lead runner.

The goal isn’t just to get an out — it’s to cut off the heart of the rally by eliminating the runner in scoring position.

It’s high-risk, high-reward, and rarely called upon outside of youth leagues or Spring Training drills. But in this moment — in the cauldron of the NLDS — it was the Dodgers’ best chance at preserving their one-run lead. 

The Execution

On the next pitch, Stott squared to bunt but pulled back because the pitch was very high. This was likely intentional by the Dodgers and Vesia. The strategy being to throw a pitch well outside the strike zone in order for Stott to reveal his intentions to bunt or not. In this case, Stott did show bunt. The Dodgers now had the information they needed in order to run the wheel play. 

Another underrated part of the play was that on that first pitch ball, the Dodgers didn’t blink. Betts stayed frozen just long enough to sell it. Then came the next pitch — and Stott laid it down perfectly along the third-base line.

“Max, you throw to Mookie,” Freddie Freeman had told Muncy during the mound meeting. “Tommy goes to first, and I’ll sprint to second base if it’s not coming to me.”

It played out exactly that way.

Muncy charged hard, gloved the ball cleanly, and fired a dart to third base — where Betts, having broken late and sprinted full throttle, arrived just before Castellanos. The tag was crisp, the timing immaculate.

Out at third.

Citizens Bank Park fell silent — the kind of stunned quiet that only baseball’s most daring plays can create.

Freeman, who was still racing across the diamond to cover second base, looked up just in time to see it all unfold.

“There’s things you do in Spring Training that never come throughout the regular season,” Freeman said after the game. “And the wheel play that we pulled off on that bunt — that was picture perfect by Max and Mookie. That was huge getting that guy out.”

With the lead runner erased, the tying run was back on first, the double play was in order, and the Dodgers had flipped the inning on its head.

“It was huge,” said Muncy after the game. “You get the guy off second base, you get an out there, and it changes everything about that inning.”

Here’s MLB Network’s breakdown of the play for better understanding:

The Aftermath

Blake Snell, who threw six scoreless innings and watched the chaos from the dugout, was beaming afterward. “He practices that play all the time,” Snell said of Betts. “For it to happen in the postseason in Philly, tough environment, and to be there, make the throw, make the catch, make the play — that’s pretty amazing. Everyone did it correctly. We went crazy.”

Even Phillies manager Rob Thomson had to tip his cap. “Mookie did a great job of disguising the wheel play,” Thomson admitted. “We teach our guys that if you see wheel, just pull it back and slash because you’ve got all kinds of room in the middle. But Mookie broke so late that it was tough for Stotty to pick it up.”

That’s the secret ingredient — the disguise. The wheel play only works if the runner and batter don’t see it coming. Betts sold it like a poker player bluffing a full house.

Here it is from above:

Mookie’s Masterclass

When asked postgame if he’d ever received this much attention for a play that didn’t even involve his bat, Betts chuckled.

“Never,” he said. “I’ve never had — especially for such a basic play. There’s only, like, two or three ways, and that’s one of them. It would be like the Lakers — they won the NBA Championship running the 2-3 zone. That’s how I view it. It’s just we ran it in a big spot and we were able to do it right. I think we executed it really perfectly myself, just the timing of it.”

It wasn’t just the timing — it was the trust. Roberts trusted his players to execute something complex on the fly. The players trusted each other to move as one. And Betts trusted his instincts.

That’s baseball at its finest — 90 feet, nine minds, one heartbeat.

In a sport obsessed with exit velocity, launch angle, and three-run homers, sometimes the smallest plays make the biggest impact. The wheel play doesn’t trend on Statcast. It won’t make Sports Center’s Top 10, but on this October night in Philadelphia, it was everything.

The Dodgers spun the wheel and won.

Source: NBC Los Angeles