Jean Segura's wild ride in Game 3 ends with huge play, Phillies in control of NLCS

Tom Gatto

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Jean Segura's wild ride in Game 3 ends with huge play, Phillies in control of NLCS image

There was the low, and then the high, followed by a quick drop and then a soaring height.

That was Jean Segura's night Friday.

The Phillies second baseman made the win probability chart bounce up and down in a series of key moments during Game 3 of the NLCS. In the end, he and the Phils ended up on top, winning 4-2 and taking a 2-1 series lead over the Padres.

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But the ride there was dizzying. Here are the hairiest twists and turns: 

The error

Segura tried to turn a double play that would have ended the top of the fourth, but he got no outs after dropping shortstop Bryson Stott's feed.

Second base umpire Doug Eddings initially made an out call, ruling that Segura was in the act of transferring the ball from his glove to his throwing hand. But it was clear on replay, after the Padres challenged, that Segura never had control. 

"That's the play that I probably made 3,000 times in my life, but for some reason I missed it," Segura said in his postgame press conference.

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Juan Soto scored on the fielder's choice to tie the game 1-1.

Segura immediately got that run back, and more. 

The go-ahead hit

The swing was reminiscent of the clutch single Segura delivered in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Cardinals: breaking ball almost in the dirt, basically throwing his bat at it.

This time, Segura got his bat on Joe Musgrove's pitch and sent the ball over the head of Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth into right field. Stott and Alec Bohm scored to put the Phils up for good, 3-1, with two outs in the bottom of the fourth.

"I don't really know how I hit it," he said. "I did it and probably you guys see it millions of times.

"Put in play a ball that was almost three or four inches off the plate on the ground. Put it in play and get through those situations. Musgrove is one of those guys that has really good stuff. "

The pickoff

Maybe he celebrated picking himself up a little too much. Musgrove promptly picked him off first base to end the fourth.

But again, Segura did something big later on to cancel out that misstep.

The diving stop

Segura turned in a few gems on defense Friday. One of the biggest was his robbery of Ha-Seong Kim to end the seventh with Philly up 4-2.

With two outs and Jurickson Profar on first, he ranged to his left, dived, gloved Kim's grounder and threw him out. San Diego would have had the tying runs on base and Soto coming up if the ball had gotten through.

"As a player, you learn from your mistake, and you never put your head down. Just keep it up, continue to play the game because you don't know how the game's going to end," Segura said. "Maybe that play can affect you through the game.

"So just it's part of the game. When you make a mistake, just keep going forward."

And now the Phillies are moving on to Game 4 just two wins away from their first World Series berth since 2009.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.