Scott Kazmir Tipped His Pickoff Move

It wasn't hard to see that the Phillies were getting giant jumps on Scott Kazmir in Game 1 last night. Guys like Jayson Werth, Shane Victorino, and Chase Utley were giving Kazmir fits all night, forcing throws to first and second. Maybe it didn't help the Phillies score, since they went without a hit with a runner in scoring position, but the destraction likely caused Kazmir to throw more pitches and limited him to six innings, getting the Rays already taxed pen into the game for three innings.

The aggressiveness on the bases seemed kind of out of place during the game last night, but Yahoo's Tim Brown sheds some light on things and says it was all due to Kazmir tipping his pickoff move. The Phillies aren't denying that:

"We saw some things," Phillies third base coach Davey Lopes said. "We can put some pressure on teams if they give us something to key off of."

[...]

"I don't want to say too much because we have games left," Werth said. "I will say with Davey, we're an aggressive baserunning team."

The Phillies don't go in to further detail, but Brown does a very nice job breaking down how Kazmir looks too first and where he places his chin during his delivery. Lopes clearly did the same thing before the game and gave the Phillies a big edge on the bases in Game 1. It's definitely something to look for in Game 5 (assuming we get that far) when Kazmir starts again.