A broken bat roller in the seventh inning just to the right of the pitching mound was almost fittingly the biggest batted ball of the evening for the Phillies Monday night. Game 2 of the NLDS was a steamy pitching duel between Jesús Luzardo and Blake Snell.
More hits were to be had by the Dodgers and Phillies, but that broken-bat play broke the seal for the Los Angeles as they went on to a 4-3 win to go up 2-0 in this NLDS. Game 3 is scheduled for Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers batted around in the seventh inning, after Teoscar Hernandez chased Jesús Luzardo for a single and Freddie Freeman’s double. It was only the second and third hits given up on the night by Luzardo, who certainly deserved a better fate—just like Cristopher Sánchez did in Game 1.
Orion Kerkering replaced Luzardo and, after striking out Tommy Edman, sawed off Kike Hernandez with a 97 MPH sinker. Trea Turner charged and threw home, but the throw was to the first base side and J.T. Realmuto’s tag was late. The Dodgers grabbed a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
At the time, it was just a run. And even when Kerkering walked the bases loaded with two outs, he was about to face the nine-hole hitter and able to see his way out of a big inning. But pinch-hitter Will Smith lined a first-pitch single to left-center for two more runs and Shohei Ohtani singled in another.
The excitement in Citizens Bank Park deflated like a day-old helium balloon.
The Phillies got the thrill in the air again in the ninth inning by scoring a couple of runs on a two-RBI double by Nick Castellanos, but a failed sacrifice bunt, a fielder’s choice and a groundout by Turner ended the game. Another game closer to ending the series. The Phillies are now 3-7 in their last 10 home playoff games.
And that’s been the problem in these first two games of this series, the Phillies just don’t seem to have enough air to breathe some life back into themselves when they get down. The top of the order, or any part of the order for that matter, can’t come up with big hits.
The relievers haven’t come close to being shut down ones and there has been little hope and whole lot of disappointment, like in the sixth inning Monday, when Bryce Harper stepped to the plate with runners on first and second and one out against Blake. It seemed so ripe for it to be a Harper moment, for him to generate some much-needed electricity through his team. Instead, he struck out swinging on a nasty slider from Blake.
“We’d like those guys (at the top of the order) to be swinging the bats, but I do like what we’re doing at the bottom part of the order,” said Rob Thomson. “Snell was good again today. I thought our bats were better against him tonight than they were in L.A. I don’t think we got out of the zone as much as we did in L.A. You have to have confidence that those guys will get it going.
“I think those guys are trying to do a little bit too much right now. Instead of just being themselves and looking for base hits and the power will come.”
The two biggest surprises from the Phillies thus far are these: That without Zack Wheeler their starting pitching is still the biggest strength of this team and that this veteran-laden lineup struggles so mightily of late come playoff time.
“I’ll have a little meeting with them on Wednesday,” said Thomson. “I love the fight in the eighth and ninth inning. We fought like hell and hopefully that carries over into Wednesday. But this is a resilient group, our backs are against the wall. Just got to come out fighting.”
Fighting is a given. They are not going to give up on at-bats, nor fail to hustle after batted balls. They just don’t seem to land the punches enough when there seems to be openings to do so, which granted, have been few and far between. And it certainly doesn’t help that Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Harper are a combined 2-for-21 in this series.
Sure, the Phillies have faced two terrific starters in this series in Ohtani and Snell. But the Dodgers have also faced Sánchez and Luzardo and have figured out answers with timely hitting being chief among them. They also figured out a way to solve their biggest problem, which was their bullpen, by using back-end starters like Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki in Game One and Emmet Sheehan in Game Two. While Thomson flirted with using Ranger Suarez in these games and maybe even Aaron Nola, the proper situation, to him, never came about and now he finds his team in the deepest of holes.
Nola now becomes the Game Three starter, Thomson announced after the game, with Suarez ready to piggy-back if needed. Thomson again professed his trust in Nola, and now he’ll make his biggest start of the season.
“I’m going to compete as best as I can,” Nola said. “Going into L.A, we got to, obviously, got to get a win and take it inning by inning and pitch for pitch. You have to take it one game at a time. You can’t get three wins in game three, right. So, you got to take it one game at a time.
“I’ve been feeling pretty good lately and my body’s all healthy. I think it’s (the ball) coming out pretty well. So, keep that going and hopefully have a good start.”
It’s not time to write the obituary on this season just yet, or maybe even this era. But you also have to wonder how much of this core group is going to be returning as Suarez, Realmuto and Schwarber will all be free agents after the season.
Perhaps it won’t be just an end to a season with their next loss to the Dodgers, it just might be the end of an era. One that certainly doesn’t appear to be going out with a bang, if that is the case.
Not due to any fault of Luzardo, who allowed just three hits during his six innings. Consider that during his time in the game, the Phillies didn’t get their first hit off Snell until he threw his 72nd pitch with two outs in the fifth inning and Edmundo Sosa blooped it to center for a single.
And when a big hit was needed, again, in the ninth, the Phillies just couldn’t find it after Castellanos’ double. That put him on second with nobody out and his team trailing 4-3. He was then thrown out at third when Stott’s bunt was controlled perfectly by the Dodgers on a wheel play. Harrison Bader then singled to put runners at first and second with one out, but neither Max Kepler nor Turner could drive in anything and the Phillies now go to Los Angeles on the thinnest of ice.
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