PHILADELPHIA (AP) Blake Snell had yielded to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ bullpen after a masterful start and was just a bystander when the Phillies – without any help from their All-Star trio at the top of the batting order – finally mustered a rally in the ninth inning.
A leadoff single. A two-run double. A headfirst slide – safe!
Phillies bats and a previously silenced crowd both finally rising to the occasion and their feet.
Through all the drama, Snell’s confidence in the playoff-tested Dodgers never wavered.
“We know we’re going to win,” the pitcher said.
Snell allowed one hit in six shutout innings, striking out nine, and the Dodgers made a couple of clutch defensive plays to barely turn back Philadelphia’s late rally Monday night for a 4-3 victory in Game 2 of their NL Division Series.
Freddie Freeman made a game-saving pick at first base and Shohei Ohtani delivered an RBI single that helped the Dodgers take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five playoff. The defending World Series champs can reach their 17th National League Championship Series with a Game 3 win Wednesday in Los Angeles.
“Thankfully, I was able to catch it and stay on the base,” Freeman said. “I told (my wife) Lauren after the game, `My gray right here might be up to my sideburn now.’”
Will Smith had a two-run single in a four-run seventh, and the Dodgers took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth.
That’s when the Phillies finally mounted a major threat.
Nick Castellanos slid headfirst into second base, narrowly eluding a tag, for a two-run double off Blake Treinen that at last sent the Philadelphia crowd of more than 45,000 into a frenzy and made it a 4-3 game.
Alex Vesia came in to face Bryson Stott, who tried to advance Castellanos with a bunt. But third baseman Max Muncy wheeled and threw to shortstop Mookie Betts sprinting over to cover the bag in time to get Castellanos.
Pinch-hitter Harrison Bader singled and Max Kepler grounded into a fielder’s choice that left runners at the corners with two outs.
Roki Sasaki entered and retired NL batting champion Trea Turner on a groundout to second for the rookie’s second career save – both in this series. Freeman went to his knees to pick Tommy Edman’s poor throw on his backhand, keeping his right toe on the bag before rolling over onto his back with the ball.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he will likely hold a team meeting once the team gets to Los Angeles.
“I love the fight in the eighth and ninth inning,” he said. “They fought like hell, and hopefully that carries over into Wednesday. But this is a resilient group. Our backs are against the wall. We’ve just got to come out fighting.”
Kepler flashed some of that late spirit when he tripled in the eighth and scored on Turner’s single to trim it to 4-1.
A two-time Cy Young Award winner, Snell was sensational in holding the Phillies to another mostly punchless effort in the playoffs. Turner, NL home run champion Kyle Schwarber and two-time NL MVP Bryce Harper went a combined 1 for 10 with five strikeouts.
On the 15-year anniversary of Phillies ace Roy Halladay’s playoff no-hitter against the Reds, Snell had one going until Edmundo Sosa’s two-out single in the fifth.
Snell, who walked four and threw 99 pitches, was tangled in a duel with Jesús Luzardo until the seventh.
Luzardo threw 24 pitches in the first before the left-hander settled down and retired 17 straight Dodgers until Game 1 star Teoscar Hernández singled leading off the inning. Freeman doubled and that was all for Luzardo.
After reliever Orion Kerkering got a strikeout, Kiké Hernández hit a slow roller to shortstop and Turner rushed an off-target throw home that allowed Teoscar Hernández to score with an excellent slide.
Smith lined a two-run single for a 3-0 lead and Ohtani – who struck out four times in the opener and again leading off Game 2 – ripped a run-scoring single off left-handed reliever Matt Strahm for his first hit of the series.
The NL West champion Dodgers, who used the injured list this season 37 times for 2,585 days, according to Major League Baseball, are finally mostly healthy and need to win just once in two potential home games to clinch the series. Teams taking a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five postseason series have won 80 of 90 times, including 54 sweeps.
The NL East champion Phillies were 1 for 18 with nine strikeouts through six innings.
“We missed some pitches over the plate,” Harper said. “Haven’t done a very good job with guys on base. Just need to be better.”
The Dodgers send RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mound in Game 3. Yamamoto struck out a postseason-high nine while pitching into the seventh inning in the Wild Card Series clincher against Cincinnati. Aaron Nola starts for the Phillies.
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