A Citizens Bank Park crowd of over 43,000 let out a collective, “Ooooh,” Friday night when Shohei Ohtani drilled the first pitch he saw in the third inning.
Jesus Luzardo was already walking back to the dugout.
Ohtani’s deep flyball died in the wind, a few feet in front of the warning track in left-center, and two hours later the Dodgers were undefeated no longer, watching the Phillies celebrate a dramatic finish in the teams’ first meeting of the season.
Ohtani’s own baserunning blunder helped the Phils seal it. With runners on the corners, he illogically attempted to steal second base down three runs in the bottom of the eighth and Mookie Betts at the plate representing the tying run. Realmuto nailed him pretty easily.
The next one was even prettier and even more important. Realmuto threw out Chris Taylor for a game-ending strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play as the Phillies won 3-2. It would’ve been a walk-off caught stealing for Realmuto if not for the umpires needing to review the play after an initial safe call.
“The Ohtani one surprised me a little bit just because Mookie was hitting,” Realmuto said. “When Chris ran, I had a pretty good idea he was gonna try to run at some point in that at-bat just because he was the tying run.
“Live, I thought I got (Taylor) for sure and the first replay it looked like he was out, then the next couple of angles, it was tough to tell whether the tag was there or not. It felt 50-50 and I didn’t feel good about them overturning that.”
It was overturned, though, ending an entertaining first edition of a potential NLCS preview.
The Phils have won seven of their last eight games against the Dodgers and outscored them 29-10 at home the last two years. This Dodgers roster is even better than the last two, but the Phillies have a ton of confidence against the team most of the baseball world seems to already have crowned. Facing them three times in early April and three times in mid-September provides a fun wrinkle.
“They have a lot of depth. They can beat you in a lot of different ways,” manager Rob Thomson said. “They can match up offensively, they can match up defensively, they’ve got great start pitching. We know we’ve got to play well every time we play them.”
The front office, fanbase and Phillies clubhouse has to love what it’s seen so far from Luzardo, who has allowed two runs through 12 innings with 18 strikeouts and held his opponents to a .167 batting average. He allowed two hits over seven scoreless innings Friday.
Luzardo called it “one of the most well-executed starts of my career,” and said he didn’t shake off Realmuto once.
“He’s incredible back there, obviously,” Luzardo said. “I’ve enjoyed being able to watch him from a distance for a while and now being able to work with him is awesome, all the homework he does, the preparation, and then going out and throwing two guys out in that situation is huge.”
The Phillies held a narrow one-run lead for most of the game after scoring in the bottom of the first when Trea Turner, doubled, stole third and scored on an errant throw. Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto stepped off the mound and had a play on him but threw wide of third baseman Miguel Rojas, who was far off the bag and racing with Turner.
They were unable to muster anything else against Yamamoto but Luzardo just kept throwing up zeroes quickly to keep the Dodgers from gaining any momentum.
The Dodgers pulled Yamamoto after six innings and Kirby Yates gave up two runs in the seventh as Max Kepler walked, Nick Castellanos doubled down the line, Bryson Stott singled one in and Brandon Marsh brought another home with a groundout. Two themes throughout the first week have been the Phillies getting to opposing bullpens and starting rallies at the bottom of the order.
The Phils knew they didn’t have Jose Alvarado on Friday after using him for 35 pitches Thursday, his second of back-to-back appearances. They brought in Matt Strahm for the eighth inning but had to turn to Jose Ruiz with two outs after Ohtani rocketed a single past Bryce Harper to put runners on the corners and bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Betts. That’s when Ohtani bailed the Phillies out.
Jordan Romano earned his first save as a Phillie but it was of the heart-attack variety. Holding a three-run lead, he allowed a two-run homer and put the tying run on first base before striking out Max Muncy as Realmuto threw out Taylor.
The Phillies are 6-1 but do have to figure out what’s going on with Strahm, whose fastball was 90-91 mph against the Dodgers, and Romano, who has struggled with control and had a pair of two-run outings. Thomson suspects Strahm is dealing with a “dead arm” period that pitchers typically experience toward the end of spring training. Strahm missed most of camp with a left shoulder impingement.
As for Romano?
“Just not getting ahead of guys has been his biggest issue,” Realmuto said. “When he’s attacking the strike zone and able to get ahead then expand, that’s when he’s really good. For me, the stuff is there, just got to command the baseball a little better.”
The Phillies go for their third straight series win to begin the season when Aaron Nola opposes Japanese rookie Roki Sasaki on Saturday.
Read the full article here
