Phillies

When Shohei Ohtani was asked about his woeful performance at the plate in the Dodgers’ National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies last week, he first gave credit to the opposition.

Then, after a series that saw the Phillies counter him with one left-handed pitcher after the next, he was also quick to point out that he wasn’t alone.

“It was pretty difficult for left-handed hitters,” Ohtani said in Japanese amid the Dodgers’ clubhouse celebration following their Game 4 victory. “This was also the case for Freddie [Freeman].”

The Phillies did indeed make life tough on the Dodgers’ best lefty bats.

Freeman was only three for 15 in the series, albeit with a key Game 2 double and a .294 on-base-percentage.

Max Muncy was four for nine in the series, but spent most of it waiting on the bench, not getting a start in any of the three contests the Phillies had a southpaw on the mound.

And as a team, the Dodgers hit just .199 with 41 strikeouts in the four-game series.

However, no one’s struggles were as pronounced as Ohtani’s — the soon-to-be four-time MVP winner, who in the NLDS looked like anything but.

Ohtani struck out in each of his first four at-bats in Game 1. He didn’t get his first hit until grounding an RBI single through the infield in the seventh inning of Game 2.

After that, Ohtani’s only other time reaching base safely was when the Phillies intentionally walked him in the seventh inning of Game 4.

His final stat line from the series: One for 18, nine strikeouts and a whole lot of questions about what went wrong.

Ohtani, who was coming off a three-hit, two-homer wild-card round, did acknowledge Thursday night that “there were at-bats that didn’t go the way I thought they would.”

But, he quickly added: “The opposing pitchers didn’t make many mistakes. They pitched wonderfully, in a way that’s worthy for the postseason. There were a lot of games like that for both teams.”

The real question coming out of the series was about the root cause of Ohtani’s unexpected struggles.

Was it simply because of the tough pitching matchups, having faced a lefty in 12 of his 20 trips to the plate? Or had his faltering approach created more legitimate concerns, the kind that could threaten to continue into the NL Championship Series?

“I think a lot of it actually was driven by the left-handed pitching,” manager Dave Roberts said Saturday, as the Dodgers awaited to face either the Chicago Cubs or Milwaukee Brewers in an NLCS that will begin on Monday.

However, the manager also put the onus on his $700-million superstar to be better.

“Hoping that he can do a little self-reflecting on that series, and how aggressive he was outside of the strike zone, passive in the zone,” Roberts said. “The at-bat quality needs to get better.”

For the Dodgers, the implications are stark.

“We’re not gonna win the World Series with that sort of performance,” Roberts continued. “So we’re counting on a recalibration, getting back into the strike zone.”

From the very first at-bat of Game 1 — when he was also the starting pitcher in his first career playoff game as a two-way player — Ohtani struggled to make the right swing decisions.

He chased three pitches off the inside of the plate from Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez, which Roberts felt “kinda set the tone” for his series-long struggles, then took a called third strike the next two times he faced him.

From there, the 31-year-old slugger could never seem to dial back into his approach.

He went down looking again in Game 1 against left-handed reliever Matt Strahm. He led off Game 2 with another strikeout against another lefty in Jesús Luzardo. On and on it went, with Ohtani continuing to chase inside junk, flailing at pitches that darted off the plate the other way, and finding his only reprieve in a rematch with Strahm in Game 2 when he got just enough on an inside sinker.

Roberts’ hope was that, moving forward, Ohtani would be able to learn and adjust.

“Understanding when he faces left-handed pitching, what they’re gonna try to do: Crowd him in, off, spin him away,” Roberts said. “He’s just gotta be better at managing the hitting zone. I’m counting on it. We’re all counting on it.”

Roberts also conceded that Ohtani’s at-bats on the day he pitched in Game 1 seemed to be especially rushed.

“[When] he’s pitching, he’s probably trying to conserve energy, not trying to get into at-bats,” Roberts said. “It hasn’t been good when he’s pitched. I do think that’s part of it. We’ve got to think through this and come up with a better game plan.”

After all, while Ohtani might not have been the only struggling hitter in the NLDS, his importance to the lineup is greater than anyone’s. The Dodgers can only endure without him for so long.

No, he didn’t.

Yes, they did!

No, it’s inconceivable that Philadelphia Phillies’ reliever Orion Kerkering would botch a grounder and throw it away with the season on the line.

Yes, it happened with the bases loaded and the Dodgers scored to steal a National League Division Series clinching 2-1 victory in 11 taut innings Thursday at Dodger Stadium!

Clinched, just in time.

Clinched, when they could have clenched.

Clinched, like a champion.

With their backs quickly approaching the wall, faced with a loss that would return the series to Philadelphia for a deciding Game 5, the Dodgers dug in and lashed out and, at the last possible minute, shoved the talented and favored Philadelphia Phillies out of their path to take a three-games-to-one series win and clear the way toward their second consecutive World Series title.

And they did it with a mad, mindless throw from a frozen, frightened reliever.

Has any postseason series ended with such an error?

It happened in the 11th, after Tommy Edman hit a one-out single to left, then moved to third one out later on a single by Max Muncy. Kiké Hernández walked to load the bases, bringing up the struggling Andy Pages, who entered the day with an .053 playoff average and had gone hitless in four previous at-bats.

He proceeded to hit into his fifth out… except Kerkering muffed the grounder. When the pitcher finally picked up the ball, he still had plenty of time to throw out Pages at first. Instead, he panicked and threw it home, launching it far over catcher JT Realmuto’s head.

Pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim scored the winning run as Kerkering stood stunned on the mound and the Dodgers danced wildly across the field.

How the Dodgers defeated the Phillies in the 11th inning in Game 4 of the NLDS.

They now advance to the National League Championship Series, where they will be heavy favorites against either the Milwaukee Brewers or Chicago Cubs.

A victory in that seven-game set will land them back in the World Series, where they will be even heavier favorites against whatever inferior team the American League can muster.

Yeah, the rest of their journey should be the easy part, the Dodgers already conquering their Goliath equal in a Phillies series that was essentially the World Series.

Remember last fall when they defeated the San Diego Padres in a tense five-game fight before cruising to the title? This was that. This was the two best teams in baseball. This was the Dodgers once again swallowing all the pressure and refusing to relent.

After a breathtaking six-inning scoreless pitching duel between the Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow and the Phillies’ Cristopher Sanchez, the Phillies struck first in the seventh with a single, an error by reliever Emmet Sheehan, and a double by Nick Castellanos.

The Dodgers countered in the bottom of the seventh with two walks and a single followed by a bases-loaded walk drawn by Mookie Betts against closer Jhoan Duran.

This set the stage for the Error Heard ‘Round The World. This set the stage for what should absolutely be a second consecutive World Series championship.

Before these playoffs there was a lot of talk about the Dodgers’ late-season struggles that were symbolized by that blown no-hitter in Baltimore. They had no bullpen depth. They had no offensive patience. They were headed for another early October exit.

At least, that’s what outsiders thought. That’s not what the veteran, pressure-proof Dodgers thought.

“I think it boils down to the guys we have in the clubhouse,” said Max Muncy earlier this week. “We have a lot of experience, a lot of really good players. We’ve been there before. We accomplished it.”

Turns out, nobody knew the Dodgers like the players wearing the uniform.

“We knew who we are as a team all year long,” said Muncy. “Even though we weren’t playing up to it at certain points, we trusted who we were. Like I said, we knew who we were in the clubhouse, not one person faulted in there, even in the rough times.”

They were impressive in the four games against the Phillies. Here’s predicting they’re going to get even better before the month ends.

“I still think there’s another gear in there,” said Muncy. “I don’t think we fully reached where we can be at. And that’s not saying we are, and that’s not saying we aren’t. But I still think there’s a whole other level in there we haven’t reached yet.”

The Times’ Bill Shaikin quickly asked, “What would tell you you’ve reached it?”

“I think you would know,” said Muncy.

The media laughed. The rest of baseball shivered.

From Jack Harris: The Phillies seemed rattled. The Dodgers looked confident. And the Chavez Ravine crowd was excitedly smelling blood.

Early in Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday, the Dodgers had all the momentum. They’d already taken each of the first two games of this best-of-five set in Philadelphia. Their best pitcher this season, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, had started his night with three scoreless innings. The Phillies, most of all, appeared to be pressing, with Trea Turner leading the game off with a curious bunt and Brandon Marsh misplaying a ball in the bottom of the first with an over-aggressive dive that gifted Mookie Betts a triple.

Then, after a questionable pitching change from Phillies manager Rob Thomson in the bottom of the third, Tommy Edman greeted newly inserted left-hander Ranger Suárez with a leadoff home run to open the scoring.

As Edman rounded the bases, and Dodger Stadium erupted around him, the Dodgers looked well on their way to an NL Championship Series berth.

In postseason baseball, however, momentum can be a fickle thing. Every new inning brings the potential for a plot twist. Every at-bat carries the threat of a turning point. And every single pitch can prove to be the difference.

“You never know in the playoffs,” Kiké Hernández said before the game, “which pitch is going to win you a game.”

On Wednesday, in the Phillies’ come-from-behind, elimination-staving 8-2 victory, the pitch that swung the Dodgers’ loss came with no outs in the fourth.

Continue reading here

Plaschke: Dodgers blow surefire win in NLDS Game 3 vs. Phillies, and now they could blow the season

‘You get a new game every day.’ Clayton Kershaw tries to put Game 3 debacle behind him

Clayton Kershaw, Mookie Betts talk losing NLDS Game 3

Dodgers are crushed in NLDS Game 3 as bats disappear | Dodgers Debate

Shaikin: Dodgers hope a very-rested Tyler Glasnow can pitch them into the NLCS

Every game on the same channel? How might MLB sway Dodgers to go along?

Dodgers box score

MLB POSTSEASON SCHEDULE, RESULTS

NL Division Series
All times Pacific

Dodgers vs. Philadelphia
Dodgers 5, at Philadelphia 3 (box score)
Dodgers 4, at Philadelphia 3 (box score)
Philadelphia 8, at Dodgers 2 (box score)
Thursday at Dodgers, 3 p.m., TBS
*Saturday at Philadelphia, 5 p.m., TBS

Chicago vs. Milwaukee
at Milwaukee 9, Chicago 3 (box score)
at Milwaukee 7, Chicago 3 (box score)
at Chicago 4, Milwaukee 3 (box score)
Thursday at Chicago, 6 p.m., TBS
*Saturday at Milwaukee, 1:30 p.m., TBS

AL Division Series

Detroit vs. Seattle
Detroit 3, at Seattle 2 (11) (box score)
at Seattle 3, Detroit 2 (box score)
Seattle 8, at Detroit 4 (box score)
at Detroit 9, Seattle 3 (box score)
Friday at Seattle, 1:40 p.m., FS1

New York vs. Toronto
at Toronto 10, New York 1 (box score)
at Toronto 13, New York 7 (box score)
at New York 9, Toronto 6 (box score)
Toronto 5, at New York 2 (box score)

*-if necessary

KINGS

Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore scored during the shootout and the Kings spoiled Pavel Dorofeyev’s hat trick and Mitch Marner’s debut in a Vegas uniform with a 6-5 win over the Golden Knights on Wednesday night.

After squandering a pair of two-goal leads in the second period, and falling behind by two goals in the third, the Kings bounced back from Tuesday’s season-opening loss to Colorado.

Moore and Brandt Clarke scored late in the third to tie the game and force overtime after Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev scored to give Vegas a 5-3 lead.

Continue reading here

Kings summary

NHL standings

LAFC

Jeremy Ebobisse scored in the 13th minute, substitute Frankie Amaya added a second-half goal, and LAFC beat Toronto 2-0 on Wednesday night for its sixth straight victory.

LAFC (17-7-8) secured the club’s fourth six-game winning streak — with a chance to match its longest regular-season streak of seven on Sunday at Austin. LAFC moved within one point of San Diego and Vancouver for the top spot in the Western Conference.

Toronto (5-14-14) entered with eight consecutive draws in league play since Aug. 9 — the longest tie streak in MLS history.

Continue reading here

LAFC summary

MLS standings

THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

1943 — Bob Hoernschemeyer throws six touchdown passes, an NCAA record for a freshman, to lead Indiana past Nebraska 54-13.

1965 — The United States wins the Ryder Cup 19½-12½ at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. Arnold Palmer clinches the title, beating Peter Butler 2 up. It’s the 13th victory for the Americans in this event, which began in 1927. Britain, a three-time winner, last won in 1957.

1974 — The Washington Capitals lose their first NHL game, 6-3 to the Rangers at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

1982 — Al Del Greco kicks six field goals for all of Auburn’s points in an 18-3 triumph over Kentucky.

1983 — Buffalo’s Joe Ferguson passes for 419 yards and five touchdowns in an 38-35 overtime win against Miami. Uwe Von Schamann of the Dolphins misses two field goals in the overtime and Joe Danelo ends the game with a 36-yard field goal.

1991 — The San Jose Sharks gain their first NHL victory, defeating the Calgary Flames 4-3.

1993 — Minnesota’s Scott Eckers passes for 402 yards and a school-record six touchdowns in his first college start, sending the Gophers past Purdue 59-56.

1993 — Carey Bender rushes 33 times for 417 yards, setting an NCAA all-division single-game rushing record, in Coe’s 69-7 Division III victory over Grinnell.

2004 — Texas Tech beats Nebraska 70-10, the worst lost in the Cornhuskers’ storied 114-year history.

2004 — Texas loses to Oklahoma 12-0, getting shut out for the first time in 282 games and ending the longest streak in the country.

2005 — Chris Burke hits a home run in the bottom of the 18th inning and Roger Clemens pitches three scoreless innings of relief in Houston’s 7-6, series-ending victory over Atlanta in the NLDS. The longest postseason game in history takes 5 hours, 50 minutes.

2010 — Mike Brinkley passes for six touchdowns and Armond Smith runs for five scores to lead Union (Ky.) to an 84-55 victory over Bethel (Tenn.) in an NAIA game.

2010 — Derek Stepan becomes the fourth player to score three times in his NHL debut to lead the New York Rangers to a season-opening 6-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

2011 — Sebastian Janikowski kicks four field goals, including three from at least 50 yards (54, 55, 50), in Oakland’s 25-20 win over Houston. Houston’s Matt Schaub throws for 416 yards and two touchdowns.

2011 — The NHL returns to Winnipeg, but Carey Price stops 30 shots and the Montreal Canadiens dampen a city celebration with a 5-1 victory over the Jets.

2015 — Sepp Blatter, hoping to return to power as FIFA president, is banned for 90 days, essentially ending his 17-year reign as the leader of soccer’s governing body. UEFA President Michel Platini also gets a 90-day ban following an investigation of financial misconduct at FIFA in a Swiss criminal case.

2016 — Tom Brady returns from his four-game “Deflategate” suspension, passing for 406 yards and three touchdowns to Martellus Bennett in the New England Patriots’ 33-13 victory over the Cleveland Browns.

2022 — Dutch Red Bull driver Max Verstappen secures his second consecutive World F1 Drivers C’ship after finishing in front of Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc in the Japanese GP at Suzuka.

THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

1928 — World Series: NY Yankees beat St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 at Sportsman’s Park to become first to sweep consecutive World Series; Babe Ruth hits smashes 3 HRs for Yanks.

1934 — World Series: St Louis Cardinals rout Detroit Tigers, 11-0 at Navin Field to clinch 4 games to 3 series victory and 3rd championship.

1966 — World Series: Baltimore Orioles claim first championship in franchise history; edge LA Dodgers, 1-0 at Memorial Stadium for 4-0 sweep; MVP: Orioles outfielder Frank Robinson.

1988 — Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley saves all four games in the ALCS.

2005 — Chris Burke hits a home run in the bottom of the 18th inning and Roger Clemens pitches three scoreless innings of relief in Houston’s 7-6, series-ending victory over Atlanta in the NLDS. The longest postseason game in history takes 5 hours, 50 minutes.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

If Wednesday’s game proves to be the last one in a Dodgers uniform for Clayton Kershaw, it will do little to tarnish his legacy, said teammate Mookie Betts.

“He’s gonna have a statue, so we have to kind of keep that in mind,” Betts said. “In the grand scheme of things, Kershaw is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, one of the best pitchers to ever do it.

“So if you let two innings kind of ruin that, then you don’t know baseball.”

But, Betts confessed, Kershaw’s relief appearance in Game 3 of the National League Division Series was hard to watch. In those two innings he gave up six hits, five runs, walked three and did not strike out a hitter, turning a tight game into an 8-2 rout for the Philadelphia Phillies, who staved off elimination and extended the best-of-five series to a fourth game Thursday.

“He just didn’t have a great slider tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Clayton pitches off his slider. He was working behind, too. The command wasn’t there tonight.”

Clayton Kershaw bends over during a tough eighth inning.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Kershaw, who went 11-2 as a starter during the regular season, was left off the roster for the wild-card series and hadn’t pitched in nine days when he started warming up in the sixth inning Wednesday. He hadn’t gone that long between appearances all year.

“I did everything I could in between,” he said. “It’s been a while but, you know, I threw [off] flat ground as best I could. It wasn’t there tonight.”

That was obvious from the first batter he faced. Kershaw, who walked a batter every 3.2 innings during the regular season, threw three straight balls to Trea Turner before giving up a single. He would give up two more walks, one intentional, in the inning but escaped harm thanks to a poor baserunning decision by the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber and a nice catch by right fielder Teoscar Hernández.

But with Tanner Scott unavailable for personal reasons and Alex Vesia having already pitched twice in the series, Roberts had few other good options against the left-handed-heavy Phillies. So he sent Kershaw out for the eighth and that’s when things really got out of hand.

J.T. Realmuto led off the inning and drove Kershaw’s second pitch — a slider — over the wall in left-center. The Phillies would send eight more men to the plate in the inning, scoring four more times, with two of those runs coming on Schwarber’s second homer of the night.

Kershaw threw first-pitch strikes to just four of the 14 batters he faced and missed the zone with 26 of the 48 pitches he threw overall. That won’t stop the Dodgers from building a statue of him when he retires this fall but it didn’t move him any closer to a second straight World Series ring either.

“I wasn’t throwing strikes, and it’s hard to pitch behind in the count,” he said.

Kershaw said he felt fine physically but added, “I just wasn’t finding it.”

That wasn’t a problem for the top of the Philadelphia lineup, which found little success in the first two games of the series. The Phillies’ first four hitters — Turner, Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Alex Bohm combined for just three hits, all singles — in 27 at-bats, striking out 12 times. They matched that hit total against Dodger starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the span of 11 fourth-inning pitches Wednesday, with Schwarber homering off the roof of the right-field pavilion and Harper and Bohm following with singles.

They finished the night nine for 16 with five runs scored and five RBIs, with Schwarber’s two homers traveling a combined 863 feet.

“We just had a little quick meeting. Nothing crazy, but just focus on the game, win today,” Turner said. “We all know we were kind of pressing as a group in the first two games and wanting to win so bad.”

If Turner and the Phillies win again Thursday, the series returns to Philadelphia and raucous Citizens Bank Park — where the Phillies had the best home record in baseball — for a decisive Game 5 on Saturday. If the Dodgers win, they move on to the NL Championship Series, where Kershaw could get a chance to end his career on a more sonorous note than the clunker he played Wednesday.

“That’s the great thing about baseball,” he said. “You get a new game every day.”

PHILADELPHIA — Even Dodgers fans steeped in the lore of Kirk Gibson might not remember the name of Mel Didier.

Didier was the scout who had issued this warning to the 1988 Dodgers: If you’re facing Dennis Eckersley, the mighty closer for the Oakland Athletics, and the count runs full, he’s going to throw a backdoor slider.

Eckersley threw it, Gibson hit it for a home run, and the Dodgers went on to win the World Series.

If these Dodgers go on to win the World Series, no one will struggle to remember the name of Mookie Betts, of course. On Monday, however, Betts pushed the Dodgers to within one win of the National League Championship Series — not with his bat and not with his glove, but with memory and aptitude to rival Didier.

“His mind is so far advanced,” Dodgers coach Dino Ebel said of Betts. “That was the ballgame right there.”

With the tying run at second base and none out in the ninth inning, he was the calm in a screaming madhouse. As the Dodgers infielders gathered at the mound and Alex Vesia entered from the bullpen, Betts thought back to a play he had participated in once, in an August game against the Angels. Miguel Rojas had taught him the so-called “wheel play.”

“All he had to do was tell me once,” Betts said. “To me, that was like a do-or-die situation. Them tying the game up turns all the momentum there. If we can find a way to stop it, that would be great.

“I just made a decision and rolled with it.”

On the mound, amid the bedlam, Betts put on the wheel play. It’s a bunt coverage: with a runner on second base, the third baseman and first baseman charge home, with the idea that one would field the bunt and throw out the runner at third.

In any previous decade, the Dodgers would have practiced this play in spring training, repeatedly.

“We don’t really even practice the wheel play, with pitchers not hitting any more,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “There’s very few times where you’re 100% sure that a guy is going to bunt.”

This was the time. The Phillies had opened the ninth with three consecutive hits, including a two-run double from Nick Castellanos.

The Dodgers led 4-3 with none out and Castellanos on second base. Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he wanted to play for the tie and take his chances to match his team’s bullpen against the Dodgers bullpen in extra innings.

And for the “never bunt” crowd: the chance to score one run is slightly higher with a runner on third base with one out than with a runner on second base and none out. The Phillies had the bottom of the order coming up — starting with infielder Bryson Stott, whom the Dodgers had evaluated as a good bunter.

Betts remembered how he had asked Rojas when to run the wheel play.

“In a do-or-die situation,” Rojas had told him.

So Betts took charge and put on the play.

“I don’t know if it was very comfortable, but somebody’s got to do it,” Betts said.

“I figured, if there was ever a good time to make a decision and roll with it, that was the time.”

Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy throws to third after fielding a bunt from Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott in the ninth inning in Game 2 of the NLDS on Monday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Muncy would charge and, if the ball was bunted to him, would throw to Betts covering third base. First baseman Freddie Freeman then said he would charge and, if the ball was not bunted to him, would cover second base so Stott could not advance there, since second baseman Tommy Edman would be covering first. Later, on his PItchCom, Vesia said he heard an order to cover second base.

By the time Dodgers manager Dave Roberts got to the mound, the infielders said the play was on.

“When Doc came out and made the pitching change, we talked to him about it and he was all on board,” Muncy said. “I am going to credit Mook. It was his idea.”

Said Betts: “That was one of times where Doc called on us and said, you guys figure it out — in a very positive way. And we did.”

Rojas called Betts “an extension of the manager on the field.”

Said Rojas: “I’m happy that he called it right there on the field. Because it was the right play with the right runner, knowing the guy was going to bunt.”

All of this speaks well of Betts’ intuition and intelligence, but the postseason is not the time for “trust the process” blather. The postseason is the time when the right call is the one that actually works.

For Stott or anyone else, Thomson said, a batter that sees the wheel play in motion should forget about the bunt and swing away, given the holes left by two infielders charging the plate and the other two rushing to cover a base.

Stott bunted.

The first problem for the Phillies was that they had no one available to pinch-run for Castellanos. Aside from a backup catcher, they had two position players left: Harrison Bader, playing with a sore groin, and Weston Wilson, whom the Phillies had to save to run for Bader.

The second problem for the Phillies was that the Dodgers had only run the wheel play once this season, so even the best advance scouts could not have been warning the Phillies to beware.

“It’s something we have under our sleeve,” Rojas said.

The third and most critical problem for the Phillies was that Betts had lingered close to second base, shadowing Castellanos. By the time Stott could have seen Betts take off for third, it was too late.

“Mookie did a great job of disguising the wheel play,” Thomson said.

Muncy fielded the ball cleanly, and Betts beat Castellanos to the bag by so much that Betts had time to drop his knee and block the bag before tagging out Castellanos, holding onto the ball even as Castellanos upended him.

“Those guys executed it to perfection,” Roberts said. “It was a lot tougher — they made it look a lot easier than it was. And for me, that was our only chance, really, to win that game in that moment.”

If Muncy did not field the ball cleanly or did not make a good throw, or if Betts did not beat Castellanos to the bag or tag him out, the Phillies would have had the tying run at third base and the winning run at first base with none out.

But they did not, which meant the ensuing single did not tie the score. Two batters later, the Dodgers had won.

The play would be difficult enough for a lifelong shortstop. Betts is in his first season as a full-time shortstop.

“It shows his intuition in the game,” Muncy said. “It’s second to none out there. It doesn’t matter what position you put that guy at — he knows what’s going on. It’s honestly really impressive.”

Said Ebel: “He’s obsessed with being a great player. And he’s still learning. He’s still going to get better. That’s the scary thing about it.”

As the Dodgers headed for a happy flight back to Los Angeles, Betts offered this game a five-star review.

“I’ll take off my Dodgers hat and just put on a fan hat,” he said. “I think that was a really dope baseball game.”

Hi and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and the Dodgers were just trying to make Game 2 interesting for those watching at home.

—OK, the Dodgers won Game 2, but before we talk about that….

—Blake Treinen, thank you very much for what you did in 2024. The Dodgers might not have won the World Series without you. But I hope to never see you come into a game this season, unless it’s in a Brent Honeywell role.

—Bringing in Treinen was a big mistake. And this is not hindsight. Before the ninth inning, I was trading messages with friends saying they should either stick with Emmet Sheehan, or bring in Roki Sasaki. I’d have stayed with Sheehan, and if he gave up a hit, you go with Sasaki.

—Dave Roberts, on why he didn’t go with Sasaki: “I thought about it. He hasn’t gone two of three much, at all. Just figuring the run right there, Blake’s pitched some of the biggest outs, innings in the postseason for us. And felt really confident right there. And with Vesia behind him, if needed. So I didn’t want to just, kind of, preemptively put him in there. Again, I felt good with who we had with a couple of our highest-leverage relievers. Fortunately, he was ready when called upon. I liked him versus Trea and he got a big out for us.”

—Hey, at least Roberts brought in Alex Vesia and not Tanner Scott.

—Has anyone seen Scott lately?

—The Dodger bullpen is basically Sheehan, Vesia and Sasaki. If the starters don’t go into the sixth or seventh, trouble arises.

—The schedulers did the Dodgers a favor with an off day after Game 1. Let those three rest up and be ready for Game 2. Now a day off, so they can rest up again.

—And then Tommy Edman was seemingly possessed by Steve Sax on that final throw. My life flashed before my eyes. It was much too short.

—But what a scoop by Freeman at first. Great, great play.

—Of course, it was Vin Scully who always reminded us, “The Dodgers never do things the easy way.”

—What a play by Max Muncy to throw Nick Castellanos out at third in that pivotal ninth inning. And what a play by Mookie Betts to hustle over to third and make the tag while Castellanos was sliding into him.

—That play took some of the air out of the inning for the Phillies.

—That was the old “wheel play,” designed to get the runner at third. As the pitch is thrown, the third baseman and first baseman rush toward home plate, to be in position to field the bunted ball as quickly as possible. The shortstop rushes over to cover third, while the second baseman runs to cover first. The defense seeks to have defenders in position such that once the ball is bunted, it can be picked up quickly and thrown to the shortstop to retire the runner advancing from second base.

—Amazing that things taught 100 years ago in the game can still apply now, even with all the changes in baseball since then.

—“I’ve got to give that credit to Miggy Rojas,” Betts said. “We did it earlier in the year in Anaheim, and I remember asking him, ‘When’s a good time to do it?’ He said: In a do-or-die situation.”

—“When Doc came out and made the pitching change, we talked to him about it and he was all on board,” Muncy said. “I am going to credit Mook. It was his idea.”

—Phillies manager Rob Thomson: “Mookie did a great job of disguising the wheel play. “We teach our guys that if you see wheel, just pull it back and slash because you’ve got all kinds of room in the middle. But Mookie broke so late that it was tough for Stotty to pick it up.”

—Fun stat: The Dodgers didn’t have a 5-6 putout in the regular season, the only team in the majors without one.

—He gave up a run, but Emmet Sheehan looked like a totally different pitcher out there compared to his appearance against the Reds.

—Blake Snell pitched a brilliant game. One hit in six innings, four walks, nine strikeouts.

—I like the booking.com commercial features the New York family in Boston. Especially at the end, when the mom says “Those aren’t our kids.” and the little girl says “We’re not?” She says it so sadly.

—Also, I may be the only one who enjoys the Limu emu and Doug commercials.

—Just for the record, the Dodgers have outscored the Phillies 9-3 when my youngest daughter, Hannah, and her fiance Mason are watching, and they have been outscored 3-0 when they aren’t watching.

—Hannah says the Dodgers can send the World Series share directly to her.

—I predicted Dodgers in five, but let’s hope it doesn’t go to a Game 5, particularly with the next two games at Dodger Stadium.

—Yoshibobu Yamamoto pitches Game 3. Aaron Nola goes for the Phillies. Nola had a 6.01 ERA. Ranger Suárez, who most Phillies fans think should be starting Game 3, had a 3.20 ERA. It’s possible they start Nola, hope the Dodgers load their lineup with lefties, then bring in Suárez in the second inning. But we will see. The Dodgers did have the habit this season of making starters with high ERAs look like the second coming of Sandy Koufax.

—That play where Miguel Rojas ran to third and barely beat Trea Turner for the force was just bizarre. Even though it worked, it seemed like the wrong choice. Rojas had a similar play last postseason where he didn’t beat the runner.

—“I think it was the wrong decision,” Rojas said. “But after I went to third base, I felt like I needed to give it my 100% effort. I’m glad that I got there and [the inning] didn’t go farther than that.”

—Are the Dodgers capable of losing three in a row to the Phillies (or, better put, can the Phillies beat the Dodgers three in a row?) Sure. But it seems unlikely.

—But you can’t ask for much more as far as excitement in this series.

—”I’ll take off my Dodgers hat and just put on a fan hat,” Betts said. “I think that was a really, really dope baseball game. I think both of these games were really, really dope baseball games, fun to be a part of. Obviously, it’s a lot better when you’re on the winning side, but you can’t ask for better postseason baseball. It’s just fun. This is why we play.”

—Let’s hope the crowd Wednesday is as loud as the Philadelphia crowd was, and has no reason to be silent. And let’s hope those sitting behind home plate noticed that the Phillies fans behind home plate didn’t spent most of the game on their phone or contemplating their next drink order.

Dodgers postseason stats

Through four games:

Batting
Alex Call, 2 for 2
Miguel Rojas, .429, 3 for 7, 1 RBI
Ben Rortvedt, .429, 3 for 7, 1 double, 1 RBI, 3 K’s
Teoscar Hernández, .412, 7 for 17, 1 double, 3 homers, 9 RBIs, 1 walk, 3 K’s
Mookie Betts, .389, 7 for 18, 3 doubles, 3 RBIs, 1 walk, 1 K
Kiké Hernández, .313, 5 for 16, 2 doubles, 4 RBIs, 3 K’s
Freddie Freeman, .267, 4 for 15, 2 doubles, 3 walks, 2 K’s
Will Smith, .250, 1 for 4, 2 RBIs, 1 walk, 2 K’s
Shohei Ohtani, .222, 4 for 18, 2 homers, 5 RBIs, 2 walk, 9 K’s
Max Muncy, .200, 2 for 10, 1 double, 3 walks, 4 K’s
Tommy Edman, .091, 1 for 11, 1 homer, 1 RBI, 5 K’s
Andy Pages, 1 for 17, .059, 4 K’s
Team, .289, 10 doubles, 6 homers, 26 RBIs, 12 walks, 36 K’s, 6.75 runs per game

Three position players on the NLDS roster, Justin Dean, Hyeseong Kim and Dalton Rushing, have yet to bat.

Pitching
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 6.2 IP 4 hits, 2 walks, 9 K’s
Roki Sasaki, 0.00 ERA, 2 saves, 2.1 IP, 1 hit, 3 K’s
Tyler Glasnow, 0.00 ERA, 1.2 IP. 2 hits, 2 walks, 2 K’s
Jack Dreyer, 0.00 ERA, 0.2 IP, 1 walk, 1 K
Blake Snell, 2-0, 1.38 ERA, 13 IP, 5 hits, 5 walk, 18 K’s
Shohei Ohtani, 1-0, 4.50 ERA, 6 IP, 3 hits, 1 walk, 9 K’s
Alex Vesia, 9.00 ERA, 2 IP, 2 hit, 2 walks, 2 K’s
Emmet Sheehan, 11.59 ERA, 2.1 IP, 4 hits, 2 walks, 1 K
Blake Treinen, 13.53 ERA, 1.1 IP, 4 hits, 2 K’s
Edgardo Henriquez, infinity, 0 IP, 1 hit, 2 walks
Team, 4-0, 3.25 ERA, 2 saves, 26 hits, 17 walks, 47 K’s

Three players on the NLCS roster, Anthony Banda, Clayton Kershaw and Tanner Scott, haven’t pitched in the postseason yet.

Up next

Wednesday: Philadelphia (Aaron Nola, 5-10, 6.01 ERA) at Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 12-8, 2.49 ERA), 6 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-Thursday: Philadelphia (TBD) at Dodgers (Tyler Glasnow, 4-3, 3.19 ERA), 3 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-Saturday: Dodgers (TBD) at Philadelphia (TBD), 5 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

*-left-handed
x-if necessary

In case you missed it

Dave Roberts explains why the Dodgers didn’t use Roki Sasaki earlier in Game 2

Shaikin: Inside the Mookie Betts play call that won NLDS Game 2 for the Dodgers

Hernández: The Phillies are done, and the Dodgers’ path to the World Series looks clear

‘Pass the baton.’ Dodgers finally get to Jesús Luzardo in pressure-packed seventh inning

Dodgers take NLDS Game 2 and are on the verge of the NLCS | Dodgers Debate

Mookie Betts and Max Muncy talk wheel play in the 9th inning of NLDS Game 2

Shaikin: Clayton Kershaw isn’t first Hall of Fame-bound pitcher to finish career in Dodgers bullpen

And finally

Game 2 highlights. Watch and listen here.

Until next time…

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

PHILADELPHIA — This is over.

Or, from the perspective of the Dodgers, this is just starting.

Because the Dodgers are returning to the World Series.

Technically, they still have to close out their National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. They still have to win the NL Championship Series.

But they will.

They will because they won’t blow the two-games-to-none lead they have after their 4-3 victory over the Phillies on Monday in Game 2 of their best-of-five series.

They will because the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs don’t have the firepower necessary to take down these Dodgers in the next round.

One victory at Citizens Bank Park would have sufficed. The Dodgers won two, and now they’re on the verge of sweeping the greatest threat they will encounter in their title defense.

“To get two in this environment is obviously massive,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “You can’t understate it. This is a really hard place to play in the regular season, let alone here (in the playoffs).”

The Dodgers can officially eliminate the Phillies on Wednesday.

They will be playing at Dodger Stadium. They will have their best pitcher on the mound in Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Call in a priest — or a padre. The time has come to read the Phillies their last rites.

The Dodgers didn’t come close to winning 120 games, and they were underwhelming in the regular season, which explains why they were unable to secure either of the first-round byes that were claimed by the Phillies and Brewers. They entered the postseason with an alarmingly untrustworthy bullpen, and that bullpen nearly blew a four-run lead in Game 2.

But in stealing two wins at Citizens Bank Park, the Dodgers demonstrated they still have that championship something that no other team in baseball has.

That something emerged on Monday night in the six scoreless innings pitched by Blake Snell, the run-scoring slide by Teoscar Hernández on a slow roller by Kike Hernández, the two-run single by Will Smith that broke open the game, the insurance run driven in by Shohei Ohtani. That something was reflected in the two innings contributed by converted starter Emmet Sheehan, and game-saving defensive plays made by Mookie Betts, Max Muncy and Miguel Rojas.

“It’s huge,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s obviously huge. Guys are really stepping up.”

The Phillies aren’t stepping up, and their championship window that was opened by the likes of Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber could soon be closing. The urgency of the situation was recognized, with Phillies manager Rob Thomson making no effort to downplay the importance of Game 2, saying before the game that Ranger Suarez and Aaron Nola could pitch in relief.

Suárez and Nola were two candidates to start Game 3 (the Phillies announced after the game Nola would get the nod).

Thomson was prepared to deploy Suárez in a high-leverage situation. He was ready to call on Nola if the game went into extra innings.

“And we’ll figure out Game 3,” Thomson said.

The home fans comprehended the stakes. Citizens Bank Park was a madhouse in Game 1, but the crowd for Game 2 was comparatively toned down.

The nervous tension in the stadium quickly morphed into unbridled frustration, as the Phillies’ lineup was unable to do anything against Snell.

There were boos when batting champion Trea Turner struck out in the third inning. There were boos when Brandon Marsh was caught stealing on a pickoff by Snell to end the inning. There were more boos when Alec Bohm struck out for the final out of the fourth.

The first hit Snell gave up was with two outs in the fifth inning, a flare single to center field by Edmundo Sosa. The very next batter, Marsh, grounded out. More boos.

How nervous were Phillies fans? When a warning on the public-address system about streaking was followed by a bare-chested Philly Phanatic running across the outfield before the sixth inning, they offered no reaction. Baseball’s most iconic mascot was completely ignored.

Up to this point, the Dodgers were equally unproductive against the Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo. Betts singled and Teoscar Hernández walked in successive at-bats in the first inning, only for Luzardo to retire the next 17 batters in a row.

The Phillies threatened Snell for the first time in the sixth inning when Turner and Kyle Schwarber drew successive one-out walks. Up next: Harper, a two-time NL most valuable player.

In almost any other postseason, this is where Roberts would have instructed one of his coaches to phone the bullpen. But Roberts wasn’t about to replace Snell, not at this stage of the game, not with the combustibility of his relievers.

Snell struck out Harper and forced Bohm to hit a sharp grounder to Rojas at third base. Once Rojas secured the ball, he dived to the nearest bag, his outstretched glove touching the base before the hand of a sliding Turner.

The defensive stand set the stage for a four-run seventh inning that decided the game.

Thomson inadvertently assisted the effort but not because he removed Luzardo. His error was in the pitcher he chose to replace Luzardo with runners on second and third base with no outs. With closer Jhoan Duran available, Thomson went with Orion Kerkering.

Nothing could stop the Dodgers — not even their own bullpen.

Sheehan pitched the seventh and eighth innings, over which he limited the Phillies to a run.

Reluctant to use rookie Roki Sasaki twice in three days — Sasaki closed out Game 1 — Roberts gambled by calling on Blake Treinen to pitch the ninth inning. The slumping former World Series hero failed to get a single out, giving up a pair of runs on a double by Nick Castellanos. What was once a four-run lead was suddenly down to 4-3.

With Alex Vesia on the mound, the Dodgers executed a wheel play that resulted in Muncy fielding a bunt by Bryson Stott and throwing to third base, where Betts applied a tag on Castellanos. The play potentially saved a run, as well as the game.

Vesia was replaced with two outs and runners on the corners by Sasaki, who forced Turner to ground out.

The game was over.

Unofficially, the most important series of the postseason was, too.

PHILADELPHIA — Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo had set down 17 batters in a row going into the seventh inning of Monday’s National League Division Series game. The Dodgers hadn’t had a hit or a baserunner since the first.

And it didn’t look like they’d get another.

“Luzardo,” said Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman, “was amazing.”

Yet it was Freeman who brought Luzardo’s masterful night to an end and pushed the Phillies’ season to the brink, keying a 4-3 Dodger win that sends the best-of-five series to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday with Philadelphia a loss away from spring training.

“It’s huge. It’s absolutely huge,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the two-game sweep on the road. “Guys are really stepping up.”

Especially in the seventh, when the Dodgers batted around, producing the kind of inning they rarely managed in the regular season, one that featured aggressive at-bats, smart baserunning and three two-out RBIs.

“All that coming together; just really good at-bats up and down the lineup,” Roberts said.

Teoscar Hernández got it started with a single to center. Freeman followed with a hit off the end of his bat into the right-field corner, a single he turned into a double when he refused to stop at first, surprising outfielder Nick Castellanos.

“I was trying to keep things going, put pressure on them,” Freeman said. “I just wanted to push the envelope in that situation since we hadn’t had anything going on since the first inning.”

Luzardo had given up one hit through six innings; now he’d given up two in the span of five pitches.

“He retired 17 in a row. He had 72 pitches. He’s pitching great,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.

But after Freeman’s hit he was done, with Thomson summoning reliever Orion Kerkering. The Dodgers, however, were just getting started, and an out later Hernández put them ahead to stay, breaking smartly from third on Kiké Hernández’s slow roller by the mound, then sliding to the back of the plate to beat shortstop Trea Turner’s wide throw home.

Pinch-hitter Max Muncy followed with a four-pitch walk to load the bases for Will Smith, whose two-out single on the first pitch he saw drove in two more runs.

“In that situation, it’s very easy to try to want to do too much,” Muncy said. “You have a chance to drive in a couple runs. It’s very easy to chase a pitch. But you’ve just got to be diligent with what you’re trying to do up there and just pass the baton to the next guy.”

Dodgers’ Will Smith hits a two-run single during the seventh inning of Game 2 of the NLDS on Monday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers’ rally had been built around a double that should have been a single, a run-scoring fielder’s choice that barely passed the mound, a walk and Smith’s one-hop single to left, the hardest-hit ball of the inning. When Shohei Ohtani grounded a single by diving second baseman Edmundo Sosa, the Dodgers led 4-0.

“Obviously some huge two-out hits by Will and then Shohei. Great play by Teo getting his foot in,” Freeman said. “A lot of good things happened in that seventh inning.”

The inning also silenced the sellout crowd of 45,653, which minutes earlier had been louder than a rock concert during a NASCAR race. When Matt Strahm, the third pitcher of the inning, finally got Mookie Betts for the third out, the fans booed the Phillies off the field.

The crowd came alive again in the ninth, when Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen once again melted down on the mound, gave up three hits and two runs without getting an out to let the Phillies back in the game. But Roki Sasaki then took them out again, retiring Turner on a groundball with the tying run on third, earning his second save in as many games.

When it was over the Phillies, who had the best home record in the majors this season, had lost consecutive games at home for the first time since June 1. And the Dodgers, unbeaten this postseason, were a win away from the NL Championship Series.

“Lots to unpack in that one,” Roberts said.

Freeman managed to put it all in perspective.

“We were just sitting at our lockers and Kiké said, ‘we just took two here’,” he said. “This is a hard place to play. Incredible fan base. It’s loud here.

“We obviously put ourselves in great position going into Wednesday.”

PHILADELPHIA — It was quintessential October baseball.

Two starting pitchers dominating two helpless lineups.

A low-scoring contest in which every stranded baserunner felt like a monumental missed opportunity.

A nail-biting affair decided by one team cashing in a rare scoring chance, and the other failing to do the same.

In the bottom of the sixth inning in Game 2 of the National League Division Series on Monday, the Philadelphia Phillies had two aboard with one out, but came up empty.

In the next half-inning, the Dodgers faced the same situation, but came away with four runs.

That was the difference in the Dodgers’ 4-3 victory at Citizens Bank Park, giving them a commanding 2-0 lead in a best-of-five series that will shift to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Wednesday.

Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell delivers during the second inning Monday against the Phillies.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

For most of Monday night, a crowd of 45,653 in South Philadelphia sat anxiously in anticipation, waiting for the dam to break in an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel.

On one side, Blake Snell was dotting his fastball up in the zone and to both parts of the plate, giving the Phillies little to hit while setting them up to flail at his dominant arsenal of secondary weapons. Through four innings, he retired 12 of 14 batters with only two walks issued. He had gotten whiffs on each of the first 11 non-fastballs he threw. And not until there were two outs in the fifth did he give up his first hit.

Opposite him, Jesús Luzardo was equally effective. After stranding runners on the corners in a shaky first, the left-hander locked in and made the Dodgers look silly with a barrage of sweepers and changeups that dipped below the zone. Where he needed 24 pitches in the first, he completed the next five on just 48 throws. In that time, he retired 17 in a row and let only two balls even leave the infield.

Finally, in the bottom of the sixth, the narrative began to change.

The Phillies generated the game’s first big opportunity, after Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber walked in back-to-back at-bats against Snell with one out. It was the first time all night their lineup had gotten a runner past first. And it happened as two-time MVP Bryce Harper came strolling to the plate.

Snell’s plan of attack against Harper was simple. His first pitch was a slider in the dirt. His next was another one up in the zone Harper fouled off. Two more sliders followed, with Harper fanning on the first and fouling off the next. Then, after one change-of-pace curveball was buried in front of the plate, Snell went back to the slider one more time. It darted below Harper’s swing for a strikeout. Citizens Bank Park groaned.

The inning ended a batter later, when Alec Bohm chased a 2-and-0 changeup and hit a groundball to third base. Miguel Rojas fielded it behind the bag, clocked the speedy Bohm racing toward first, and decided to go the short — albeit risky — way instead, sprinting to third base and beating Turner to the bag with a headfirst slide.

That ended the inning. This time, frustrated boos rained down from the stands.

Minutes later, the Dodgers would be in front. Unlike the Phillies, they didn’t squander their one opportunity for runs.

Teoscar Hernández led off the top of the seventh with a single. Freddie Freeman followed with a line drive to weak-fielding Nick Castellanos (who was drawn into the Phillies’ lineup following an injury to Harrison Bader in Game 1) in right, getting on his horse to leg out a hustle double.

That knocked Luzardo out of the game. And in a move that would soon be second-guessed, Phillies manager Rob Thompson opted for right-handed reliever Orion Kerkering instead of dominant closer Jhoan Duran.

Kerkering got one quick out, striking out Tommy Edman.

But then Kiké Hernández hit a cue-ball grounder to Turner at shortstop. After a slight hesitation, Teoscar Hernández broke for home hard. As Turner fielded the ball and fired to the plate, Hernández chugged in with a feet-first slide. Catcher J.T. Realmuto’s tag was a split-second too late.

Teoscar Hernández celebrates after advancing to third on a double by Freddie Freeman in the seventh inning against the Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS on Monday. Hernandez later scored the Dodgers’ first run.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers had opened the scoring — and would only keep adding on.

With two outs in the inning, Will Smith (who, like in Game 1, entered as a mid-game replacement as he continues to work back from his fractured hand) hit a two-run single to left. Shohei Ohtani, who had been hitless in the series and 0 for 3 earlier in the night, tacked on another with a groundball that got through the infield.

By the time the dust settled, the Dodgers had surged to a 4-0 lead.

They would need every bit of it.

Emmet Sheehan followed Snell’s six-inning, one-hit, nine-strikeout gem with two innings of relief, retiring the side in the seventh before limiting damage in the eighth, when he gave up one run after a Max Kepler triple and Turner RBI single but retired the side on a strikeout of Schwarber and a flyball from Harper.

The real trouble came in the ninth, when the Dodgers turned to Blake Treinen — and not recently ascendant bullpen ace Roki Sasaki — to close the game.

Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers in the ninth inning against the Phillies on Monday in Game 2 of the NLDS.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Treinen couldn’t, giving up a leadoff single and back-to-back doubles to J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos to bring home two runs and put the tying runner at second.

Alex Vesia entered next and got two outs (one of them, a crucial play from third baseman Max Muncy to field a bunt and throw out Castellanos at third as the lead runner). Then, Sasaki was finally summoned to face Turner with runners on the corners.

He induced a groundball to second baseman Tommy Edman. Edman spiked his throw to first, but Freeman picked it with a sprawling effort. And once again, the Phillies had failed to completely cash in on a scoring chance — leaving the Dodgers one win away from advancing to the NL Championship Series.

Hi and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and that was an exciting Game 1.

—Two great teams, making it interesting every inning. That was a great game.

—The Dodgers should think about signing every player who has Hernández as a last name.

—Or, should I say, Super Kiké.

—Shohei Ohtani has one rough inning, but then seemed to say “Enough!” After J.T. Realmuto‘s triple, he retired the next 10 batters. And he could have given up only two runs, but Teoscar Hernández seemed particularly slow in right field and let Realmuto’s ball get past him, allowing Realmuto to take third, where he scored on a sacrifice fly.

—Then, in the fifth, Ohtani retired a batter, then hit Harrison Bader with a pitch and gave up a single to Bryson Stott, putting runners at first and second. Dave Roberts stayed in the dugout, which he might not have done in a regular-season game. Ohtani got Trea Turner to line to short and struck out Kyle Schwarber on a full-count pitch. It felt like a momentum shift.

—“I think it might have been a scene that decided the direction of the game,” Ohtani said.

—The only drawback: Ohtani struck out four times at the plate.

—“I use the word compartmentalize a lot, but this epitomizes compartmentalizing,” Roberts said of Ohtani. “To go out there and give us six innings, keep us in the ball game, I just don’t know any human that can manage that, those emotions. How do you not take [the hitting struggles] to the mound?”

—The Dodgers scored two runs in the next inning when Freddie Freeman walked, Tommy Edman singled and Kiké doubled.

—Then Teoscar hit his three-run shot in the seventh, and that was enough.

—“When you can hear a pin drop in the stadium, that’s the ultimate feeling in baseball,” Max Muncy said of the home run. “I felt like the people in the upper deck could hear us cheering in the dugout.”

—That Dodgers bullpen we were all worried about? With Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki out there, it looks a lot better. Glasnow won’t be available the next two games because he will start Game 4 if it is needed.

—Sasaki wasn’t quite as dominant as he was against the Reds, but he is facing a much better team.

—By the way, TBS announcers Brian Anderson, Jeff Francoeur and Lauren Shehadi are much better than the ESPN crew.

—But let’s not get carried away. The Phillies will not go down quietly. This will be a fight to the finish (Gee, how many cliches is the writer going to use?)

The NLDS roster

There were only two changes for the Dodgers on the NLDS roster. Clayton Kershaw and Anthony Banda were added, while Edgardo Henriquez and Justin Wrobleski were removed. Justin Dean remains on the roster and Michael Conforto remains off the roster.

Counting the postseason, Dean has appeared in 21 games with the Dodgers and has only two at-bats. He’s 0 for 2 with a stolen base and a strikeout.

In the history of baseball, there have been only three players to appear in at least 21 games and have two or fewer plate appearances. They are:

Gary Cooper, 1980 Atlanta Braves. Cooper went 0 for 2 with two stolen bases and three runs scored. He was used as a pinch-runner and for late-inning defense.

Allan Lewis, 1973 Oakland. Lewis appeared in 40 games (counting the postseason) and had no plate appearances. He was used as a pinch-runner and scored 16 runs while also stealing seven bases. He appeared in five postseason games and scored two runs.

Herb Washington, 1974 Oakland. Washington appeared in 92 games, all as a pinch-runner. As you can tell, having a pinch-runner on the team was an obsession of A’s owner Charlie Finley. Washington stole 29 bases, was caught 14 times, and scored 29 runs. In track, he still holds the record for the fastest 50-yard and 60-yard dash. That’s why Finley wanted to sign him, thinking he would be an unstoppable base stealer. He wasn’t, since there’s more to base stealing than just being fast. In his short career, Washington played in 105 games without batting, pitching or fielding.

Money talks?

Where the 12 postseason teams rank among team payrolls this season:

1. Dodgers, $350,300,236
3. NY Yankees, $300,187,616
4. Philadelphia, $290,286,320
5. Toronto, $255,380,936
9. San Diego, $216,835,142
10. Chicago Cubs, $211,947,613
12. Boston, $200,904,575
15. Seattle, $164,517,201
17. Detroit, $157,566,294
22. Milwaukee, $121,674,704
23. Cincinnati, $119,523,192
25. Cleveland, $100,365,031

Teams ranked in the top 15 for payroll that did not make the postseason:

2. New York Mets, $342,377,486
6. Houston (no relation), $232,884,232
7. Texas, $226,026,491
8. Atlanta, $218,842,260
11. Angels, $206,688,366
13. Arizona, $178,987,367
14. San Francisco, $178,312,152

Numbers provided by spotrac.com.

Poll time

We asked, “Who do you think will win the Dodgers-Phillies series?”

The results, after 8,632 votes:

Dodgers in five, 49.8%
Dodgers in four, 32.9%
Phillies in five, 8.2%
Phillies in four, 7%
Dodgers in three, 1.7%
Phillies in three, 0.6%

Up next

Monday: Dodgers (*Blake Snell, 5-4, 2.35 ERA) at Philadelphia (*Jesús Luzardo, 15-7, 3.92 ERA), 3 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

Wednesday: Philadelphia (TBD) at Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 12-8, 2.49 ERA), 6 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-Thursday: Philadelphia (TBD) at Dodgers (TBD), 3 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-Saturday: Dodgers (TBD) at Philadelphia (TBD), 5 p.m., TBS, truTV, HBO Max, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

*-left-handed
x-if necessary

In case you missed it

Shaikin: ‘I try to put it in the trash.’ How Teoscar Hernández’s mindset delivered October magic

Hernández: Dodgers save Shohei Ohtani, not the other way around, in monumental Game 1 NLDS win

NLDS Game 1: Dodgers steal home field advantage

Tyler Glasnow talks relief pitching in NLDS Game 1

Clayton Kershaw added to Dodgers’ NLDS roster as expected, Will Smith remains active

‘Better late than never.’ How Mookie Betts salvaged the worst season of his career

And finally

Game 1 highlights. Watch and listen here.

Until next time…

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

PHILADELPHIA — Two innings into Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night, the Dodgers had been punched in the mouth.

The Phillies had scored three runs off Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the second. Citizens Bank Park was shaking on the scale of a small earthquake. And the Dodgers’ offense was doing nothing against Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez.

In the opening contest of a heavyweight series, the defending champions were down.

But, in their typically resilient fashion, far from out.

In a come-from-behind, statement-sending 5-3 win, the Dodgers did again what carried them a championship last October.

They shrugged off the early adversity, with Ohtani conceding no further damage over a six-inning start, finishing his postseason pitching debut with nine strikeouts and four monumental scoreless innings.

Their lineup chipped away at the deficit, knocking Phillies ace and Cy Young Award candidate Sánchez out of the game on Kiké Hernández’s two-out, two-run double in the sixth.

Then, they landed the actual knockout blow, with Teoscar Hernández flipping the game — and the feel of this best-of-five series — with a two-out, three-run, stadium-silencing home run in the seventh.

Game 2 will be back here in South Philadelphia on Monday night. And the Dodgers will go into it with, given the way Saturday started, an unexpected 1-0 series lead.

It could not have started worse for the Dodgers.

Sánchez was carving them up with wicked sinkers and fall-off-the-table changeups. Ohtani, meanwhile, ran into early trouble in the bottom of the second.

The inning started with a walk to Alec Bohm, when Ohtani missed on a full-count fastball. That was followed by a single from Brandon Marsh, who got a down-the-middle fastball in a 2-and-2 count and shot a base hit to center.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani delivers during the third inning against the Phillies on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

As Ohtani tried to settle down, a chorus of taunting chants — Sho-Hei! Sho-Hei! — came raining down.

A crowd of 45,777 was ready to explode.

Then, J.T. Realmuto gave them the chance.

After missing with a first-pitch slider to Realmuto, Ohtani left a 100.2-mph heater in the dead heart of the zone. The location rendered the velocity irrelevant. Realmuto barreled it up, sent a line drive screaming into right-center, then chugged all the way to third after the ball got past Teoscar Hernández in the gap.

A fly ball two batters later — which worked for a sacrifice fly thanks to Hernández’s inability to cut the ball off — made it 3-0.

In the moment (and with the way Sánchez was pitching early), the lead felt almost insurmountable.

The Dodgers, however, didn’t wilt.

The turnaround began with Ohtani, who followed Realmuto’s triple by retiring the next 10 he faced. His only other trouble came in the fifth, when the bottom two hitters in the Phillies’ order reached base with one out. But even then, Ohtani buckled down, getting Trea Turner to line out and Kyle Schwarber to swing through a curveball that ended the inning.

Eventually, the Dodgers’ offense found life too.

With two outs in the sixth, and Sánchez having given up only two hits all night, Freddie Freeman sparked a rally with a five-pitch walk. Tommy Edman took a sinker the other way to put two aboard.

That brought up Kiké Hernández, who had already begun reprising his role of October hero with four hits in the team’s wild-card series sweep of the Cincinnati Reds.

On cue, Hernández came up clutch again, jumping on a slider from Sánchez that caught a little too much plate and roping it down the left-field line for a two-run double — the latter run coming when Edman ran through a stop sign at third base.

Just like that, Sánchez was knocked out of the game. What had been a raucous crowd earlier in the night suddenly grew tense.

That dread only grew in the next-half inning, when Ohtani completed his start with a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth.

Then, in the seventh, the Dodgers made the comeback complete — getting the biggest swing of the night from another postseason savior, Teoscar Hernández.

Teoscar Hernández celebrates after hitting a three-run home run in the seventh inning for the Dodgers against the Phillies on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

After Andy Pages led off the inning with a single and Will Smith (who entered the game in the fifth inning for his first appearance of this postseason after missing the wild card round with a fractured hand) was hit by a pitch from David Robertson, the Phillies summoned top left-handed reliever Matt Strahm to face Ohtani.

As he did in his prior three at-bats, Ohtani struck out, taking a fastball down the middle, punching out in four-consecutive at-bats in a game for only the second time in his MLB career.

But by getting Strahm on the mound, the Dodgers had favorable right-on-left matchups behind him. Mookie Betts couldn’t take advantage, popping out to third for the second out of the inning. Hernández, on the other hand, didn’t miss.

On an elevated fastball in a 1-and-0 count, Hernández launched a towering fly ball to the right-center field gap. The Phillies outfield went back on it. But the ball kept carrying into the stands. The ballpark went silent. Hernández practically glided around the bases.

The drama didn’t end there.

Projected Game 4 starter Tyler Glasnow came on in relief in the seventh, when he retired the side on a double-play grounder, then returned for the eighth, when he loaded the bases on a single and two walks. That threat was extinguished by left-hander Alex Vesia, who induced a harmless fly ball from pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa to quiet a stirring crowd once again.

The ninth inning then belonged to Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old converted rookie starter who has ascended to closing duties less than two weeks after returning from a months-long shoulder injury. He picked up the save in straightforward fashion, retiring the side in order for his first career save.

Dave Roberts started out of the dugout with a walk.

Once Blake Snell caught his gaze, it turned into a trot.

With two out in the seventh inning, and Snell trying to put the finishing touches on his best performance in a Dodgers uniform, Roberts appeared to be coming to the mound after a pair of walks to turn to his shaky bullpen with a three-run lead.

As he usually does when removing a pitcher, his gait was slow — at least, initially.

Once Snell saw him coming, however, Roberts picked up his pace — as he will sometimes do when electing to leave a pitcher in the game.

This time, it was the latter.

After a brief discussion between manager and starting pitcher, Snell stayed in.

Five throws later, the $180-million offseason signee rewarded the decision, striking out Otto Kemp with a 95-mph fastball to put an emphatic ending on his scoreless seven-inning start, one that lifted the Dodgers to a 5-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Entering Wednesday, all the discussion around the Dodgers had centered on the bullpen. The slumping unit was coming off two of its worst performances of the season. The majority of Roberts’ pregame address with reporters was spent dissecting how to fix it.

“Before the results, has to be confidence,” Roberts said, comparing the relief corps’ struggles to the second-half scuffles that the offense only recently emerged from. “It’s just kind of trying to reset a mentality, a mindset and expect that things happen. … You can’t chase a zero in an inning until you execute the first pitch, and then keep going like that. And I think that right now you can see that they’re kind of trying a little too hard.”

On Wednesday night, however, Snell made their job easy.

Efficient from the start with the kind of aggressive, attacking game plan he had acknowledged was missing in his last three outings, Snell went to work quickly against the Phillies, retiring the side on eight pitches (and two strikeouts) in the first inning, en route to setting down the first eight batters he faced.

Brief trouble arose in the third, when Bryson Stott and Harrison Bader had back-to-back singles.

But then Snell froze Kyle Schwarber with a curveball, one of the seven punchouts he recorded with the pitch. He had a season-high 12 strikeouts on the night.

And after that, the Phillies didn’t put another runner aboard until the seventh, with Snell breezing through the next 12 batters.

In the meantime, the Dodgers built a lead. Freddie Freeman homered to lead off the second. Ben Rortvedt (starting his third straight game behind the plate, even with Dalton Rushing back from a leg injury) added an RBI single later in the inning, following an Andy Pages hit-and-run single that put runners on the corners.

Another run came around in the fourth, after Pages worked a two-out walk, stole second, took third on a wild pickoff throw and scored on an RBI single from Kiké Hernández (who played third base in place of Max Muncy, who still felt “fuzzy” on Tuesday from a hit-by-pitch he took to the head over the weekend).

And from there, the Dodgers watched Snell cruise, with the $182-million offseason acquisition attacking the corners of the strike zone while also inducing misses on 24 of 54 swings.

The night culminated in the seventh, after walks to Nick Castellanos and Max Kepler drew Roberts out of the dugout. In the bullpen, left-hander Alex Vesia was getting warm. For a brief moment, it appeared the game would be in the hands of the relievers.

Snell had other ideas, signaling Roberts to hurry to the mound in the middle of his walk before seemingly pleading his case to stay in.

Whatever he said, Roberts listened.

Snell stayed on the rubber. A crowd of 50,859 roared in approval.

Against his final batter, Kemp, Snell fell behind, missing low with a changeup before pulling a fastball wide. Undeterred, he went back on the attack, getting one foul ball with a heater on the inner half, then another with a curveball that leaked over the plate. The count was 2-and-2. Chavez Ravine rose to its feet.

The next pitch — Snell’s 112th of the night — was another fastball, this time on the upper, outside corner at 95.3 mph. Kemp swung through it. Snell screamed and pumped his fist. In the dugout, Roberts raised an arm in the air, then began clapping as Snell walked off to a raucous ovation.

The next two innings were refreshingly simple. Alex Vesia retired the side in the top of the eighth. The Dodgers made it a five-run lead by scoring twice in the bottom half of the frame, including on Shohei Ohtani’s 51st home run of the season. Embattled closer Tanner Scott spun a stress-free ninth, pitching three consecutive scoreless outings for the first time since early July.

Come October, that’s the kind of blueprint the Dodgers (who maintained a two-game lead in the National League West over the San Diego Padres) will have to try and replicate.

Their bullpen still needs fixing. Their relief issues aren’t solved. But more gems like Snell’s would certainly help.

Philadelphia has already clinched a playoff berth. The Dodgers’ magic number for matching that is five after Monday’s 6–5 extra-inning loss to the Phillies.

So the chances are high the teams will meet again in the postseason, which makes this week’s series at Dodger Stadium a great opportunity to do a little scouting.

“We try to gather as much information as we can,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “They’re doing the same thing.”

That’s not the main objective though. Because if the Dodgers are closing in a playoff berth, they aren’t there yet. And they have even more work to do after Monday’s game, which ended with Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto’s 10th-inning sacrifice fly scoring ghost runner Harrison Bader with the winning run.

“With where we’re at, I’m trying to win every game,” said manager Dave Roberts, whose team fought back from deficits three times before falling. “And where it falls out is where it falls out.”

Where the Dodgers are is 2 1/2 games in front of idle San Diego in the National League West. Their magic number for clinching an 11^th division title in 12 seasons is 10 with less than two weeks left in the regular season.

But the Dodgers also entered the Phillies series with their eyes on the No. 2 seed in the postseason tournament, a spot Philadelphia holds and one that brings with it a bye in the first round. It’s a break Roberts’ battered roster could use.

But it’s one that became more elusive when Monday’s win pushed the Phillies’ lead to 5½ games in the race for No. 2, a deficit the Dodgers have just 12 games to make up.

“It’s really hard to not face these games down the stretch like a playoff game,” Rojas said. “We’ve been doing this for almost two weeks now. That’s the way that we have to look at it if we want to be prepared for October.”

Left-hander Jack Dreyer agreed.

“Obviously it’s fun to think about the playoffs,” he said. “But right now, we’re just focused on this series and do[ing] whatever we can to perform for this series.”

That doesn’t mean players won’t remember how individual matchups unfold during this series or the next one against the San Francisco Giants, another potential playoff opponent.

“There are absolutely things that you can kind of pick up on and try to use in the future,” Dreyer said. “Every time that you’re playing guys, you can kind of deposit those memories into your brain for the future. Because you’re bound to face the same guys over and over again.”

One memory Dreyer won’t soon forget is the 2-0 fastball he threw to Weston Wilson in the seventh, a pitch Wilson, the Phillies’ ninth-place hitter, drove 417 feet to dead center for a go-ahead home run.

Two matchups Roberts did want to see Monday was left-hander Anthony Banda facing the Phillies’ two left-handed sluggers, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. So he sent the reliever out to open the game.

That didn’t work out well, with Schwarber driving a 2-2 pitch into the second row of the right-centerfield bleachers for his league-best 53^rd homer of the year. It was the first homer Banda had allowed since Aug. 4.

Banda then walked Harper before leaving in favor of right-hander Emmet Sheehan, who didn’t give up another hit until Otto Kemp opened the seventh with a ground-rule double to left.

That led Roberts to pull Sheehan for Dreyer, who gave up an RBI single to Bryson Stott followed by Wilson’s two-run homer, which gave the Phillies a 4-3 lead.

Dodgers relief pitcher Emmet Sheehan throws to the plate during the first inning of a loss to the Philadelphia Phillies Monday at Dodger Stadium.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

The Dodgers got their first run in the third, when Andy Pages led off with a double into the left-field corner, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a Mookie Betts fly ball just short of the warning track in center.

Two innings later, Max Muncy put the Dodgers in front with a leadoff home run to right, his first since returning from the injured list a week ago. Betts made it 3-1 with another sacrifice fly to center later in the inning, giving him 18 RBIs in September and his 77 for the season, two better than his total last year.

Betts added to that in seventh, tying the game with a two-out homer, his 19^th of the season, matching his total from last season.

Harper answered in eighth, putting the Phillies back in front, only to have Pages even things again with one out in the ninth with his 25^th homer of the season off Phillies closer Jhoan Durán, sending the game to extra innings.

The game ended with Muncy grounding out with the bases loaded against Philadelphia right-hander David Robertson.

Stewart reports for rehab assignment

Reliever Brock Stewart, the Dodgers’ most-celebrated acquisition at the trade deadline, left Monday to join Oklahoma City for a two-game rehab assignment. Stewart, on the injured list since Aug. 12 with right shoulder inflammation, is expected to pitch Tuesday and Thursday in Triple A before returning to Dodger Stadium.

“If all goes well, then we have a conversation over the weekend,” Roberts said of Stewart’s availability. “We’ve just got to make sure he’s healthy. If he’s right, then it could be very additive.”

Dodgers honor Betts’ philanthropy

For the second straight year Betts has been chosen as the Dodgers’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s most prestigious off-the-field prize, in recognition for his wide-ranging charity work.

In January, Betts’ 5050 Foundation donated more than $30,000 of Nike clothing to victims of the Southern California wildfires. A few weeks later, in partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF), he donated more than $160,000 to the Brotherhood Crusade to help fight hunger and homelessness in Los Angeles.

Also this season the 5050 Foundation partnered with the Obama Foundation at Hyde Park Academy to donate youth sports equipment and other supplies while also funding the Mookie Betts Metro Baseball Tournament in Nashville.

A Philadelphia Phillies fan secured a home run ball hit by Harrison Bader and proudly placed it in the glove of his 9-year-old son Lincoln.

Moments later, the same fan removed the ball from his son’s glove and gave it to a woman who claimed that it rightfully belonged to her.

Days after the now-viral incident occurred during the fourth inning of the Phillies’ 9-3 win over the Marlins on Friday in Miami, Drew Feltwell explained to NBC-10 in Philadelphia that he decided in the moment to “be Dad and show him how to de-escalate the situation” — something he determined was more important than providing Lincoln with a really cool game souvenir.

“We were there to get a home run ball,” said Feltwell, a Florida resident whose wife and daughter were also at the game. “So I thought I had accomplished this great thing. And putting it in his glove meant a lot. She was just so adamant and loud and yelling and persistent, and I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore.

“There was hundreds of people just staring. And like I said, she was very, very, very close, and I’m Dad of the family, so I didn’t want to do something I’d regret. And that was the choice I made, just hand the ball back and tell her go away.”

Feltwell said he was the first to get to the ball after it landed in an empty seat “down a couple seats” to his right. He said he was starting to walk away with the ball when other people, including the woman who eventually confronted him, started grabbing for it.

“I guess she just thought that that was her ball, because it was in front of her,” Feltwell said. “That’s fine, but she was too slow.”

Lincoln didn’t leave the game empty-handed though. A Marlins representative visited the family at their seats and presented the boy with a bag full of souvenirs. Then a Phillies representative invited the family to meet Bader outside the team clubhouse after the game. There, the nine-year veteran who was acquired from the Minnesota Twins at the trade deadline signed a bat for Lincoln and posed for pictures with the group.

Lincoln told NBC-10 that although he was unhappy to have to give away the home run ball, “I’m happy that I got to get something else.”

And, he added, “it was very, very fun getting to meet Bader.”

Feltwell said he holds no ill will toward the so-called Phillies Karen who ended up with the home run ball.

“I don’t wish any harm to her. I would love to have that particular ball to put on the wall next to his bat, and got about 500 promises that they’re going to get the ball.”

Even so, he said, “I hope nobody does anything stupid to get it.”

The Philadephia Phillies beat the Boston Red Sox after a catcher interference ruling with the bases loaded – a way of winning a game not seen in the major leagues since 1971.

With the scores level in the borrom of the 10th inning, Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez was deemed to have interfered with the swing of Phillies batter Edmundo Sosa – sending him to first base and “walking in” a walk-off run as the baserunners all advanced.

WATCH MORE: Pitcher catches 105mph ball without looking

PHILADELPHIA  — José Soriano limited Philadelphia to two runs in seven innings, Taylor Ward had a three-run double and the Angels beat the Phillies 8-2 on Sunday for a series victory.

Soriano (7-7) gave up six hits and struck out five. He was touched for a run in the second inning on an RBI single by Rafael Marchan, and the Phillies mustered little else until Otto Kemp’s two-out home run in the sixth.

The Angels scored five runs in the second against Ranger Suarez (7-4), who yielded six earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.

Zach Neto singled in a run in the second, and Ward followed with his three-run double. LaMonte Wade Jr. homered in the sixth.

Key moment: With a run in and the bases loaded in the second, Mike Trout worked a full count against Suarez. The next pitch looked borderline, and plate ump Steven Jaschinski called it a ball. That forced in a second Angels run to Suarez’s chagrin. He was really unhappy after the Angels’ next hitter, Ward, cleared the bases.

Key stat: The Phillies’ Kemp, replacing injured Alec Bohm at third base, committed two errors. That’s three errors in six starts at third for Kemp, who has split another 24 games between first base and left field with only one error.

Up next: The Angels take on the New York Mets in a three-game series beginning Monday night, with Tyler Anderson (2-6, 4.34 ERA) set to oppose the Mets’ Kodai Senga (7-3, 1.39). The Phillies host Boston for three beginning Monday night, with Zack Wheeler (9-3, 2.36) facing the Red Sox’s Walker Buehler (6-6, 6.12).

Nolan Schanuel injured

The Angels’ Nolan Schanuel was hit by a pitch and left the team’s game against the Phillies on Sunday.

(Matt Slocum / Associated Press)

Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel was removed from the game after being hit by a pitch.

Schanuel appeared to take a changeup from Suarez off the upper wrist of his left arm in the first inning. He hurried down the first base line in obvious pain. After being checked by a trainer, Schanuel remained in the game.

Schanuel did not play the field in the bottom of the inning. Wade replaced him at first base, batting second.

The Angels said Schanuel was diagnosed with a left wrist contusion and is listed as day to day.

Schanuel is hitting .274 with eight home runs and 40 RBIs through 95 games in this, his third season.

PHILADELPHIA — Kyle Schwarber hit a grand slam in the sixth inning and Bryce Harper capped the scoring with a two-run homer in the eighth, carrying the Philadelphia Phillies to a 9-5 win over the Angels on Saturday night.

Schwarber’s shot to right field off reliever José Fermin was his eighth career grand slam and 32nd homer of the season.

Taylor Ward and Jo Adell hit back-to-back home runs for the Angels in the fourth inning for a 3-1 lead that wouldn’t stand after Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi left after five solid innings.

The Phillies ruined what could have been a big inning in the first, when Schwarber and Trea Turner got caught in rundowns and were tagged out on the same grounder by Harper. Nick Castellanos followed that with a two-out, RBI single for a 1-0 lead.

The Angels turned it around in the fourth on Ward’s and Adell’s home runs. Zach Neto also plated a run with a single that inning but the Angels left the bases loaded.

The Phillies got a run back on Turner’s RBI single in the fifth. Yoan Moncada hit a home run in the sixth to restore a two-run Angels lead.

Seth Johnson (1-0) struck out two in one inning of work. Sam Bachman (2-3) took the loss.

Schwarber’s 32nd homer moved him into a tie for second in the National League with the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani before Ohtani hit his 33rd Saturday night. Arizona’s Eugenio Suárez hit two home runs Saturday, which gave him 33.

PHILADELPHIA — Taylor Ward hit a go-ahead two-run homer, Jo Adell and Jorge Soler also went deep, and the Angels beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-5 on Friday night.

The teams combined to hit six home runs, but it was Ward’s shot, his 22nd of the season, in the seventh that completed the Angels’ comeback from a three-run deficit.

Soler hit a solo homer in the second inning and Adell launched a two-run homer in the fourth. Both came off Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo, who allowed four runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out seven.

Mike Trout, playing in just his sixth game in his hometown in his 15-year career, had a double and an RBI single. Trout also did outfield drills before the game, as he continues to work back from a bruised left knee. He hasn’t played in the field since April 30 and has served solely as a designated hitter since returning a month later.

The Angels used seven pitchers to cobble together nine innings in a bullpen game. Sam Bachman (2-2) pitched two-thirds of an inning to earn the win and Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect ninth for his 17th save.

Bryce Harper homered twice — the 29th multihomer game of his career — and had four RBIs and Kyle Schwarber also homered for Philadelphia, which has lost five of its last seven games.

Tanner Banks (2-2) took the loss, giving up the homer to Ward.