The Phillies went 55-26 at Citizens Bank Park this season, the best home record in baseball and still wound up losing the first two games of the NLDS there to the Dodgers. The team looked hideous from top to bottom in Game 2 and appeared to be dead in the water. While all that is true, all it took was a trip to the west coast and their powder blue throwback uniforms to return the Phillies – at least for one night – to the team that dominated for most of the season whether at home or on the road.
Kyle Schwarber started things with a 455-foot home run – the longest of the postseason so far – to lead off the fourth inning. From there, it was like the team remembered how to hit and simply wanted to bring drama to the series by losing the first two games. Schwarber would later hit his second home run of the night, a two-run shot in the eighth, and finish the night 2-for-4 with three RBI.
After singles by Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm were compounded by an error on center fielder Andy Pages that allowed Harper to score and Bohm to come around to third, the Phillies had their groove back. A sacrifice fly by Brandon Marsh scored Bohm and the Phillies went up 3-1 over L.A.
The Dodgers one run to that point came with a bit of irony. Manager Rob Thomson made a slightly questionable decision to start Aaron Nola in Game 3 with the understanding that it would be a short outing and Ranger Suarez would follow him to the mound. Nola was hurt by a risky diving attempt by Marsh in center field that turned what should have been a single into a one out triple for Mookie Betts. Teoscar Hernandez struck out for the second out and Nola then hit Freddie Freeman with a pitch to put runners on first and third before he wiggled away from trouble by striking out Will Smith with an 81 mile per hour knuckle curve on a 3-2 pitch.
The irony came when Thomson brought in Suarez to start the third inning and his first pitch to Tommy Edman became a souvenir for a fan in left center field 393 feet away from home plate. The plan then returned to clarity when Suarez carried the Phillies through the next five innings, allowing only Edman’s home run to change the score.
The Phillies put a runner in scoring position in the fifth and then in the seventh faced Clayton Kershaw out of the bullpen. Trea Turner singled and Schwarber walked before a baserunning snafu had Turner advance to third with Schwarber being tagged out at first. After an intentional walk to Bohm, Marsh lined out to let Kershaw off the hook for the time being. Kershaw returned to pitch the eighth and things went from bad to worse for the future Hall of Famer. J.T. Realmuto led off with a home run to make it 4-1. A walk, a fielding error, and a double steal teed up a pair of runners for Turner who doubled to drive in two more runs. Schwarber followed with his second home run of the night and the Phillies had a five-run inning and an 8-1 lead.
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Orion Kerkering had a bounce back outing and was perfect in the eighth, getting Betts, Hernandez, and Freeman to groundout harmlessly. Blake Treinen also had a bounce back outing for the Dodgers as he put the Phillies down in the ninth. With a comfortable lead, Taijuan Walker came out to pitch the ninth and got the first out before giving up a walk and a single to put runners on first and third. After striking out pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas, Edman delivered an RBI single to make it 8-2. Thomson was in no mood to joke around and went to left-hander Tanner Banks to face Shohei Ohtani who filed out harmlessly to right field to end the game.
The win set up Game 4 for Thursday night at 6 ET back at Dodger Stadium. Cy Young candidate Cristopher Sanchez (13-5, 2.50) starts for the Phillies and Tyler Glasnow (4-3, 3.19) goes for the Dodgers. Sanchez allowed two runs in 5.2 innings and struck out eight in the series opener while Glasnow will be making his first start in the series. He did come in behind Ohtani in Game 1 and threw 1.2 shutout innings.
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