Categories: 2023 Postgame Recaps

Misplay, walk-off slam send Phillies to sweep by Dodgers despite Harper and late rally

Bryce Harper went 3-for-3 with a double and two walks in the Phillies’ loss on Wednesday. (Brandon Sloter/Icon Sportswire)

Final Score: Dodgers 10, Phillies 6

LOS ANGELES — Wednesday’s series finale against the Dodgers was officially lost on a 353-foot walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning, but it was doomed on a 121-foot hit the inning before.

With a once 5-0 lead shrunk to 5-4, and runners on scoring position with two outs in the eighth, Edmundo Sosa botched a low line drive off the bat of Austin Barnes that snuck into left field for a two-run single and 6-5 Dodgers lead. It was another uncharacteristic miscue in an uncharacteristically shaky season defensively for the usually sure-handed Sosa.

The Phillies, by the skin of their teeth, rallied back — thanks to a single from Bryce Harper, eight-pitch walk by Nick Castellanos and game-tying 0-2 bloop hit from Bryson Stott, all with two outs — but instead of constituting an insurance run, it evened the score at 6-6.

Max Muncy did more than he needed to against Craig Kimbrel with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the inning, sending the Phillies on the cross-country flight home empty-handed after what was supposed to be a feel-good series out west.

The Phillies had done everything they could to trim their margin for error to nothing. The offense missed a big-inning opportunity in the first, then went dormant from the fourth through eighth. Aaron Nola gave three of the Phillies’ four third-inning runs right back over the next two frames (though he was effective from then on). A separate defensive miscue by Castellanos set up a run in the seventh.

The Phillies were heading toward death by a thousand papercuts until the Dodgers twisted the knife on Muncy’s grand slam. And on a day when Harper made his return felt with a 3-for-3, double-and-two-walk performance, the Phillies wasted it.

Before the papercuts began, the Phillies’ offense offered a glimpse of its potential now with their superstar back in the lineup. Harper doubled — with an aggressive slide into second — for his first of three hits, and Castellanos traded places with him on an RBI double.

Alec Bohm and Sosa added two-out RBI singles — as did Garrett Stubbs, in bunt fashion — to give the Phillies the early cushion.

It was all for naught. The Phillies had the game within their grasp, but it snuck under a glove in the eighth and into the seats in the ninth for a heartbreaking loss to cap off an embarrassing sweep.

It sent the Phillies to two games under .500 — exactly where they were before beginning a four-game winning streak just one week ago.

Shibe Vintage Sports Notes

The Phillies have allowed double-digit runs in three straight games, the second time they’ve done that in 64 years, per The Athletic’s Matt Gelb.
Technically, the two runs Alvarado allowed in the eighth were earned, though they shouldn’t have scored in the first place. They’re just his second and third earned runs of the season.

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