Final Score: Phillies 8, Dodgers 3
LOS ANGELES — It’s tempting to say that this is what the Philadelphia Phillies envisioned after constructing one of the best on-paper lineups in the league — and one of the best in franchise history — this offseason.
But it’s not. This isn’t what they envisioned. What the Phillies lineup has done this weekend at Dodger Stadium has gone beyond any visions.
It started with 21 combined runs on Thursday and Friday, and it carried right over into Saturday, when the visitors cranked four home runs as part of an eight-run barrage that earned them their fourth straight win overall and their third in as many games against arguably the best team in baseball.
The Phillies may not have technically “earned” the first three of those runs, but Jean Segura earned his first-inning three-run homer, which followed Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner’s throwing error to extend the frame. The low throw in the dirt is usually a routine play for Freddie Freeman, but when things are going your way, things are going your way. Instead, the error brought Segura up, and a two-out rally that began with a Bryce Harper double ended with the Phillies up 3-0 and some early appearances from the Dodger Stadium boo birds.
Segura’s homer traveled just 340 feet, but it counted just the same as if it had gone 420. Evidence came in the third inning, when Harper cranked a first-pitch curveball from Julio Urías deep into the Phillies bullpen for a three-run shot of his own. It traveled 420 feet, a nice ode to the Southern California stadium he’s turned into his own personal batting cage for the weekend. A leadoff single from Rhys Hoskins, who threw both arms in the air as soon as the homer left Harper’s bat, and a double from Alec Bohm made it a three-run shot for the reigning MVP.
More important than the convenient read on the tape measure, it gave the Phillies a 6-1 lead. (Mookie Betts had put the Dodgers on the board with this leadoff homer in the first inning):
If the two home runs in the first three innings left something to be desired (somehow), Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins provided it in the fourth. No. 12 blasted a 412-foot tater to deep right center field, and Hoskins went down and got a first-pitch changeup, depositing it just over the wall in left for an 8-1 Phillies lead.
The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out in the fourth before Cody Bellinger’s two-run double made it 8-3 with two men still in scoring position. It was perhaps a great moment of unease for Phillies fans, especially those who remain scarred by two blown 7-1 leads in the past week-and-a-half and realized that the score had been 7-1 between Schwarber and Hoskins’ homers.
But Ranger Suárez limited the damage to that, striking out Hanser Alberto and inducing an Austin Barnes flyout to end the inning. The lefty then proceeded to retire the next nine Dodgers he faced, leaving with an impressive seven innings under his belt despite two first-inning extra-base hits and the fourth-inning jam hinting at an earlier departure.
There was slightly more discomfort in the eighth, when a pair of Seranthony Domínguez walks put two on with two outs. Justin Turner, last night’s fleeting hero, lined one 103 mph — right at Alec Bohm, who snagged it to end the threat.
Connor Brogdon fired a scoreless ninth to end it, and the Phillies, lo and behold, are .500. They’ve won the four-game series at Dodger Stadium already, and they’ll go for the sweep tomorrow — a reality that felt unlikely, to say the least, before the weekend began.
Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance
Julio Urías: 6 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 4 HR, 75 pitches
Urías’ four home runs and eight runs allowed were both career-highs for the lefty. Yes, *only* five of those eight were earned, but the fact that one of those four long balls probably never should have happened doesn’t make his outing much more encouraging. He left far too many curveballs over the middle of the plate, and the Phillies didn’t miss them. They were aggressive all night long — their homers came on two 0-0 and two 1-1 counts — and if a guy as willing to attack the strike zone as Urías runs into the wrong team on the wrong night, his line will be ugly. Urías’ was.
Ranger Suárez: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO, 1 HR, 102 pitches
Suárez had just two innings in which he ran into trouble — the other five were perfect 1-2-3 frames. But this isn’t a case of “without those two innings, he was pretty good” — his outing was good nonetheless. He limited damage (as he does), working out of one-out, man-on-second and one-out, second-and-third jams in those two non-perfect innings. Home plate umpire Adrian Johnson’s zone was low, but not obscenely low, and the low-ball southpaw used that to his advantage. Following six scoreless innings on Monday and Saturday’s quality start, Suárez’s ERA sits at 3.72.
Phillies Nugget Of The Game
Bryce Harper is 18-for-36 in his last nine games with five homers and seven doubles. He’s up from .240 with a .787 OPS before that stretch to .298 and .980 now. He has doubled (at least once) and homered in every game this series. There are more Bryce-Harper-is-on-a-tear stats, but this is supposed to be a nugget, so we’ll leave it there.
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Sunday, May 15 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium
- 4:10 p.m. ET
- TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Radio: Sportsradio 94 WIP
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