More excellent starting pitching from the Dodgers and Phillies was on display on Monday night in Philadelphia, with zeroes through six innings. The Dodgers broke through in a four-run seventh inning then lived through a disastrous ninth inning to escape Citizens Bank Park with a 4-3 win and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 National League Division Series.
The Dodgers led 4-1 entering the ninth inning and, despite manager Dave Roberts saying Roki Sasaki would be available to pitch for the second time in three
days, the team turned to Blake Treinen to open the ninth inning. He was pulled after allowing a single and two doubles, leaving with the same no outs but the lead down to one and the tying run in scoring position.
Then came Alex Vesia, and the Phillies tried a sacrifice bunt. A charging Max Muncy accepted the gift and threw to a covering Mookie Betts at third for a free first out. Then, when Harrison Bader singled to left field, instead of the tying run scoring from second base, it was two runners on base. Still precarious, but much less so. Vesia got one more out, leaving runners at the corners for Sasaki, who was finally summoned to his toughest test yet — cleaning up a mess.
It took all of two pitches for Sasaki to induce a game-ending groundout, letting the Dodgers escape with a win they never should have lost but almost did anyway.
Blake Snell didn’t allow a hit until an Edmundo Sosa single with two outs in the fifth inning, and didn’t allow another. Snell did walk four, including two with one out in the sixth inning, giving the Phillies their first real scoring chance of the night. Snell rebounded to strike out Bryce Harper and got Alec Bohm to ground into a force out to a diving Miguel Rojas at third base to end the frame.
Snell struck out nine in his six scoreless innings, matching his total in seven innings last Tuesday in Game 1 of the wild card series. All four Dodgers starts on the mound this postseason have produced exactly nine strikeouts, and each start has lasted at least six innings, building the strongest base the Dodgers have had in years in October.
From 2021-24, the Dodgers played 35 postseason games and had a pitcher last six innings four times. They’ve done that four times in four games this year, to the tune of a 1.75 ERA with 36 strikeouts and eight walks in 25 2/3 innings.
Jesús Luzardo was just as stingy as Snell through six innings, and even more efficient. A walk and a single with one out in the first inning was followed by 17 Dodgers in a row retired. Luzardo was at just 72 pitches to open the seventh inning in a game that was still scoreless.
That 0-for streak was snapped with a Teoscar Hernández single to open the seventh, and Freddie Freeman doubled to put two Dodgers in scoring position. That ended Luzardo’s night, and after a strikeout Kiké Hernández bounced a ball behind the mound, which was enough time for Teoscar Hernández to score the game’s first run.
In the fourth inning, Hernández wasn’t running hard to first base on a play bobbled by Luzardo, and might have been safe had he hustled, prompting broadcaster Stephen Nelson on the AM 570 broadcast to say, “You have to respect 90 feet, always.” Whether Hernández, who missed time this season with a groin injury and when he fouled a ball off his left foot, is still nursing an injury hasn’t been revealed, but he got from third to home plenty fast enough to put the Dodgers on the board.
Will Smith, after missing over three weeks with a hairline fracture in his right hand, hasn’t started either game of the NLDS, but he did enter mid-game as a pinch-hitter and caught the rest of the way in each contest. In Game 2 Smith grounded out in his first at-bat, in the sixth inning, but with the bases loaded and two out in the seventh he singled home a pair to pad the Dodgers advantage.
Shohei Ohtani singled home another, capping the four-run frame, and set the stage for Emmet Sheehan to enter in relief. Sheehan retired his first four batters, but the eighth-inning monster struck again. Max Kepler tripled a ball that kicked off the edge of the grass in the right field corner, and was singled home by Trea Turner for the Phillies’ first run.
Trouble loomed for Sheehan, but he struck out Kyle Schwarber and induced a flyout by Harper to keep the advantage at three runs, and a vast improvement over Sheehan’s relief appearance on Wednesday in the wild card round against the Reds. To the dismay of at least one person, the Dodgers did not attempt a three-inning save, but rather a save of the traditional variety, turning the game over to Treinen in the ninth.
That plan didn’t go swimmingly either, but the Dodgers still live to see several more days, at least.
NLDS Game 2 particulars
Home runs: none
WP — Blake Snell (2-0): 6 IP, 1 hit, 4 walks, 9 strikeouts
LP — Jesús Luzardo (0-1): 6+ IP, 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts
Sv — Roki Sasaki (2): 1 up, 1 down
Up next
The Dodgers return home with a chance to close out the series on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium (6:08 p.m., TBS). Yoshinobu Yamamoto is on the mound for Los Angeles. Ranger Suárez was available in relief in Game 2 for the Phillies, so could be in line to start Game 3.
