The Phillies began a crucial series at Dodger Stadium the same way they opened the previous six: with a dispiriting loss.
After taking a two-run lead in the top of the second, the Phils gave it back and more in the bottom of the third as Aaron Nola allowed hits to the Dodgers’ 7-8-9 hitters and was victimized by the top en route to four runs. He missed over the middle with his fastball, hung a couple of breaking balls and the Dodgers made loud contact. A two-run advantage became a two-run deficit and the Dodgers led the rest of the way, beating the Phillies, 5-3.
There are still 50 games to play but this is an important three-game set with potentially long-term ramifications. The Phils have held the National League’s top record all summer but are now just a half-game ahead of the Dodgers for home-field advantage throughout the National League playoffs.
There was no “just another series” talk pregame.
“It’s a big series. It’s the best record, could be,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Also head-to-head could be in effect. Certainly want to win this series.”
The Phillies, with three wins already over the Dodgers, cannot lose the head-to-head tiebreaker. They’d win it with just one victory in L.A. this week. If the Dodgers sweep, the teams will have split the six meetings and the second tiebreaker — record against teams in your league outside your division — could come into play.
The Phillies have lost 14 of 19 and are 66-46. The Dodgers are 66-47.
“Am I? No, I’m not aware of the standings,” Nick Castellanos said. “I can’t speak on behalf of the team but the way I go about it is tomorrow we have a baseball game, and if we do the best we can to prepare, that puts us in the best position to win.
“We’re grinding right now. I think we’re just in a funk. But I will say our dugout was very good today. All our attention was more on the field than it was on our iPads. I think that we were more in the competition. It was a good baseball game. A couple things here, a couple things there and it changes. But I feel like they beat us today, we didn’t beat ourselves. We played a good baseball game and you also have to realize that’s a good baseball team over there.”
These are the Phils’ last seven series openers:
· 6-2 loss to the A’s at home after scoring first
· 8-7 loss to the Pirates after holding two different three-run leads
· 7-2 loss to the Twins after scoring the first two runs
· 3-1 loss to the Guardians on a silent offensive night
· 14-4 throttling by the Yankees
· 10-2 throttling by the Mariners
· 5-3 loss to the Dodgers after scoring the first two runs
Monday was the fifth time in 16 games since the All-Star break that the Phillies scored first but lost. They went 45-15 in the first half when taking the game’s first lead and are just 4-5 since the break.
“There’s a lot of weird stuff happening that wasn’t happening at the start of the year and you’ve just got to fight through it,” Thomson said.
They appeared to create their own momentum in the top of the second when Castellanos tripled off the wall in straightaway center with two outs and Bryson Stott followed by creating two runs with his legs. Stott beat out a chopper back to the mound, then aggressively took third base on a single to left field by Austin Hays, enabling Hays to advance to second. Stott scored and Hays moved up a base two pitches later when the NL’s leader in wild pitches, Tyler Glasnow, uncorked one.
Glasnow was sharp outside of that minor stumble. He retired 10 in a row after Hays’ single and struck out nine over six innings.
“His fastball’s heavy,” Castellanos said. “He’s big at you coming down the mound and he had pretty good command of his offspeed stuff. He held that down-and-away corner pretty well and to lefties, it looked like he had that down-and-in pitch working nicely. … You’ve got less time to react just because of how big he is and how electric his stuff is.”
Trea Turner, who was locked in for a solid month from mid-June through mid-July, is really scuffling. He went 0-for-4 Monday, striking out in his first two at-bats then stranding a runner with nobody out in the sixth and eighth innings of a tight game. Turner is 9-for-60 over his last 14 games, falling from .347 to .308.
Shohei Ohtani hit a solo home run off Tanner Banks in the bottom of the eighth to give the Dodgers an extra run of insurance, and after Castellanos started the ninth with an opposite-field single, Stott, Hays and Garrett Stubbs hit cans of corn to the middle infield for game-ending popups. J.T. Realmuto was on the bench but Thomson did not turn to him for a pinch-hit appearance with the game on the line. He rarely does when giving a player a day off.
“You think about it, sure, but I still want to keep him healthy and give him a day,” Thomson said.
The Phillies still haven’t won two straight games since July 10-11 (against the Dodgers) and will need to do so to avoid their seventh straight series loss. It took them 93 games to lose their seventh series of the season, but a loss Tuesday night would make it seven more in the span of just 20 games.
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