The Phillies are still alive, at least for one more night.
Kyle Schwarber finally connected on his swing and launched two homers into the seats, Ranger Suárez was aces in relief, and though it took the Dodgers handing them a few more golden opportunities, the Phillies’ bats eventually piled on.
They took Game 3 of the NLDS in an 8-2 blowout over at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. They’re still trailing the best-of-five series, 2-1, but the important thing right now is that the Phillies are still playing.
They’re still breathing.
Here’s how…
The Good
• It took until the fourth inning of Game 3, stuck in an 0-for-23 drought and with the Phillies’ backs completely against the wall, but Kyle Schwarber finally got one.
L.A.’s Yoshinobu Yamamoto left a 2-0 fastball up in the zone, Schwarber got the barrel around to it, and as soon as the pitch cracked off the bat, it was never a question of if it was gone; it was a question of how far it was going.
Schwarber obliterated a solo home run 455 feet into Dodger Stadium’s right-field concourse to put his mark on the series after going quiet through Games 1 and 2.
He also tied the game up 1-1 after an opening three innings where the Phillies were struggling to get a read on Yamamoto, and the heart of the order followed behind him and started patching something together.
• Bryce Harper, who had also been struggling to make contact, followed Schwarber up with a base hit and went first to third on a slow-rolling single into center from Alec Bohm right after.
It was a risky call, but it hurried a throw from outfielder Andy Pages, who was caught off guard and rushed an ensuing bad decision that bounced past Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy and into the L.A. dugout.
Harper was free to take home on the error. Bohm, who had rushed around to second in the chaos, was awarded third, then scored on a Brandon Marsh sac fly to left.
The Phillies took a 3-1 lead and some heavy momentum that piled on with a ground-rule double from J.T. Realmuto. They needed that, but the rally halted quickly after, on a Max Kepler flyout and a Nick Castellanos strikeout to let Yamamoto get away.
• Ranger Suárez was everything the Phillies needed on Wednesday night. That first-pitch homer he gave up to Tommy Edman after he took over for Aaron Nola in the third wasn’t ideal, but the lefty didn’t let it snowball.
Instead, he posted five innings of one-hit, one-run ball in relief, with four strikeouts and just a walk. Edman’s solo homer was kept to the only damage done, and while it did look a bit dicey at other points, clutch plays like Bryson Stott’s underhanded double-play setup to end the sixth kept the Phillies away from trouble.
It was a big-time outing, in potentially what could’ve been Suárez’s last appearance as a Phillie, but the curtain hasn’t fallen just yet.
• Dodgers manager Dave Roberts really seemed to try to hand the Phillies Game 2 back at Citizens Bank Park. Rob Thomson and his club just bafflingly refused to take it, which sent them to L.A. in the 2-0 hole.
On Wednesday night, Roberts gave them another chance. Longtime lefty Clayton Kershaw, in his farewell season, was called on in relief for the seventh, and thanks to a base-running blunder from Schwarber (see below), the 37-year-old escaped a jam and kept the Phillies to just that 3-1 lead they put together in the fourth.
Then Roberts decided to leave Kershaw out there for the eighth. What he thought was going to happen? Who knows, but here’s what did…
J.T. Realmuto homered immediately, Max Kepler drew a walk, Nick Castellanos reached on a fielding error by Max Muncy at third, then after a sac bunt from Stott to move the runners up, Trea Turner looped a base hit to score both runners and put the Phillies up, 6-1.
If you thought that would be a night for Kershaw right there, uhh…no. He stayed in to face Schwarber. Schwarber crushed his second homer of the night, a two-run shot, for an 8-1 lead. That was game, as the seats in Dodger Stadium rapidly emptied out.
Again, who knows what Roberts was thinking, but it gave the Phillies another day.
The Bad
• The bottom of the first was an immediate rollercoaster for the Phillies.
Aaron Nola had his velocity, hitting 95 mph with his fastball, and got Shohei Ohtani to fly out for the first out.
Then Mookie Betts stepped up to the plate and worked into a 2-2 count after five pitches. On the sixth, Nola fired another 95 mph fastball, but left it right over the plate. Betts got a hold of the ball and lined it into center.
Marsh ran to it, and had he tracked it down and played it on the hop, a runner would be on, but only from a very manageable one-out single.
Marsh made a decision, though, and tried diving after the ball for the out. He missed. It went rolling to the wall as he lay there, and Nick Castellanos in right was slow to back up the play, which sent Betts storming off to third for the triple.
A runner was in scoring position, which hasn’t been anywhere close to a comfortable scenario to have Nola in all year. He pushed through and struck out Teoscar Hernández in four pitches for the second out, but then hit Freddie Freeman with a 0-1 knuckle curve that didn’t break to put runners at the corners.
Tanner Banks got up in the bullpen and started warming up.
Nola fought back for a huge strikeout of Will Smith looking on a full count to get the Phillies out unscathed. But from the jump, they were teetering on disaster, and after Nola had burnt through 22 pitches with movement going on in the pen, it was clear he only had so long.
• Nola returned for the second and put up a quick 1-2-3 inning, but that was as far as he was going after only 31 pitches, that lone triple allowed, the hit by pitch, and three strikeouts.
Suárez finally came in from the bullpen for his first appearance all series, but on the lefty’s very first pitch to start the third, Tommy Edman took him yard.
The Phillies, in a do-or-die, were working from behind, 1-0. They would have to climb back to survive.
Suárez turned it around quickly with a groundout of Ohtani, a lineout of Betts, and another groundout from Hernández to escape, but not before the Dodgers struck that first run. Still, he went on to recover beautifully.
• The Phillies, starting with Schwarber’s missile of a homer, finally got to Yamamoto in the fourth. In the fifth, they chased him from the game and looked like they were about to go on another rally, but stopped themselves short.
Stott singled in the nine hole, Turner followed with a base hit of his own in the next at-bat, and the two executed a double steal of second and third to put runners in scoring position with no one out.
Schwarber was up, and Roberts took that as his cue to take the ball from Yamamoto and hand it off to reliever Anthony Banda.
This was a crucial opportunity for the Phils to build up insurance, but Schwarber struck out swinging on a full count, Harper flied out on the first pitch to shallow right to hold the runners, and after the Dodgers elected to intentionally walk Bohm to load the bases, Banda had Marsh at the plate in the lefty-on-lefty matchup.
Marsh, who has notoriously been incapable of handling left-handed pitching, went down swinging on three pitches to let the Dodgers out of the jam.
Runs were left on the table. The Phillies still remained up two, but knowing how Game 1 went for them, they were tempting fate.
• Worse yet, they let the Dodgers exploit that matchup a second time.
In the seventh, L.A. called to Kershaw out of the pen. Turner immediately singled off him, Schwarber drew a walk, and Harper lined out to right, but it was a pretty well-hit ball that Hernández couldn’t get a read on until the last second.
Then, with Bohm back at the plate, Schwarber gave Kershaw and the Dodgers a gift.
A breaking pitch spun into the dirt and got away from catcher Will Smith, but he recovered it and Schwarber caught himself between committing to the steal of second and retreating back to first.
He had nowhere to go.
Smith made the throw to first, and Freddie Freeman tagged him up for the second out. Turner took third in the process, but Roberts recognized that the Dodgers could intentionally walk Bohm again and have the lefty Kershaw take his chances against Marsh.
Marsh battled to a 2-2 count, but he flied out to Hernández in right with little concern this time.
The Dodgers were let off scot-free again, and this one could’ve stood to really haunt the Phillies…
Had Roberts not stuck with Kershaw for the eighth. He really gave that gift right back to them with that call.
The End?
• Not just yet. Game 4 is Thursday night back at Dodger Stadium.
The Phillies are still breathing, and Cristopher Sánchez will get another turn up against Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow.
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