LOS ANGELES — Any chance of the Los Angeles Dodgers dousing each other with champagne on Wednesday flew away into the night with one mammoth, memorable swing.
For the previous two games in this National League Division Series, the Dodgers had fulfilled the task that kept their coaches and staff up late at night. They neutralized the Philadelphia Phillies’ best hitters, draining the life from their offense to push the Phillies to the brink of elimination. The Dodgers had not only taken a hold of this series — they’d taken away what made the Phillies go.
The Phillies did not have life until they pummeled the Dodgers 8-2. There will be a Game 4. The Dodgers will not waltz into the NLCS. The party is on hold. Panic, to be determined.
The Dodgers kept a lid on Kyle Schwarber, the NL leader in home runs, until they didn’t.
Schwarber had not recorded a hit through his first eight at-bats against the Dodgers this NLDS. Then Yoshinobu Yamamoto left a fastball over the plate that Schwarber just about launched out of Dodger Stadium, sending it 455 feet and over the roofs atop the right-field pavilion.
This was the night lined up for the Dodgers to potentially extinguish an era of Phillies baseball. Schwarber, a pending free agent, had been held in check, as had Bryce Harper. Those two stars combined to go 1-for-14 with eight strikeouts to start the series. At the plate, the Dodgers had a chance to jump on Aaron Nola, who was asked to take a turn through the Dodgers’ order despite scuffling to a 6.01 ERA during the regular season.
Bryce Harper tags out Tommy Edman on a night when the Dodgers had a hard time getting their offense going. (Harry How / Getty Images)
The Dodgers had the Phillies on the brink. And they had Yamamoto, who had been nothing but brilliant for months as the sturdiest part of their electric and dynamic rotation.
The Dodgers will now have to regroup and hope they have not ignited something costly. Cristopher Sánchez will return to the mound on regular rest against the Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow. That presents a formidable challenge.
They failed to execute their plan against Schwarber that they’d hit on all series. That allowed his bat to roar to life at an inopportune time.
The Dodgers have by no means biffed this series. They’ve only squandered their most clear-cut chance.
“We definitely had a chance and we didn’t capitalize on it,” Max Muncy said. “That was kind of the story of the night.”
They had a Phillies team on the ropes from the start, trying to force the issue when it wasn’t there. Trea Turner squared around twice to bunt to lead off the game, giving Yamamoto an easy first out. The Dodgers were gifted a runner on third base in the bottom half of the first inning against Nola when Brandon Marsh dove for a Mookie Betts base hit and turned it into a triple. A pair of strikeouts to end that inning gave the Phillies a chance to settle in on a night when Yamamoto lacked feel for his splitter.
Yamamoto’s plan against Schwarber and Harper, as with the rest of the Dodgers’ pitchers this series, was to pound him in the strike zone and rely on premium stuff. If they could get ahead, then they could get Schwarber on the defensive. Schwarber got aggressive in his first at-bat, jumping on Yamamoto’s first pitch and grounding out.
But when Yamamoto missed outside with a fastball to start his second at-bat against Schwarber, he had to navigate more carefully. He missed just below the plate with a splitter. After trying to stay on the outer half of the plate, Yamamoto left a fastball letter-high out over the middle.
“I fell behind,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “So I went in a little bit, and then I paid the price.”
Schwarber became the left-handed hitter to clear the pavilions since Willie Stargell did so in 1973. This shot left Schwarber’s bat at 117 mph and hung 5.8 seconds in the air, just enough time for the Phillies’ offense to take a breath and roar to life. Harper followed with a single and came around to score a batter later on Alec Bohm’s single and Andy Pages’ subsequent throwing error.
“You’ve got to make pitches against those guys,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “They start getting some results, and they start feeling good. We’ve got to make pitches and work ahead.”
The Dodgers had done a good job until that point of limiting the damage of the Phillies’ offensive engine. They’re still waiting for more production from their own. Shohei Ohtani has just one hit in 14 at-bats this series with seven strikeouts, and has just two hits total since launching a pair of home runs to open up the Wild Card Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Facing two lefty starters plus left-hander Ranger Suarez, who followed Nola for five innings, didn’t help.
“He can explode at any time,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “He’s that great of a hitter. But we have pitched him well.”
Ohtani was not made available to the media after going 0-for-5 on Wednesday. Getting him on track would make things easier for the Dodgers in Game 4.
“He’s really not giving himself a chance to hit a mistake,” Roberts said. “I just think that he’s in between a little bit, but the swing decisions are just not where they need to be right now. That’s kind of what I see, decision-making.”
The night ended up as a laugher. Schwarber launched a pair of home runs as the Phillies hit their first three homers of the series. Harper collected a pair of hits and scored a run. The Dodgers did not pounce on Nola, allowing the Phillies’ unconventional pitching plan to work to perfection. By the time Clayton Kershaw came back out for the eighth inning after a shaky but scoreless seventh in what had still been a 3-1 game, the Dodgers were already in punt formation.
J.T. Realmuto led off the eighth with a homer against Kershaw. It got worse from there, including Schwarber blasting a ball into orbit that bounced off the top of the right-field wall and over for a two-run homer to make it 8-1.
Kershaw, a future Hall of Famer, left the mound after allowing five runs with the game officially out of reach.
“I was battling command,” Kershaw said. “It’s hard when you’re trying to throw strikes as opposed to getting people out. Just wasn’t a fun inning.”
The Dodgers, wanting to stay away from top relievers like Roki Sasaki, Alex Vesia and Emmet Sheehan in a game they trailed, didn’t have much in terms of available options to close out the game other than Blake Treinen, who pitched the ninth. Tanner Scott was not at the ballpark on Wednesday night and was not seen during Tuesday’s workout, either.
“There was something going on (that was) personal,” Roberts said of Scott’s absence.
Everyone else the Dodgers were willing to use, pitched.
If it feels like the air was taken out of the Dodgers’ sails, it’s because they’ve given it to their opponents. That feeling can still change as quickly as Thursday afternoon. The Dodgers, of course, still hold the edge in this series.
“The consensus of this interview feels like we’re eliminated,” Betts said. “So I think we understand we’re still up 2-1. Obviously, there’s still a lot of pressure on us. But pressure is a privilege. Go out and play.”