What a whirlwind of a series Phillies-Dodgers has been at Citizens Bank Park this week.
After the Phillies lit up the scoreboard with long balls Monday and lost Tuesday on a costly ninth-inning mistake, Wednesday gave them a chance to split the season series against their National League rival.
It was another test for the club, and certainly one for Aaron Nola.
Nola entered the day coming off his best stretch of starts this season. In five of his last six outings, he had completed at least five innings and allowed three or fewer runs, giving the Phillies a chance to win.
Against Los Angeles, Nola allowed just one run through his first four innings, a third-inning solo homer by Dalton Rushing. He mixed his pitches well early, but the fifth got complicated.
After recording the first out, the longest-tenured Phillie allowed a pair of singles to put runners on the corners. Rushing got him again, this time with a two-run double that put the Dodgers ahead, 3-2. Los Angeles even tested the Phillies’ relay to score the second run.
Fortunately for the Phillies, Nola bore down and induced a big inning-ending double play ball.
Then a familiar miscue reemerged in the Phillies’ 9-5 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, one that got out of hand late, dropping the set two games to one.
THE LITTLE THINGS, AGAIN
The Phillies responded right away. Bryan De La Cruz, who was mashing left-handed pitching at Triple-A and was promoted for that reason, pounded a homer to center field off Dodgers lefty Eric Lauer to tie the game.
He also capped off the first Phillies trio with rookies Félix Reyes and Gabriel Rincones Jr. to have their first hit as a homer in the same season, all at home. It was the fifth time that scenario happened in franchise history, regardless of ballpark.
An exciting answer to L.A.’s go-ahead swing.
Bryson Stott then doubled on the very next pitch. In the blink of an eye, the Phillies had the go-ahead run on second.
And then the fundamentals left them again.
A night after running into an inexplicable game-ending 5-2-6-4 double play, the Phillies failed to execute again.
On the next pitch, Rafael Marchán squared to bunt and popped it up, with Rushing catching it in foul territory. Then came the baserunning mistake.
Trea Turner worked a 13-pitch at-bat before hitting a grounder to third. With Stott off second, he sprinted to third when the ball was hit, a questionable move with the play right in front of him.
Max Muncy tagged him out to end the inning and pull the excitement out of the ballpark, even with the game tied.
Bad baseball. Not the brand any manager wants, especially Don Mattingly, who has preached “better baseball” since the day he took over.
AND WHAT FOLLOWED … MORE PARALLELS
Nola’s Achilles’ heel showed up again.
He entered the sixth with 76 pitches and the heart of the Dodgers’ order turning over for a third time.
Freddie Freeman opened the inning with his second double of the night. Then Muncy, a night after hitting what proved to be a back-breaking two-run homer off Zack Wheeler, pummeled a two-run shot to left-center field off Nola.
It was Nola’s ninth start this season allowing multiple homers, the most in the majors.
The timing was brutal, especially after the momentum-zapping half inning before it. It is hard to know where the game would have stood if Stott stayed put at second or if Marchán got the bunt down.
The bottom line is the Phillies will not beat this two-time defending champion Dodgers team with the fundamentals they put on the field this week.
COLE’S POSITIVE PULL?
For the second consecutive night, the Phillies’ third baseman provided early run support. A night earlier, it was an RBI double. Wednesday, Alec Bohm poked a low-and-in changeup into the left-field seats.
It was another example of how his season has turned.
Bohm’s year is split into two parts: the first 34 games, when just about nothing went right, and everything since his May 9 “reset” day, when he started looking much more like himself.
Some of it comes back to batted-ball fortune, similar to Trea Turner.
In his first 34 games, Bohm slashed .159/.227/.206 with a .433 OPS and just four extra-base hits in 141 plate appearances. On his 39 hard-hit batted balls during that stretch, he had only a .459 OPS. For context, he entered the year with a 1.281 career OPS on hard-hit balls.
That was bad luck. It also raised a fair question about where he was driving the baseball. Only 33.3 percent of Bohm’s hard-hit balls were pulled in that span, right in line with his 33.9 percent career hard-hit pull rate.
During his early-May struggles, Bohm spoke about shortening his stride and how that could help turn around his season. The results have followed.
Since his two-homer game on May 9, Bohm is slashing .260/.314/.464 with a .778 OPS over 63 games. In that span, he has pulled 41.1 percent of his 95-plus mph batted balls and produced a 1.389 OPS on those balls.
He is now up to 52 RBIs.
As the trade deadline nears, the Phillies’ right-handed bats look different than they did earlier in the season. Turner has settled in at the leadoff spot. Bohm is producing runs out of the cleanup spot. Even Derek Hill has provided a lift.
That does not mean the Phillies should ignore the market for a right-handed bat. But with Turner rolling and Bohm looking like himself again, the need feels less desperate than it did a month ago.
WHAT’S AHEAD?
The New York Yankees come to town next. A New York squad without Aaron Judge is still firmly in the playoff hunt, 3 1/2 games ahead for the top Wild Card spot in the American League. The Phillies are in a similar spot, 2 1/2 games up in the NL Wild Card race.
After Thursday’s off day, the Phillies will see righties Will Warren on Friday, Cam Schlittler on Saturday and Ryan Weathers on Sunday.
Mattingly said pregame Wednesday that the Phillies will not skip the fifth starter spot. As Jim Salisbury reported earlier, Lehigh Valley’s Brian Keller is the likely spot starter, and the IronPigs also list their Saturday probable as TBA. Keller is slated to pitch that day anyway.
At the very least, this Dodgers series was a wake-up call. The Phillies have shown they can hang with Los Angeles, but they need to clean things up.
Against teams like the Dodgers, the little things become the separator.
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