The score stayed 6-4 going into the seventh when the Phillies went to Jordan Romano to hold the lead. A single by Andy Pages, a walk to Ohtani and a double by Betts cut lead by one and ended Romano’s day, then a somewhat miraculous catch by Brandon Marsh held that lead.
Who came up next? That’s right, Teoscar Hernandez. He came through with a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 6. Will Smith then doubled off Orion Kerkering to score Betts and give the Dodgers the lead yet again. Kerkering would get out of the inning, but the game moved forward with the Phillies needing to back in the lead.
Oft topic, I don’t think Romano is healthy. He has not looked good yet. A track record can only take you so far before either your injured or just plain cooked. We’ll have to wait and see. Back to the game.
In the seventh, Harper doubled off of reliever Blake Treinen over Pages’ head to start things, then was followed by a walk to Max Kepler to put runners on with no one out. Castellanos flied out for the first out, followed by Bryson Stott. Stott hit a duckfart over second baseman Tommy Edman’s head to score Harper and tie the game at seven.
With runners on the corners, Edmundo Sosa came up with one out and, after almost getting decapitated by a wayward Treinen pitch, hit a ground ball to Max Muncy at third. Muncy threw to second for the first out, then a changeup by Edman was beaten out by Sosa, giving the Phillies the lead.
From there, the duo of Matt Strahm and Jose Alvarado locked down the rest of the Dodgers lineup to lock up the game and secure a series win, an ugly game.
Like I said at the beginning, a win is a win and the Phillies will take it. They head to Atlanta to begin a series on Tuesday.
Victories are great, no matter the form they come in. Sometimes they are slugfests where you see multiple baseballs leaving the field, sometimes they are pitching duels. Games like today, they’re ugly and not fun to watch and guess what?
It’s still a win.
In the first inning, Cristopher Sanchez struck out Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts to begin the game, gave up what we thought was a harmless single, then had to face Teoscar Hernandez. Today, that wasn’t a matchup that went the Phillies’ way.
Sanchez would settle down for a few innings while the team was able to get to Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow in the third. Glasnow walked the first three batters of the inning, then scored on a single by Bryce Harper to make it 2-1. Glasnow then threw a wild pitch to tie the game before walking the next batter. That would end his day on the mound where Alex Vesia would enter in relief to face Nick Castellanos.
Advantage: Castellanos.
That grand slam would make it 6-2 going to the fourth. In that top half, Hernandez would homer again to make it 6-3 and keep the pressure on the Phillies. An RBI double by Hernandez in fifth made it 6-4 and made sure that he would continue to haunt the team this series.
Nick Castellanos helped propel the Phillies over the Dodgers with his 8th career grandslam.
USA TODAY
Share this article
Link copied!
Related Articles
Get Geared Up
Heading 4
Heading 4
Heading 4
Heading 4