Wednesday, the Dodgers bullpen blew a 4-2 lead in the seventh and then a 5-4 lead in the eighth to send the Dodgers to their fourth consecutive loss, a 7-5 defeat at the hands of the Phillies.
The champagne the team has reserved for its celebration upon clinching the NL West has probably gone flat by now.
It has been half-uncorked at least since the middle of August, if not since mid-July. Entering play on June 21, the Dodgers trailed the Arizona Diamondbacks by half a game in the division. From June 21 through August 25, Los Angeles posted a record of 45-10 and built a 21-game division lead.
Since then, the Dodgers are 5-20, the Diamondbacks 17-7, and LA’s division lead has dwindled to 8.5 games. LA has 10 games remaining; Arizona has nine left.
LA’s magic number sits at two.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after Wednesday’s loss: “If you’re looking at the entire body of work, I thought there was a lot of good things. We just didn’t get it done on the back end of the game.”
The Dodgers’ Alex Wood (15-3, 2.71 in 26 starts) yielded just two runs on three hits in six full innings. But, Phillies starter Jake Thompson (2-2, 4.14 in four starts) pitched just as well, if not better. He surrendered one run on three hits in five innings. The run came on a solo blast from Chris Taylor.
When the bullpens took over, the wheels came off.
To be fair, Philadelphia reliever Kevin Siegrist pitched a scoreless sixth, facing just four batters.
LA second baseman Chase Utley, who played for Philadelphia for the first 13 years of his 16-year career but has been with the Dodgers for the past two and a half seasons, led off the seventh with a triple. Enrique Hernandez stepped to the plate next and scored Utley with a double. After the Phillies intentionally walked Justin Turner, putting runners on first and second, Cody Bellinger cranked a two-run double.
LA reliever Ross Stripling gave all three runs back in the bottom of the frame. He faced four batters and surrendered a walk and two home runs.
The eighth arguably uglier, for both teams. LA’s Austin Barnes walked to lead off the inning, then advanced to third on a pair of blunders—first a wild pitch, then a passed ball—by the Philadelphia battery. He scored on a sacrifice groundout off the bat of Utley. The Dodgers recorded no hits in the inning, but scored a run and left two men on base.
Dodgers relievers Luis Avilan and Brandon Morrow combined to top the Phillies’ incompetence in the bottom of the inning. Avilan walked the leadoff hitter, then committed a throwing error that put men on first and second. After the Dodgers issued an intentional walk to rookie-phenom Rhys Hoskins, Brandon Morrow entered for Avilan with the bases loaded.
Aaron Alther smashed Morrow’s second pitch into right for a two-run single to break the tie and put the Phillies in front 7-5. Alther is 5-11 with three homers and nine RBIs over the first three games of the series.
Hector Neris retired the Dodgers in order in the top of the ninth to record his second save of the series.
Roberts is presumably struggling to ink his postseason bullpen roster. No LA reliever, the LA Times notes, is pitching like he wants the job.
Three days before Wednesday’s debacle, Stripling surrendered a three-run blast to Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman, giving the Nationals their first runs of the game and ruining 4 2/3 scoreless innings from starter Hyun-Jin Ryu.
Tuesday, Pedro Baez was tagged with the loss after he yielded four runs and recorded just two outs in the seventh inning, blowing a 2-1 lead.
After Wednesday’s loss, Roberts was at once humble and insistent.
“You’ve got to tip your hat,” Roberts said. “We have to find a way to win a baseball game.”
As this article was being written, the Dodgers rallied from a two-run deficit to edge Phillies 5-4 in the fourth and final game of the series.
Arizona did not play Thursday.
LA’s magic number has shrunk to one, meaning the team has clinched a tie for the NL West crown.
The Dodgers will likely clinch the division at Dodger Stadium, where they will host the Giants and the Padres, sequentially, in a pair of three-game series over the coming days, before closing the season with a three-game set in Colorado.
This year would be LA’s fifth consecutive NL West title, but the team seeks its first World Series appearance since 1988.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons
