Alec Bohm smacked his own double to lead off the sixth inning and made his way home on a ground out JT Realmuto to level the score. It was Bohm’s 40th double of the season and extended his streak of reaching base safely to 25 games.
Walks to Nick Castellanos and Johan Rojas loaded the bases and Dodgers’ reliever, Joe Kelly, lost his handle on a breaking ball that nearly hit Schwarber but instead curled around him out of the reach of catcher, Austin Barnes, for a wild pitch that scored Brandon Marsh to retake the lead. Two pitches later, Schwarber hit his second long ball to break the game open.
The recovery shown by Phillips was echoed by his relief corps, as Orion Kerkering, Jose Alvarado, Matt Strahm, and Yunior Marte all pitched a scoreless inning, combining for just two hits and a walk allowed. Only one of those twelve outs came via a punch out, which speaks to the resiliency of the defense as well.
Just for fun, Schwarber hit his third home run of the game to lead off the ninth inning and put an exclamation point on the season series between the two teams, which saw the Phillies come out on top five games out of six.
Castellanos also contributed with two doubles and two runs scored. Johan Rojas entered the game as an injury replacement for Austin Hays (hamstring tightness) in the third inning and got himself a hit, a walk and two runs scored.
There will be no off day between series as the Phillies are back at it tomorrow night in Arizona. Kolby Allard will face off against fellow lefty, Jordan Montgomery, at the Snakehole Lounge.
What, early on, had the look and feel of another gut-wrenching meltdown, became a signature season performance by the team and a career-defining performance by one of its’ pillars, as the Philadelphia Phillies (68-46) trounced the Los Angeles Dodgers (66-49) 9-4 in the series decider, the first they have taken from an opponent since these same Dodgers in the week before the All Star Game, nearly a month ago.
On July 28, 2019, while playing for the Chicago Cubs against the Milwaukee Brewers, Kyle Schwarber set a career high in RBI with seven behind a grand slam, a three-run home run, went 3/3 at the plate and accounted for 64% of his team’s runs. Tonight, Schwarber was 4/4 plus a walk, with a double and three home runs (two solo shots and a three-run homer) to match those seven RBI and accounted for 78% of his team’s runs.
It’s the second time in his career Schwarber’s hit three home runs in a game, the first coming in 2021 as a member of the Washington Nationals.
Tyler Phillips showed some gumption in his first start since getting rocked by the Seattle Mariners last week. Phillips surrendered the early lead provided by Schwarber’s leadoff homer, allowing a lot of hard contact to go along with some accuracy issues over the first two innings that saw the Dodgers rip off five hits highlighted by a double by Teoscar Hernandez and a two-RBI single by Freddie Freeman that gave the Dodgers a 4-1 lead. In Phillips’ defense, his supporting cast was not exhibiting their best effort in the field behind him, but hard contact and bad defense sometimes go hand in hand.
But after a leadoff single by Gavin Lux to begin the bottom of the third, Phillips settled down and retired eight straight batters to bridge the gap to the bullpen and keep the offense within striking distance.
And strike they did. Two of Schwarber’s RBI came on a one-out double in the top of the fifth inning that made it a one-run game.
The Phillies will need Kyle Schwarber to continue his torrid ways as the Phils are set to take on the red hot Diamondbacks in Arizona.
Share this article
Link copied!
Related Articles
Get Geared Up
