Blake Snell was brilliant. The Dodgers’ bats woke up in time. And the beleaguered Los Angeles bullpen survived as the Dodgers secured a 4-3 win over the Phillies in Game 2 and took a 2-0 lead in the NLDS on Monday.
With the Dodgers’ victory, the Phillies are on the brink of elimination in the best-of-five series.
For six innings, Monday’s game was locked in a pitchers’ duel, as Snell and Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo traded blows from the mound. Snell didn’t allow a hit until one out remained in the fifth inning. Luzardo retired 17 consecutive Dodgers batters to go into the top of the seventh knotted in a scoreless tie.
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But then Luzardo cracked first. Teoscar Hernández led off with a single. Freddie Freeman followed with a double to put runners on second and third with no outs. With that, the Philly starter’s night was done.
With reliever Orion Kerkering on the mound, Kiké Hernández delivered again in the postseason, like he has so many times before. He sent Teoscar Hernández home on a fielder’s choice and made it safely to first as the play at the plate failed.
The Dodgers then loaded and cleared the bases with a two-run single by Will Smith and an RBI knock from Shohei Ohtani, giving the Dodgers a 4-0 lead with his first hit of the series.
But no lead is truly safe with the Dodgers’ bullpen, and things got tense late following Snell’s exit in the seventh inning.
The Phillies plated a run in the eighth, then two more off Blake Treinen in the ninth, as Nick Castellanos reached second with no outs via a two-run double that cut the Dodgers lead to 4-3. Then Alex Vesia and Roki Sasaki combined to put out the fire and secure the last three outs of the game without further damage.
Sasaki recorded the dramatic last out of the game as Freddie Freeman saved a low throw to first base from Tommy Edman on a two-out ground ball from Trea Turner.
Snell allowed one hit and issued four walks while striking out nine in six shutout innings as the winning pitcher. Luzardo picked up the loss after leaving two runners on in the seventh, both of whom came around to score.
The series now shifts to Los Angeles, where the Dodgers will have two chances to close out the best-of-five series at home. Game 3 is scheduled for Wednesday (9:08 p.m. ET/TBS, TruTV).