PHILADELPHIA — For seven innings, this one had the feel of a fight neither side could quite win. Home runs answered home runs, Aaron Nola and Eric Lauer traded zeroes when it mattered, and the lead changed hands three different times before anybody could get comfortable. Then the eighth inning arrived, and the Dodgers stopped playing fair, stealing bases, drawing walks, and finally blowing it open on a three-run triple from Tommy Edman that turned a one-run game into a laugher. Los Angeles closed out Philadelphia 9-5, taking the rubber match and the series.
BOHM GETS NOLA ROLLING EARLY
Kyle Schwarber singled to open the bottom of the first, and two batters later Alec Bohm turned on a fastball and drove it out to left, a two-run homer that had Citizens Bank Park loud before the Dodgers had recorded an out at the plate. It was the same script that buried Los Angeles on Monday, and for a few innings it looked like it might write itself again. Nola cruised through the middle innings behind it, needing outs, not miracles, to protect the early lead.
RUSHING ANSWERS TWICE, THEN DE LA CRUZ TIES IT
Dalton Rushing wasn’t interested in letting Nola settle in. He led off the third with a solo homer to cut the deficit to one, then came up again in the fifth with runners on and ripped a two-run double to left, scoring Teoscar Hernández and Edman and putting Los Angeles ahead 3-2.
Philadelphia had an answer of its own: Bryan De La Cruz led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo shot to dead center, knotting it right back up at 3-3. Two hitters in the middle of the lineup, trading blows, neither willing to let the other pull away.
MUNCY BREAKS THE TIE, THEN THE EIGHTH GETS OUT OF HAND
Freddie Freeman doubled to open the sixth, and Max Muncy followed with his 20th homer of the season, a two-run shot to center that put Los Angeles ahead for good and chased Nola from the game. It looked, for a while, like it might stay a two-run game. It did not.
The eighth inning is where Philadelphia’s bullpen came apart. Andy Pages opened it with a single and stole second, then stole third when a replay review overturned the tag call at the bag. Freeman walked and stole second of his own. Orion Kerkering came on in relief and couldn’t find the strike zone, walking Mookie Betts before Kyle Tucker lifted a sacrifice fly to bring Pages home. Teoscar Hernández drew another walk, and that brought up Edman, who lined a triple into the gap that scored Freeman, Betts and Hernández in one swing, turning a two-run lead into a six-run one. By the time the inning ended, the Dodgers had sent nine men to the plate and scored four runs without needing another extra-base hit beyond Edman’s triple.
A LATE PUSH THAT CAME UP SHORT
Philadelphia didn’t fold. Bohm singled home Trea Turner in the bottom of the eighth to make it 9-4, and in the ninth, pinch-hitter Brandon Marsh reached, advanced to second on defensive indifference, and scored when J.T. Realmuto’s single deflected off Mookie Betts’ glove into left field. It got the deficit back to four, but with the Dodgers bullpen already through the middle of the Phillies’ order once, Trea Turner struck out to end it. Final: 9-5, Dodgers.
UP NEXT
The Dodgers leave Philadelphia with a 2-1 series win and a day off Thursday to make the cross-country flight to New York. They’ll open a three-game set against the Mets on Friday at 4:10 p.m. PST, with Roki Sasaki taking the ball opposite Sean Manaea.
After grinding through a three-game set decided by one swing, one throw and now one wild eighth inning, Los Angeles gets a fresh test at Citi Field to close out the week.
