Kyle Schwarber and Edmundo Sosa hit back-to-back home runs to give the Phillies a 6-2 lead over the Dodgers.
With consecutive home runs from Kyle Schwarber and Edmundo Sosa, the Philadelphia Phillies now lead the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2.
Sanchez, Sosa, and Strahm help the Phillies defeat the Dodgers in a crucial game.
The Phillies’ pitching staff has struggled to retain leads since the All-Star break, but their lone moment of weakness on Tuesday came during the seventh inning when a 10-second earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6 struck L.A.
With a 6-2 victory, Cristopher Sanchez, Matt Strahm, and the Phillies had an easy rest of the evening.
A much-needed victory, 6-2. It guaranteed that the Phillies would leave town with the top record in the National League, a title they have held since the first week of May. It also secured them the season series and the first tiebreaker against the Dodgers should the teams finish with identical records.
After securing his spot in the NL All-Star team with six strong innings in a Dodgers victory three days earlier, Sanchez was added to the squad on July 13 as an injury replacement. The Phillies’ last series victory occurred at that same period. It has been over two weeks.
Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, the lefty repeated the feat, halting Teoscar Hernandez, Will Smith, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, and the others. In the bottom of the eighth, with two on and no one out, he left the field with a three-run lead. Strahm preserved the game’s position by retiring Nick Ahmed, Kevin Kiermaier, and Ohtani in that order.
The Phillies had a 14-hit night, with the two largest plate appearances coming from Edmundo Sosa’s bases-loaded at-bat the previous inning and Strahm vs. Ohtani in the seventh. With the Phillies leading 4-5 in the second half when they scored first, Sosa’s two-out, two-run single off Freddie Freeman’s glove into right field provided essential insurance.
In the top of the ninth, Sosa added a solo home run to opposite field to provide an additional layer of protection. He replaced Bryson Stott, who hasn’t been in the starting lineup in the six previous occasions the Phillies have faced a left-handed starter who wasn’t the opener, at second base. Clayton Kershaw did cause Brandon Marsh, who has sat out the majority of the season against lefties, to start. The first two times Marsh met Kershaw, he walked to set up Sosa’s crucial two-run single and was hit by a pitch.
The fifth inning saw Austin Hays double and score when Kyle Schwarber singled with two outs. Later, Schwarber added a towering home run off the foul pole in right. Until then, the game was scoreless.
Nick Castellanos scored a run and recorded two singles. Before May 28, he was hitting.199 with a.572 OPS in 231 plate appearances; in the 238 plate appearances that followed, he hit.281 with an.820 OPS.
In the middle innings, the Phillies found a way to score runs off of Smith and the Dodgers’ bullpen. The Phillies’ third turn through the batting order, which generated all of their runs until the ninth, saw Sosa, Castellanos, and Schwarber all swipe second base.
In the bottom of the sixth, Teoscar Hernandez doubled to start the inning and advanced twice on groundouts, scoring the lone run that Sanchez gave up. Although Ohtani hit him twice in Philly last month, Sanchez won all three games on Tuesday, retiring the NL MVP front-runner both times on the first pitch. In his eight career at-bats, he has also limited Freeman to just one hit.
The Phillies, who are currently 67-46, have an opportunity on Wednesday night to end a run of six straight series defeats. Gavin Stone (9-5, 3.63), a right-hander, opposes Tyler Phillips (3-1, 4.39).
