The Phillies’ offense put things together over the weekend, scoring 29 runs in three wins against the Dodgers starting on Thursday. Unfortunately for fans back in Philadelphia, the Phillies beat up on L.A. in games that all ended when they were in bed. With fans actually awake for Sunday’s game, a late afternoon start in Philadelphia, the Phillies lost 5-4 on a ninth-inning walkoff.
The Phillies actually led the Dodgers 4-0 after two innings despite missing Bryce Harper, who went 5-for-12 with three homers and eight RBI in the first three games of the series. (Harper received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his right elbow as part of treatment for a UCL tear. That plasma is poor in money, but rich in platelets.) But Philly failed to put the game out of reach on several occasions, including once when they loaded the bases in the seventh. Those four runs turned out not to be enough.
Odubel Herrera, the longest-tenured Phillies player, grounded out to end the seventh. Here’s a pitch he chased during the at-bat.
The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya, who posted the video above, added that Yency Almonte “just started laughing” when asked about nutmegging a batter and getting a strike out of it. This was just Almonte’s second appearance this year; he spent four seasons in Colorado before signing a minor league deal this offseason and was just called up Thursday. A few days later he struck out a hitter on a pitch that went between his legs. Such is baseball.
Coincidentally enough, the guy who got the game-winning hit was atoning for the ball going through his legs earlier in the game. All four of the Phillies runs in this game were unearned, because they came after Gavin Lux’s error with two outs in the second. Bryson Stott hit a routine grounder to Lux that would and by rights should have ended the inning, it went through Lux’s legs, the Phillies scored a bunch of runs. You know how it goes.
I really enjoyed this interview with Lux after his game-winning hit. Just watch the opening if you can. Hey Gavin, you were a real piece of shit today out there, how does it feel to finally do something good by game’s end?
