by Cary Osborne
Many of the things that have made the Dodgers so good this postseason were lacking in their potential clinch game on Wednesday.
The starting pitching, the defense, the timely hitting — it wasn’t there on Wednesday in their 8–2 loss to the Phillies in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.
Now the Dodgers do their best to flush it and try again on Thursday with a 2–1 lead in the series.
The Dodgers will get the first start of the postseason from Tyler Glasnow. They didn’t use Emmet Sheehan — who can give them length if needed — Alex Vesia or Roki Sasaki on Wednesday.
“It’s pretty close to being flushed already,” said manager Dave Roberts. “If you look back going into this series and said we’d be up 2–1, we would have banked it with Glas going in. I feel good with where we’re at. Would have loved to get Duran in the game tonight. I feel good where we’re at. And it’s certainly flushed.”
The Dodger offense, though, will have its work cut out for itself. The Phillies are turning back to Game 1 starter Cristopher Sánchez, who shut the Dodgers out through the first five innings. They also have a rested closer in Jhoan Duran who has struck out four of the nine batters he has faced in this series.
The Dodgers do have some what ifs from Wednesday.
Mookie Betts hit a first-inning triple against Phillies starter Aaron Nola but didn’t advance. They had two runners on in the fourth and sixth innings and didn’t score.
Tommy Edman homered off left-hander Ranger Suárez in the third inning. It was the only run Suárez allowed in five innings.
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The game was close until late. But the dreaded eighth inning bit the Dodgers again. The Phillies scored five times against Clayton Kershaw, extending a 3–1 lead to 8–1.
The Dodgers have allowed 23 runs in five postseason games — 11 in the eighth inning.
But the Phillies also got to starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Yamamoto retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced, but things fell apart in the fourth inning — first with the first of two homers of the night by Major League regular-season home run leader Kyle Schwarber.
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Schwarber was 0-for-7 in this series with five strikeouts heading into the game. He also homered off Kershaw in the eighth inning.
Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper came into this game 2-for-21. They combined to go 7-for-13 in the game with five RBI.
The Phillies tacked on two more runs against Yamamoto in the fourth, including one on a throwing error by center fielder Andy Pages.
The Dodgers made two errors in the game.
They played clean defense in the first two games of this series.
That’s behind them.
“Understanding we’re still up 2–1, there’s a lot of pressure on us to play the game,” said Mookie Betts. “But pressure is a privilege.”
2025 NLDS: Dodgers look to turn the page after an uncharacteristic postseason game was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.