Teoscar Hernández fuels comeback, but Phillies win late

Teoscar Hernández homered twice, doubled, and drove in five runs in the loss. LA pitchers walked season-high 11.

The Dodgers erased a four-run deficit to take a late lead, but the Phillies rallied in the seventh inning to win 8-7 in Sunday’s finale of a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

That early hole got chipped away at in the middle innings, then took the lead with a three-run seventh that included RBI doubles by Mookie Betts and Will Smith to bookend the scoring.

The Phillies answered with two runs off Blake Treinen in the bottom of the inning, which started by Andy Pages getting completely flummoxed again in center field on a ball that landed behind him for a double.

After using four relievers to cover five innings in Saturday’s win. the Dodgers bullpen covered six innings on Sunday. Luis García was the fifth reliever used in the series finale, and he walked three of his first four batters faced, giving the Dodgers a season-worst 11 walks on the day. But he got out of it with a double-play grounder to first baseman Kiké Hernández, who threw home for the final out to escape any damage.

Phillies closer José Alvarado retired the top of the lineup in order in the ninth to prevent yet another comeback. The Dodgers have trailed in nine of their 11 games this season, but have grabbed the lead in eight of those games and won seven of them.

But they leave Philadelphia with a pair of one-run losses to a team they could very well face in October.

Nightmare start

The Dodgers had a 2-0 lead in this one, and Tyler Glasnow was up to seven scoreless innings to open his year as he started the bottom of the third inning. The rain, which was threatening for the bulk of the weekend, finally came, and completely flustered Glasnow. He walked the first three hitters of the inning, taking as much time as possible to try to get the mud out of his cleats in between pitches that missed the strike zone.

Three mound visits interrupted the unraveling, the first with manager Dave Roberts and athletic trainer Thomas Albert as a visibly frustrated Glasnow tried to find his footing on the dirt. A dunker single by Bryce Harper brought home the first run, and a wild pitch tied the score. That was just part of another walk to re-load the bases, which ended Glasnow’s day.

Glasnow walked five batters on Sunday, including four in the third inning without getting an out during the frame. It’s the second time in his career he walked four batters in one inning, and the first since April 10, 2017 when Glasnow was with the Pirates and making his fifth major league start.

There was still a mess out on the field, both from the weather and the precarious situation the Dodgers were still in, with nobody out and the bases still loaded in a tie game.

In came Alex Vesia, and out went his very first pitch, a hittable fastball that an eager Nick Castellanos unloaded on for a grand slam.

Sowing the comeback seeds

Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez struck out Shohei Ohtani three times, fanned Betts twice, and had nine strikeouts on the day. But he had no answer for Teoscar Hernández, who provided the bulk of the Dodgers offense on Sunday.

Hernández got a two-seam fastball middle-middle in the first inning and didn’t miss, taking it out to right field to give the Dodgers an early lead. After the nightmare top of the third inning, Hernández homered again of Sánchez, and again to right field, this one a solo shot.

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Then in the fifth inning, Hernández drove a ball inside third base and down the left field line for a double to score Tommy Edman, cutting the deficit to two runs.

Hernández added a game-tying sacrifice fly in the seventh inning, erasing the earlier four-run deficit. He drove in five runs Sunday and has a team-leading 13 RBI on the season.

Hernández had the 42nd Dodgers game with at least three extra-base hits in Philadelphia, and the first since Shawn Green on August 3, 2002. Sunday was Hernández’s fourth game with three extra-base hits to match his career high, and first such game since joining the Dodgers.

Stretching out

Sunday involved a lot of cleanup on the mound, and not just by the ground crew between innings. While Hernández chipped away at the deficit, Jack Dreyer followed with scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth to keep the game tight, and was so efficient at just 19 pitches that he was asked to go soak up a few more outs.

Dreyer got a call on a 3-2 pitch to open the sixth inning for his fourth strikeout, but was pretty much at his limit and walked his next two hitters before getting pulled. Seven outs is the longest outing by a Dodgers reliever this season, and one shy of Dreyer’s professional career high, a 2⅔-inning appearance for High-A Great Lakes on August 9, 2023.

Sunday particulars

Home runs: Teoscar Hernández 2 (4); Nick Castellanos (2)

WP — Orion Kerkering (1-0): 1 IP, 1 hit

LP — Blake Treinen (0-1): 1 IP, 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk

Sv — José Alvarado (2): 3 up, 3 down

Up next

The Dodgers road trip moves on to Washington D.C. where some baseball will be played and the White House will be visited. On the field, Dustin May starts the series opener on Monday night (3:45 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA), with left-hander MacKenzie Gore on the mound for the Nationals.