Too Little, Too Late

It was impressive, but it was a matter of too little, too late – again.

It was a mammoth 405-foot solo home run a quarter the way up Dodger Stadium’s Right Field Pavilion by just-off-the-IL Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy off of Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Ranger Suárez to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning. It gave the Dodgers a (brief) 2-1 lead in Monday’s 10-inning 6-5 Dodgers loss to the visiting NL Central first-place Phillies in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd of 43,603.

“We fought good, unfortunately we didn’t come out on top,” Muncy told SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson postgame.

The Dodgers made a game of it, tying it at 5-5 with one out in the bottom of the ninth on Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages‘ 25th home run of the season, an equally mammoth 424-footer to left, but Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto had looped a sacrifice fly to right off of Dodgers right-hander Blake Treinen with runners at second and third in the top of the 10th to score the game-winner.

“In that 10th inning, you know, they do a double steal and get into a situational situation there, and Realmuto puts a good at-bat to hit it just deep enough into right field to score the winning run,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts summarized postgame.

A “…situational situation” indeed.

With the win, the Phillies are now 90-61 on the season, with a commanding 12.5-game lead over the NL East second-place New York Mets. With the loss, Roberts’ Dodgers are now 84-66 in the NL West, with a less-than-ideal 2.0 game-lead over the second-place San Diego Padres.

Play Ball!

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