Dodgers fall to Phillies in extras, hinder shot at

Philadelphia got here to Los Angeles having already clinched a playoff berth. With Monday’s 6–5 extra-inning win over the Dodgers they added a division title to that assortment, one they celebrated in the middle of the Dodger Stadium infield, then with champagne in the tiny guests’ clubhouse.

The Dodgers are zeroing in on a playoff berth and division title of their own. So the possibilities are high the groups will meet again in the postseason, which makes this week’s sequence a great alternative to do a little scouting.

“We try to gather as much information as we can,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “They’re doing the same thing.”

That’s not the main goal though. Because if the Dodgers are closing in the postseason, they aren’t there yet. And they’ve even more work to do after Monday’s recreation, which ended with Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto’s Tenth-inning sacrifice fly scoring ghost runner Harrison Bader from third with the successful run.

“With where we’re at, I’m trying to win every game,” said supervisor Dave Roberts, whose group fought back from deficits 3 times before shedding. “And where it falls out is where it falls out.”

One of the issues that both sides absolutely realized Monday is that the Dodger bullpen is still far from being playoff prepared. Because after Emmet Sheehan held the Phillies to one hit over 5⅔ innings, putting out seven, he watched a quartet of relievers mix to give up 4 runs — three on homer runs — over the next 4.

“It’s frustrating, just from a team perspective,” third baseman Max Muncy said of a bullpen that has blown 24 saves and ranks fourth in the National League with 30 losses.

It’s unlikely to value the Dodgers another journey to the postseason. Even with Monday’s loss, they’re two video games in entrance of idle San Diego in the National League West with 12 video games to play and their magic quantity for clinching an eleventh division title in 12 seasons is 10.

The magic quantity to clinch a wild-card berth is six.

The Dodgers have also been eyeing the No. 2 seed in the postseason match, however, a spot Philadelphia holds and one that brings with it a bye in the first spherical. It’s a break Roberts’ battered roster may use, but it’s one that might now be not possible to grasp: Monday’s win pushed the Phillies’ lead to 5½ video games in the race for No. 2, a deficit the Dodgers have less than two weeks to make up.

“It’s really hard to not face these games down the stretch like a playoff game,” Rojas said. “We’ve been doing this for almost two weeks now. That’s the way that we have to look at it if we want to be prepared for October.”

Those preparations had been uneven at best Monday. At the plate, the Dodgers fought back from deficits 3 times to ship the sport to additional innings on Andy Pages’ solo homer with one out in the ninth. But they also went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring place and, after Muncy grounded out with the bases loaded in the ten^th, they left 9 males on base. That erased a big recreation from Mookie Betts, who drove in three runs on two sacrifice flies and a game-tying homer in the seventh.

Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts hits a home run in the underside of the seventh inning against the Phillies at Dodger Stadium Monday.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

That gave him 19 RBIs in September and his 78 for the season, three better than his complete from all of last yr. But that wasn’t enough to overcome another bullpen meltdown.

Sheehan adopted opener Anthony Banda to the mound, taking the ball three batters in the sport with the Phillies already main 1-0 on Kyle Schwarber’s league-leading 53^rd home run. Sheehan left with a 3-1 lead after giving up his only hit, a leadoff double to Otto Kemp in the seventh. But three batters later the Phillies had a 4-3 lead after Weston Wilson, the Phillies No. 9 hitter, homered off Jack Dreyer.

The Dodgers rallied to tie the sport twice after that but each time the bullpen gave the lead back, the ultimate run coming in the ten^th on Realmuto’s game-winning fly ball to proper off right-hander Blake Treinen (1-5).

Asked if the sequence will show the Dodgers something that can use if they face the Phillies again next month, Muncy shook his head.

“Personally, I don’t necessarily think so,” said Muncy, who third-inning homer, his first since returning from the injured checklist as week in the past, opened the Dodgers’ scoring. “We’ve done that in the past. We’ve played teams right before we’ve seen them in the postseason and usually they do everything complete[ly] opposite.

“Right now, you’re just trying to win a game. You’re not really worried about what’s ahead.”

Notes

Reliever Brock Stewart, the Dodgers’ most-celebrated acquisition at the commerce deadline, left Monday to be part of Oklahoma City for a two-game rehab task. Stewart, on the injured checklist since Aug. 12 with proper shoulder inflammation, is anticipated to pitch Tuesday and Thursday in Triple A before returning to Dodger Stadium.

“If all goes well, then we have a conversation over the weekend,” Roberts said of Stewart’s availability. “We’ve just got to make sure he’s healthy. If he’s right, then it could be very additive.”

For the second straight yr Betts has been chosen as the Dodgers’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s most prestigious off-the-field prize, in recognition for his wide-ranging charity work.

In January, Betts’ 5050 Foundation donated more than $30,000 of Nike clothes to victims of the Southern California wildfires. A few weeks later, in partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF), he donated more than $160,000 to the Brotherhood Crusade to help battle starvation and homelessness in Los Angeles.

Also this season the 5050 Foundation partnered with the Obama Foundation at Hyde Park Academy to donate youth sports activities tools and other provides while also funding the Mookie Betts Metro Baseball Tournament in Nashville.