Dodgers finally get to Jesús Luzardo in

PHILADELPHIA — Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo had set down 17 batters in a row going into the seventh inning of Monday’s National League Division Series recreation. The Dodgers hadn’t had a hit or a baserunner since the first.

And it didn’t appear to be they’d get another.

“Luzardo,” said Dodger first baseman Freddie Freeman, “was amazing.”

Yet it was Freeman who introduced Luzardo’s masterful night time to an end and pushed the Phillies’ season to the brink, keying a 4-3 Dodger win that sends the best-of-five collection to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday with Philadelphia a loss away from spring training.

“It’s huge. It’s absolutely huge,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts said of the two-game sweep on the street. “Guys are really stepping up.”

Especially in the seventh, when the Dodgers batted around, producing the type of inning they not often managed in the common season, one that featured aggressive at-bats, sensible baserunning and three two-out RBIs.

“All that coming together; just really good at-bats up and down the lineup,” Roberts said.

Teoscar Hernández received it began with a single to middle. Freeman adopted with a hit off the end of his bat into the right-field nook, a single he turned into a double when he refused to stop at first, shocking outfielder Nick Castellanos.

“I was trying to keep things going, put pressure on them,” Freeman said. “I just wanted to push the envelope in that situation since we hadn’t had anything going on since the first inning.”

Luzardo had given up one hit through six innings; now he’d given up two in the span of 5 pitches.

“He retired 17 in a row. He had 72 pitches. He’s pitching great,” Phillies supervisor Rob Thomson said.

But after Freeman’s hit he was finished, with Thomson summoning reliever Orion Kerkering. The Dodgers, however, had been just getting began, and an out later Hernández put them forward to keep, breaking neatly from third on Kiké Hernández’s slow curler by the mound, then sliding to the back of the plate to beat shortstop Trea Turner’s broad throw home.

Pinch-hitter Max Muncy adopted with a four-pitch stroll to load the bases for Will Smith, whose two-out single on the first pitch he noticed drove in two more runs.

“In that situation, it’s very easy to try to want to do too much,” Muncy said. “You have a chance to drive in a couple runs. It’s very easy to chase a pitch. But you’ve just got to be diligent with what you’re trying to do up there and just pass the baton to the next guy.”

The Dodgers’ rally had been constructed around a double that ought to have been a single, a run-scoring fielder’s alternative that barely handed the mound, a stroll and Smith’s one-hop single to left, the hardest-hit ball of the inning. When Shohei Ohtani grounded a single by diving second baseman Edmundo Sosa, the Dodgers led 4-0.

“Obviously some huge two-out hits by Will and then Shohei. Great play by Teo getting his foot in,” Freeman said. “A lot of good things happened in that seventh inning.”

The inning also silenced the sellout crowd of 45,653, which minutes earlier had been louder than a rock live performance during a NASCAR race. When Matt Strahm, the third pitcher of the inning, finally received Mookie Betts for the third out, the followers booed the Phillies off the sector.

The crowd got here alive again in the ninth, when Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen once again melted down on the mound, gave up three hits and two runs without getting an out to let the Phillies back in the sport. But Roki Sasaki then took them out again, retiring Turner on a groundball with the tying run on third, incomes his second save in as many video games.

When it was over the Phillies, who had the best home report in the majors this season, had misplaced consecutive video games at home for the first time since June 1. And the Dodgers, unbeaten this postseason, had been a win away from the NL Championship Series.

“Lots to unpack in that one,” Roberts said.

Freeman managed to put it all in perspective.

“We were just sitting at our lockers and Kiké said, ‘we just took two here’,” he said. “This is a hard place to play. Incredible fan base. It’s loud here.

“We obviously put ourselves in great position going into Wednesday.”