Phillies survive the weather and Dodgers to halt slide

It was somewhat predictable. The all-important Philadelphia Phillies series against the Los Angeles Dodgers somehow became the Dog Days Rain and Killing Heat Festival. Worse, since their eight-game winning streak against the Nationals and Mets wasn’t enough to placate the eternal nay-sayers in their fan base, Philadelphia seemingly decided to feed that base something to really be negative about.

Oh, it wasn’t as though the team exactly rolled over and played dead for the defending world champs. The Phillies allowed LA – well, um – only 13 runs in the first two games. The problem was that they scored only two themselves, and in neither game was the final score Philly by 1-0, 2-0, or 2-1, which was somewhat limiting.

The Phillies faced a Dodgers squad Thursday afternoon in terrible heat, trying to halt a slide.

And the problems weren’t only the lack of offense in the 5-0 game-one loss or the poor defense in game two, including yet another error by Alec Bohm, this time at first base. The weather also conspired against the Phillies.

In game one, Aaron Nola had been bettering Max Scherzer’s fine, scoreless effort before an hour and 44-minute rain delay in the fourth inning. Neither of the starters returned, and the Phils’ relievers proved no match for the Dodgers’. The Dodgers frankly looked like world beaters, and the Phillies looked like the weakest first-place team, if that.

Game two featured newcomer Kyle Gibson’s first faltering effort since his arrival from Texas, but Wednesday night manager Girardi had held out his “starter” out of the game until after a nearly hour-long rain delay between the second and third innings. Gibson didn’t pitch horribly, but did give up the first of two home runs hit by Cody Bellinger, who had been struggling.

Gibson left in the seventh inning, having given up six runs, only three of which were earned. LA prevailed, 8-2.

This loss dumped the Phillies into a first-place tie with Atlanta and brought the two teams back together at 1:05 p.m. on a brutal Thursday afternoon in South Philly. The field temperature at Citizens Bank Park was registering 103 well before three o’clock.

Trying to Salvage at Least a Share of First

But the Dodgers couldn’t quite solve left-hander Ranger Suarez early on. Suarez is the very definition of a cool customer even on a viciously hot day. Unfortunately, the former reliever isn’t quite stretched out enough yet, and he left the game to relievers with one out in the fifth inning after 82 pitches. His team led, 2-1.

Once again, invaluable utilityman Ronald Torreyes had a key RBI single, in the fourth inning. Bryce Harper had hit a first-inning opposite field homer.

In the sixth inning, though, the Phillies left the bases loaded. Backup catcher Andrew Knapp (.158) grounded out to second base.

Because of Suarez’ relatively early exit, the Fightin’s had already “burned” Hector Neris for the day, and Archie Bradley, ideally an eighth-inning man, took the seventh. He retired his first three Dodgers, and in fact, got LA stars Trea Turner and Max Muncy in the eighth on grounders. He also retired pinch-hitter Matt Beaty on a fly to left. Two perfect innings.

The score hadn’t changed since the game’s mid-point. Gallons of Gatorade were being sucked down.

Phillies closer Ian Kennedy then retired two of the first three Dodgers he faced, but Wednesday’s star, Bellinger worked out a walk on a high, 3-2 curve that very much appeared to drop into the strike zone.

Manager Girardi objected, and was ejected.

Then, Kennedy hit pinch-hitter Will Smith high on the left arm. Billy McKinney, hitting .207, came to bat with the tying run on third base. Kennedy forced him to fly out to shallow left, working as he tends to, up in the strike zone.

The inning recalled many by the Phillies ’93 closer, Mitch Williams, but Kennedy had made sure the Phillies halted their slide from first place.