Tyler Glasnow delivered a quality start, Teoscar Hernández and Shohei Ohtani hit home runs, and the bullpen survived a harrowing eighth inning with the help of a missed call, as the National League West-leading Dodgers held on for a 5-3 victory over the NL-East leading Philadelphia Phillies in Chavez Ravine on Monday night.
Glasnow gave up three earned runs and five hits in six innings, striking out nine and walking none, to improve to 9-6 with a 3.54 ERA and push his season strikeout total to 164, a career high.
Summoned to protect a 4-3 lead, newly acquired right-hander Michael Kopech gave up a single in a scoreless seventh and has now retired nine of the 10 batters he has faced as a Dodger, five by strikeout.
With the top of the Phillies order–which features left-handed-hitting sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper–due up in the eighth, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts summoned left-hander Anthony Banda, who had earned the opportunity to pitch in higher leverage with a 2.16 ERA in 31 games.
Banda jumped ahead of Schwarber with a two-strike count before throwing four straight balls for a leadoff walk. Trea Turner flied out to center field, and Banda struck out Harper swinging at a 97-mph sinker for the second out.
Right-hander Evan Phillips was warming in the bullpen, but Roberts left Banda in to face the right-handed-hitting Alec Bohm, who slapped a single to right field to put two on with two out.
Up stepped the left-handed-hitting Brandon Marsh, who got himself into a 3-and-1 count, only to have a 96-mph fastball that was well above the zone called for a strike by umpire Marvin Hudson. Marsh then swung through an 86-mph slider for an inning-ending strikeout.
Shohei Ohtani provided an insurance run for a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth with his NL-leading 34th homer, a towering 384-foot shot to left-center field that didn’t clear the glove of Marsh until Ohtani was halfway to second base.
Thinking he might have missed first base, Ohtani retreated to the bag and touched it before continuing his home-run trot.
Daniel Hudson gave up a leadoff single in the ninth before retiring three straight batters for his eighth save, as the Dodgers extended their modest win streak to three and pushed their division lead over Arizona and San Diego to five games.
Glasnow retired the side in order in four of the first five innings and was one out away from a one-two-three second when Nick Castellanos lofted a catchable two-out fly ball that center fielder Andy Pages missed with a lunge at the wall, the play ruled a triple.
Bryson Stott scored Castellanos with an infield single, took third on Austin Hays’ single to left and scored on a Glasnow wild pitch for a 2-0 Phillies lead.
But the Dodgers answered with a four-run, five-hit rally off Philadelphia right-hander Austin Nola in the third, an inning that Jason Heyward and Andy Pages opened with back-to-back doubles for a run.
Nick Ahmed reached on an infield single to put runners on first and third for Shohei Ohtani, who drove a sacrifice fly to the wall in right for a 2-2 tie. Teoscar Hernández then jumped on a first-pitch curve, sending a 113-mph laser 390 feet over the left-field wall for his 24th homer of the season and a 4-2 lead.
The Phillies pulled to within 4-3 in the sixth when Schwarber led off with a single to right, took third on Harper’s one-out opposite-field double to left and scored on Alec Bohm’s groundout to second. But Glasnow got Marsh to fly to left, ending the inning.
It was an emotional afternoon and evening for Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who returned to the team after an eight-game absence while his 3-year-old son, Maximus, fought a rare neurological disorder that temporarily paralyzed him and sent him to a pediatric intensive care unit for eight days.
Max came home from Children’s Hospital of Orange County on Saturday after responding favorably to treatments for Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves, and his prognosis for a full recovery appears good.
Freeman fought back tears as he recounted Max’s harrowing ordeal during a 30-minute pregame news conference, and before his first at-bat in the first inning, he received a rousing 45-second standing ovation, during which Freeman doffed his batting helmet and tapped his heart in appreciation.
Freddie Freeman reacts to a standing ovation before his first at-bat Monday.
(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
“It’s obviously great to have Freddie back,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “Judging by that press conference, he has a heavy heart. I think there’s a lot of relief in the sense of where Max is at right now, being back home. He’s back to being able to do what he loves to do, and that’s play baseball.”
Freeman struck out in the first inning, singled in the third, grounded out in the fifth and struck out in the eighth.
Short hops
Reliever Brusdar Graterol, a hard-throwing right-hander who has been out all season because of a shoulder injury, was activated from the 60-day injured list before Monday night’s game, and right-hander Blake Treinen was placed on the IL because of left hip discomfort. … Shortstop Miguel Rojas, out since July 22 because of right-forearm tightness, will be activated “in the next couple of days,” Roberts said. … Walker Buehler, whose return from a second Tommy John surgery was interrupted by a right-hip injury, threw a bullpen session on Monday and is scheduled to resume his rehab assignment with triple-A Oklahoma City on Thursday. … Utility man Cavan Biggio, who hit .192 with three homers and 10 RBIs in 30 games for the Dodgers, was designated for assignment to clear a roster spot for Freeman.