The Dodgers started their three-game series versus the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday, August 10th. The Phillies had a 59-53, which is good enough for 1st place in the NL East. Bryce Harper has been leading this Phillies team with an 8-game win streak coming into this series, one of the hottest teams in baseball. The Dodgers had a record of 67-45 and were in 2nd place by four games in the NL West but lead in the wild card standings.
In the first game of the series, fans got to see a matchup between two of the biggest-named pitchers in baseball: Dodgers Max Scherzer and Phillies’ Aaron Nola. Unfortunately, the weather cheated those fans to a 2-hour rain delay in the 4th inning. Scherzer only went 3.1 innings, giving up three hits and striking out 6. The Dodger bullpen picked up right where Scherzer left off and shut out the Phillies the rest of the way. It was good to see Corey Knebel pitch for the first time since he injured his right lat on April 23rd. He did an excellent job after initially giving up a hit and a walk, striking out the other two batters he faced. The Dodgers have missed out on having a quality left-handed reliever this season. Garrett Cleavinger has pitched ok, Scott Alexander is currently hurt, Victor Gonzalez has not been consistent, and Caleb Ferguson is out for the whole year due to his second Tommy John surgery. The guy that has stepped up as of late and has been pitching extremely well has been Alex Vesia. On Tuesday night, he threw 1.2 innings and struck out four of the five batters he faced. In his last 16.1 innings, he has a 1.65 ERA and has struck out twenty-one. The Dodgers’ offense showed up after the rain delay. Every offensive player in the Dodgers starting lineup reached base. Corey Seager stood out in this game, going 3-5 with a solo homerun. The Dodgers won this game 5-0, ending the Phillies’ 8-game win streak.
The second game of the series started as a strange game due to the impending weather delay. The Phillies decided to start Connor Brogdon instead of their scheduled starter, Kyle Gibson, due to the possibility of a rain delay. The Dodgers went with David Price and hoped the rain delay would be short enough not to affect Price or that he would already be towards the end of his outing when the rain delay came through. The rain delay happened at the end of the second inning and lasted about an hour. David Price played through the rain delay and ended up pitching four innings, giving up two runs on five hits and striking out one. The bullpen pieces used in this game consisted of Phil Bickford, Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen, and Edwin Uceta. As a group, they only gave up two hits and struck out eight over five innings. Just like Tuesday, the Dodger offense was asleep until after the rain delay. They ended up scoring eight runs in this game, even getting help from pitcher David Price who hit an RBI double. The two bright spots on the Dodger offense this game were AJ Pollock and Cody Bellinger. Pollock hit 3-5 with an RBI, increasing his batting average to .314. Cody Bellinger is slowly getting back into shape as he went 2-5 with two homeruns in this game. Unfortunately, he did strike out three times in this game. The Dodgers beat the Phillies in game two of the three-game series 8-2. In the final game of the series, the Dodgers started their bullpen game with Mitch White. White ended up going four innings, giving up two runs on three hits, walking three, and striking out four batters. That was a good outing for Mitch White. The Dodgers put White into a challenging starting position by repeatedly calling him up to the majors and sending him back down to the minors, not allowing him to get into much of a rhythm. As they have been all series, the bullpen was lights-out once again in this game. Alex Vesia, Phil Bickford, Justin Bruihl, and Kenley Jansen collectively gave up only one hit, striking out five in the process. The Dodgers offense was practically nonexistent as the only run they got in this game was an RBI groundout by Trea Turner. No Dodger stood out offensively in this game with only three hits. The Dodgers lost to the Phillies in the final game of this series 2-1.
The clear standouts in this series must be the bullpen. The bullpen only gave up five hits the entire series and runs. That is a great sight to see as the Phillies have a playoff-caliber offense, and they could not touch our bullpen. The offense concerns me a little because they were horrible in the last game of this series. The Dodgers’ next series is in New York against the Mets. The Mets series should also be fun as the Mets are playoff contenders and will be a good test for the Dodgers to see if we can keep playing well against good teams.