LOS ANGELES — Tick, tick … boom.
Kyle Schwarber exploded from his 0-for-22 slump with two home runs, the first a 455-foot ‘Schwarbomb’ that sparked the Philadelphia Phillies as they staved off elimination with an 8-2 victory over the Dodgers in Game 3 of their National League Division Series on Wednesday night.
The loss was the Dodgers’ first since Sept. 23 in Arizona, ending a nine-game winning streak that included their first four postseason games this year. They have another chance to close out the series at home with Game 4 scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Tyler Glasnow is expected to start for the Dodgers.
Schwarber and Bryce Harper had gone a combined 1 for 15 in the first two games of this series. They had four hits, two walks, three RBIs and three runs scored in Game 3.
The National League’s home run leader with 56 during the regular season – and the only possible threat to Shohei Ohtani winning a fourth league MVP award – Schwarber had started this series 0 for 7 with five strikeouts after ending the season hitless in his last 14 at-bats with eight more strikeouts.
He grounded out harmlessly in his first at-bat against Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Leading off the fourth inning, though, Schwarber got a 2-and-0 fastball up over the plate and destroyed it. The ball left his bat at an Ohtani-like 117.2 mph and wasn’t seen again until it had cleared the right field pavilion roof an estimated 455 feet from home plate.
Prior to that swing, the Phillies were hanging their hopes on powder-blue retro uniforms and escaping a hostile home environment where apparently the fans are too mean to them.
But Schwarber’s blast gave them life. Bryce Harper (1 for his first 7 in the series) followed with a single and Alec Bohm made it three consecutive hits when he singled to center field.
When Harper charged toward third base on Bohm’s hit, Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages made a poor throw that bounced through third base, allowing Harper to score. The throw bounded into the dugout, allowing Bohm to go to third base and score on Brandon Marsh’s sacrifice fly.
When Yamamoto gave up back-to-back singles in the fifth inning, his night was done. It was his shortest outing since failing to complete four innings against the New York Yankees on June 1.
The Phillies, meanwhile, were met with skepticism and criticism on the Philadelphia airwaves after Manager Rob Thomson announced Aaron Nola, not Ranger Suarez as the Game 3 starter.
Unlike the Philly fan base, the Dodgers did not overreact to the decision, going with a lineup that looked more set for the lefty Suarez than the righty Nola.
It was the appropriate call – Nola lasted just two innings, essentially an extended opener for Suarez. The Dodgers had him on the ropes with a one-out triple by Mookie Betts in the first but they didn’t score until Tommy Edman hit Suarez’s first pitch of the night in the third inning over the wall in left field.
Thomson’s combo-platter strategy might not have drawn the lineup reaction the Phillies were going for – but it got the results they needed. Nola and Suarez combined to allow just Edman’s run in their combined seven innings.
The Dodgers put two runners on with two outs in the fourth but Andy Pages popped out. They got two on with one out in the sixth but Max Muncy bounced into a double play.
By the time Suarez handed the ball off to the bullpen in the eighth inning, the Phillies had started their fall raking, scoring five times on five hits – including home runs by JT Realmuto and Schwarber again (this time a wall-scraper) – off of Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw was pitching in the postseason for the first time since Game 1 of the 2023 NLDS and making his first postseason relief appearance since Game 5 of the 2019 NLDS. Neither of those went well either.
More to come on this story.