The Los Angeles Dodgers’ struggles continued on Thursday as they were swept by the Philadelphia Phillies in a 5-1 game, backed by a strong outing from Aaron Nola and some timely hitting.
Nola kept the Dodgers at bay all game, throwing six innings of one-run ball while allowing four hits, striking out nine and walking two.
Against Nola, the Dodgers were 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded five men on base.
The Dodgers had a great chance to score in the second inning when the bottom of the lineup loaded the bases with one out. However, Shohei Ohtani struck out and Will Smith grounded out to end the inning.
L.A. again had an opportunity to tie the game in the eighth inning when they loaded the bases with one out. Miguel Rojas lined a ball over to second base, which was caught and ended up turning into an unfortunate double play.
The only run Nola allowed was a solo homer to Gavin Lux in the fifth inning. Lux was 2-for-2 in the game, but he was pinch-hit for with Kiké Hernández in the seventh inning with left-hander Matt Strahm in the game.
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On the pitching side, Anthony Banda opened the game, going one inning and giving up a solo home run to Trea Turner. The plan was for Banda to get through Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper to open the game, which he did, but unfortunately he was unable to keep Philly off the board.
From there, Landon Knack took over, and he turned in some solid results, although the line score doesn’t necessarily match that. Knack allowed three runs over 4.1 innings.
The rookie right-hander allowed a solo homer to Brandon Marsh to double the Phillies’ lead, but from the third until the sixth inning, he went on a run of retiring 11 straight hitters.
That was broken up when James Outman misread a fly ball and allowed Nick Castellanos to reach on a single. He then came around to score when Marsh roped a triple down the line, and another single made it a 4-1 game.
In the eighth inning, Schwarber added some insurance with a solo shot to make it 5-1.
Dave Roberts critical of Dodgers & their defense
Over the past two days, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expressed frustration with how the Dodgers are playing, noting it was an embarrassing performance in the series opener. Yesterday, he called out the defense for failing to help out Gavin Stone in his outing.
Those issues continued on Thursday, and now the Dodgers face an even tougher challenge as they begin a series with the Detroit Tigers on Friday against Tarik Skubal.
