{"id":288393,"date":"2025-10-09T05:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/288393\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T05:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T05:03:14","slug":"yoshinobu-yamamoto-and-dodgers-quickly-lose-control-in-nlds-game-3-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/288393\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Dodgers quickly lose control in NLDS Game 3 loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Phillies looked rattled. The Dodgers<\/a> looked confident. And the Chavez Ravine crowd was seemingly smelling blood.<\/p>\n

Early in Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday, the Dodgers had all the momentum. They\u2019d already taken each of the first two games of this best-of-five set in Philadelphia. Their best pitcher this season, Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a>, had started his night with three scoreless innings.<\/p>\n

Then, after a questionable pitching change from Phillies manager Rob Thomson in the bottom of the third, Tommy Edman<\/a> greeted newly inserted left-hander Ranger Su\u00e1rez with a leadoff home run to open the scoring.<\/p>\n

Prior to first pitch, the Dodgers had emphasized the importance of finishing the Phillies off now.<\/p>\n

And as Edman rounded the bases, and Dodger Stadium erupted around him, they seemingly had their chance.<\/p>\n

In postseason baseball, however, momentum can be a fickle thing. Every new inning brings the potential for a plot twist. Every at-bat carries the threat of a turning point. And every single pitch can prove to be the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know in the playoffs,\u201d Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez said pregame, \u201cwhich pitch is going to win you a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, in the Phillies\u2019 come-from-behind, elimination-staving 8-2 win<\/a>, the pitch that lost the Dodgers the game came with no outs in the fourth.<\/p>\n

Just moments after Edman had put the Dodgers in front, slumping Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber<\/a> answered with a statement \u2014 clobbering an elevated Yamamoto fastball for a staggering 455-foot home run, bouncing his blast off the roof of the right-field pavilion.<\/p>\n

The moon shot tied the score 1-1. It also opened the floodgates for the Phillies\u2019 previous dormant offense. Before Schwarber\u2019s blast, Yamamoto had retired nine of his first 10 batters on just 36 pitches. After it, he gave up five more hits and two more runs, putting the Dodgers in a hole from which they wouldn\u2019t recover \u2014 especially not after Clayton Kershaw<\/a> gave up five more runs in the top of the eighth.<\/p>\n

Now, the dynamics of this series have shifted. The Phillies need just one more win to return to home soil, and could have their ace, Cristopher S\u00e1nchez, ready to pitch Game 4 in an effort to get there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you talk about momentum, if you don\u2019t finish it tonight, you feel like it\u2019s slipping away,\u201d Max Muncy<\/a> said before the game. \u201cThat\u2019s definitely not something you want to have happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, however, it was something the Dodgers couldn\u2019t avoid.<\/p>\n

This one served as a reversal from Games 1 and 2 of this series, and not only because it was the Phillies\u2019 turn to play spoiler in a road ballpark.<\/p>\n

For the first time in this NLDS, the Phillies\u2019 star hitters outshone their Dodger counterparts. Schwarber\u2019s game-altering home run was his first hit of the series (snapping an 0-for-nine skid beforehand), and his first of two home runs on the night. Trea Turner tripled his NLDS hit total in a three-for-five, two-RBI showing. Bryce Harper also reached base twice while drawing a walk.<\/p>\n

\"Philadelphia <\/p>\n

Philadelphia slugger Kyle Schwarber celebrates after hitting a home run in the fourth inning against the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NLDS on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Ohtani, meanwhile, went hitless in five at-bats to fall to one for 14 in the series. And while Betts had two hits, including a first-inning triple, the duo behind him couldn\u2019t take advantage, with Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez and Freddie Freeman going a combined 0 for 7.<\/p>\n

In an unexpected development, the Phillies\u2019 pitching plan also proved to be better.<\/p>\n

Entering the game, the Dodgers seemed to have the edge with Yamamoto, over the Phillies\u2019 pre-determined piggyback of Aaron Nola (who had a career-worst 6.01 ERA this season) and Su\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n

But Nola pitched two scoreless innings to begin the game. And though Su\u00e1rez\u2019s night started with the home run by Edman (the switch-hitter who was able to flip to his stronger right-handed side with the southpaw on the mound), he settled down for 15 scoreless outs after that, working around four more hits and a walk to get through the seventh.<\/p>\n

Yamamoto, on the other hand, lost control after Schwarber\u2019s titanic home run led off the fourth.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto stands on the mound after giving up a home run to Kyle Schwarber in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Harper immediately followed with a single on a hanging splitter. Alec Bohm did the same on an inside sinker, sending a ground ball up the middle. Pages fielded that ball, but short-hopped his throw to third base in an effort to gun down Harper. When Max Muncy couldn\u2019t block it, it bounced into the dugout to allow Harper to score and Bohm to advance to third. Brandon Marsh added insult to injury with a sacrifice fly in the next at-bat.<\/p>\n

Things didn\u2019t get much better for Yamamoto from there. He gave up a double to J.T. Realmuto later in the fourth. Back-to-back singles to begin the fifth chased him from the game.<\/p>\n

Yamamoto\u2019s final line: Four-plus innings, three runs, six hits, one walk and only two strikeouts. It was the shortest start from the Dodgers\u2019 rotation this postseason, tied Ohtani\u2019s Game 1 outing in this series for the most runs allowed, and was Yamamoto\u2019s first time with more hits allowed than strikeouts since July 7.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers\u2019 slim hopes of a comeback were officially dashed in the eighth, when Kershaw (making his first appearance of the postseason) was sent back to the mound for a second inning of work.<\/p>\n

Instead of keeping the game close, and forcing the Phillies to potentially use closer Jhoan Dur\u00e1n for a six-out save, Kershaw was ambushed, giving up a two-run single to Turner and a two-run homer to Schwarber that bounced off the top of the right-field wall.<\/p>\n

With that, a crowd that was anticipating a sweep in the early innings of Wednesday\u2019s game filed toward the exits \u2014 trudging away with the Dodgers still leading this series, but having lost all the momentum.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phillies looked rattled. The Dodgers looked confident. And the Chavez Ravine crowd was seemingly smelling blood. Early…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":288394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[38116,24336,1582,276,2442,148206,2961,148204,224,5337,6475,148203,20414,143766,92780,6166,148205,6599,15613,20410],"class_list":{"0":"post-288393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-at-bat","9":"tag-bryce-harper","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-dodgers","13":"tag-first-hit","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-leadoff-home-run","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-night","19":"tag-nlds-game","20":"tag-phillies","21":"tag-postseason-baseball","22":"tag-schwarber","23":"tag-series","24":"tag-single-pitch","25":"tag-tommy-edman","26":"tag-wednesday","27":"tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115342462500783330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}