Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> was on the mound. Their offense was in full gear. The champagne was nearby. They even took a one-run lead after three innings on a Tommy Edman homer.<\/p>\nBut Yamamoto blew up, and the Phillies blew past, and then Clayton Kershaw took the mound in the seventh inning and, sadly for the retiring star, things really got ugly.<\/p>\n
By the time it ended, the once-unhittable Yamamoto had allowed three runs in four innings, the Hall of Famer Kershaw allowed four earned runs in two innings, and some notably struggling Phillies at the top of their order had gotten healthy.<\/p>\n
Kyle Schwarber had two home runs including one that seemed to disappear off the right-field pavilion roof. Trea Turner had three hits. Bryce Harper had two hits. Two Phillies undercard pitchers, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez, allowed one run in seven innings.<\/p>\n
Dodger fans were so upset with everything that many of them walked out after Kershaw got hammered in a five-run eighth inning.<\/p>\n
It was ugly. It was awful. And now it\u2019s a problem, because the once down-and-out Phillies are revived and refreshed and believing.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s trouble, that believing part, and before the game, two Dodgers warned about what happens when that happens.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we want to finish this tonight, and we don\u2019t want to let anything slip away from us,\u201d Max Muncy said. \u201cThat\u2019s one of those things, when you talk about momentum, if you don\u2019t finish it tonight, you feel like it\u2019s slipping away.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760000236_650_hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Yeah, well, he\u2019s right, now it\u2019s slipping away.<\/p>\n
Despite his postgame optimism, before the game Roberts warned of the same ominous signs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have these guys on their heels, and you\u2019re at home,\u201d said the Dodger manager. \u201cWe expect a great, boisterous crowd. We have one of our aces on the mound. So the way we\u2019re playing, we want to put these guys away and don\u2019t let them up for air.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oh, they gave them plenty of air, beginning in the fourth inning when Schwarber led off with a 455-foot homer off the roof of the right-field pavilion. Then the Phillies\u2019 piled on, a Harper single, an Alec Bohm single that scored Harper on a bad throw from center fielder Andy Pages, then a run-scoring fly ball from Brandon Marsh.<\/p>\n
The Phillies pitching held, but their lead was still 3-1 when Kershaw dramatically took the mound in the seventh and survived a wild rally for one inning.<\/p>\n
The Phillies put two runners on base against Kershaw on a Turner single and Schwarber walk, but, with the crowd roaring with every pitch, Will Smith picked off Schwarber and Kershaw survived the threat.<\/p>\n
Then, an inning later, he didn\u2019t, as JT Realmuto led off with a home run and the inning didn\u2019t end until Schwarber had also homered again, sandwiched around a walk, a botched grounder by Muncy, and a single.<\/p>\n
And to think, it all started so sweetly.<\/p>\n
The evening began when World Series hero Steve Garvey threw out the first pitch and then, during the traditional pregame greeting, added an adjective by saying, \u201cIt\u2019s time for Dodger championship baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spoke too soon?<\/p>\n
The game\u2019s honored veteran was 100-year-old World War II vet Jimmy Hernandez, and the standing ovation was one of the night\u2019s loudest.<\/p>\n
The ensuing game only felt like it lasted 100 years.<\/p>\n
And now the Dodgers season has been rudely whittled to two more days.<\/p>\n
Actually, one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They had them down. They let them up. They squeezed them down to their last gasps. They backed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":288828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[24336,1582,276,7480,8329,2442,1910,19498,5949,3688,8321,2961,224,5337,56582,8332,148356,2083,3695,28447],"class_list":{"0":"post-288827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-bryce-harper","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-clayton-kershaw","12":"tag-dodger","13":"tag-dodgers","14":"tag-game","15":"tag-hit","16":"tag-home-run","17":"tag-inning","18":"tag-kyle-schwarber","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-more-time","23":"tag-mound","24":"tag-ordinary-series","25":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","26":"tag-trea-turner","27":"tag-wednesday-night"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115343382594724379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288827","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=288827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760000235_319_hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n