Offense was at a premium in Game 2 of the National League Division Series with Blake Snell and Jesús Luzardo going toe to toe, and it turned with Teoscar Hernández once more at the center of a key moment in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
With that, the Dodgers are ahead 2-0 in the NLDS and the Phillies face elimination at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
The Dodgers nearly got to Luzardo in the first inning as two runners reached. However, they were stranded at the corner and didn’t have anything to show for making the Phillies starter throw 24 pitches.
It wound up being a missed opportunity as Luzardo settled in from there and needed just 10 pitches to get through the second inning and only eight more in the third. Luzardo remained efficient as he retired 11 batters in a row through the fourth inning. 17 through six
Luzardo wound up extending that to 17 batters before a Teoscar Hernández leadoff single in the seventh inning. It was good for the second-longest streak in Phillies postseason history. Roy Halladay retired 21 consecutive batters Game 1 of the 2011 NLDS.
Hernández’s base hit was followed by a double from Freddie Freeman that chased Luzardo from the game. The promising opportunity led to a run that broke the scoreless tie when Kiké Hernández hit a soft grounder to shortstop, allowing Teoscar Hernández to beat Trea Turner’s throw home.
Will Smith added a two-run base hit and Shohei Ohtani’s first hit of the NLDS was a single to bring in the Dodgers’ fourth run of the inning after the Phillies tried going to Matt Strahm for a left-on-left matchup.
Blake Snell delivers for Dodgers
Snell largely matched Luzardo’s effort with his own dominant performance. He leaned on fastballs the first time through the order and effectively mixed in secondary offerings. Through three innings, the Phillies failed to make contact on a non-fastball from Snell, registering 11 swings and misses during that span.
Turner particularly highlighted the Phillies’ struggles against Snell’s offspeed pitches as he struck out on four changeups in the fourth inning. Turner took the first one for ball before swinging and missing at the next three.
Snell held the Phillies without a hit until Edmundo Sosa’s broken-bat single into center field with two outs in the fifth inning. Prior to that their only baserunners came via two walks. The fifth inning was the first frame in which Snell did not strike out at least one batter.
The Phillies’ biggest threat came in the sixth inning as walks by Turner and Kyle Schwarber put two on with one out. Snell worked his way out of trouble by striking out Harper and retiring Alec Bohm, though that entailed Miguel Rojas beating Turner to third base just in time to apply the tag on a diving attempt.
Snell’s night came to an end at six scoreless innings and nine strikeouts.
Snell joined Walker Buehler as the only pitchers in Dodgers postseason history with a start of at least six innings and one or fewer hits allowed. Buehler accomplished the feat in Game 1 of the 2019 NLDS.
Emmet Sheehan took over after Snell and allowed one run while navigating two innings in a bounce-back performance from his appearance in the Wild Card Series.
After Turner’s RBI single in the eighth inning, Sheehan was left in the game and retired Schwarber and Harper.
The Dodgers turned to Blake Treinen in the ninth and he immediately struggled. A leadoff single followed by back-to-back doubles cut the Dodgers’ lead to 4-3 before an out was recorded.
Treinen faced just the three batters before giving way to Alex Vesia, who recorded two outs and was replaced by Roki Sasaki. The rookie retired Turner to strand the tying run at third base.
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