After splitting the first two games of the series, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies faced off for the rubber match on Sunday afternoon.
Nearly everything went in the Dodgers’ favor in a blowout win against a Phillies team that has been inconsistent as of late.
The Dodgers have now won 14 of their last 17 games.
Dodgers 9, Phillies 1: key takeaways
Ryan Ward, Alex Freeland & Max Muncy hit home runs
Alex Freeland drove in the first run of the game for the Dodgers in the second inning with a double that scored Max Muncy, who reached on a single. Freeland also hit a home run in the fourth inning that extended the Dodgers’ lead to 4-0 as he finished his day going 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI.
Kyle Tucker finally found some success and showed signs of a potential breakout. That started in the third inning when he singled off the first base bag to drive in Freddie Freeman and put the Dodgers up 2-0.
Ryan Ward extended the lead in the fourth inning with the first home run of his career. Ward hit 156 home runs over 725 Minor League games across seven seasons before finally making his debut earlier this year.
In the fifth inning, Tucker doubled and ended up scoring on a two-run single by Alex Call, who pinch-hit for Ward against a left-handed pitcher. That put the Dodgers up by six runs.
Tucker finished his day going 2-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored.
The lead was extended to seven when Andy Pages tripled in the sixth inning, thanks to some help from the sun, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Freddie Freeman.
In the seventh, Max Muncy slugged his team-leading 14th home run of the year. Muncy is now one home run away from tying Eric Karros for the Dodger Stadium home run record. Karros finished his career with 130, while Muncy has 129 at the moment.
The Dodgers again scored in the eighth inning on another sac fly from Freeman that allowed Freeland to score and gave them a nine-run lead.
After putting up a zero in the first inning, the Dodgers went on to score in each of the remaining innings, giving them seven consecutive innings with a run scored. They scored one run in the second, third, sixth, seventh and eighth, and two runs scored in the fourth and fifth.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto runs up pitch count, but effective
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was only able to pitch 5.1 innings as his pitch count ran up to 104, but he was able to keep the Phillies off the board throughout his outing. Yamamoto only allowed four hits, walked two and struck out 10 hitters.
The Phillies didn’t have much traffic against Yamamoto, but in the fourth inning, he allowed singles to Trea Turner and Alec Bohm. However, Yamamoto struck out Brandon Marsh and got Bryson Stott to fly out, ending any threat and leaving two runners stranded.
They again had a chance to score in the fifth inning after a leadoff single and one-out double that put two runners in scoring position, but Yamamoto went on to strike out Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner.
Dodgers and Phillies challenge 10 pitches
Home plate umpire Sean Barber had a rough day behind the plate as the Dodgers and Phillies challenged 10 pitches with the ABS system. Eight of those 10 calls were overturned with the challenge system. Six of them came in the first four innings.
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