The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped two of three games against the Philadelphia Phillies this week, but it wasn’t because of a lackluster performance from their starting pitchers.
Emmet Sheehan served as the bulk pitcher in the series opener at Dodger Stadium and held the Phillies to just one run on one hit with seven strikeouts against three walks across 5.2 innings of work.
That was followed by Shohei Ohtani throwing five no-hit innings on an efficient 68 pitches Tuesday night. Then in the series finale, Blake Snell allowed just two hits and collected a season-high 12 strikeouts over seven scoreless frames.
“I think the starters pitched their tails off this series,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And I thought we played a great series. We had a few bad innings, but in totality, I thought we played really good baseball.
“I thought the offense was fantastic. I thought the defense was great, and we just had a few bad innings that cost us a series. But I like our chances, if we play like this, against anyone.”
Snell’s strong performance helped the Dodgers salvage their series against the Phillies with a 5-0 win on Wednesday, maintaining a two-game lead over the San Diego Padres in the National League West.
“We needed to win this game. You get two great performances, and we don’t win, as far as starting pitching. So getting another great performance, we needed to win this game,” Roberts said.
“And our offense, just the way they’re playing, it’s really, really fun to watch. The situational hitting, the hitting behind runners, the two-strike at-bats. For me, it’s a dream. I’m really impressed and proud the way these guys are playing baseball.”
Up next for Dodgers
The Dodgers now continue their final homestand of the regular season with a four-game series against the San Francisco Giants. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will look to add to the starting rotation’s recent success with a solid outing of his own in Thursday’s opener.
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