LOS ANGELES — By the ninth inning, much of Dodger Stadium had already cleared out.
With a chance to put the Phillies away in the National League Division Series, the Dodgers’ offense offered little resistance to Ranger Suárez’s attack while their pitchers could no longer keep the Phillies’ top sluggers at bay as Philadelphia staved off elimination in Game 3.
Here are my takeaways:
1. Phillies sluggers wake from their slumber
The ball sailed through the Los Angeles night sky and clanked off the top of the roof in the Dodgers’ right-field pavilion in the fourth inning. And with that, the first Schwarbomb of the postseason signaled the arrival of the Phillies’ sluggers.
Before Kyle Schwarber’s 455-foot blast to put the Phillies on the board Wednesday night, Philadelphia’s vaunted trio of Trea Turner, Schwarber and Bryce Harper had started the National League Division Series a combined 2-for-24 with five walks and 11 strikeouts.
But that majestic drive — the first home run Yoshinobu Yamamoto had allowed since Jackson Holliday broke up his no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning on Sept. 6, and the first home run the Dodgers had allowed all postseason — tied the score and seemed to kick the Philadelphia offense into gear. Harper followed with a single, Alec Bohm singled, Brandon Marsh hit a sac fly, and just like that a 1-0 deficit was a 3-1 lead for the Phillies, as the night snowballed quickly on the Dodgers and starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Schwarber, Harper and Turner each reached base three times, going a combined 7-for-13 with five RBIs, with Schwarber launching two home runs on the night.
2. For the first time this October, a Dodgers starter was not sharp
From the moment their rotation became whole again in early August, the Dodgers’ rotation was the best in baseball. That success had translated to the start of October. Dodgers starters had tallied a 1.75 ERA through their first four games of the postseason, delivering quality starts in each of those four games.
That streak ended Wednesday, despite having their best pitcher this season — and one of the best pitchers in the National League this year — on the mound.
(Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Yamamoto’s four innings were his fewest in a start since July 7, which was 14 starts ago. He elicited just eight swings and misses, tied for his fifth-fewest in a game this season. The right-hander cruised through three scoreless innings before disaster struck. He left too many pitches in the middle of the zone, and the Phillies didn’t miss.
Starting in the fourth inning, the Phillies went homer, single, single, sac fly, double, flyout, strikeout, single, single to end Yamamoto’s night with two on and no out in the fifth. The Dodgers escaped, but disaster loomed.
3. Disaster for Kershaw in first relief outing of the 2025 postseason
A familiar face emerged from the home bullpen in the top of the seventh inning, bringing a crowd of 53,689 fans to their feet, including Sandy Koufax, who five years from now will have more Dodgers company in the Hall of Fame.
Clayton Kershaw made his first appearance of the final postseason of his career in the seventh inning. In the inauspicious frame, he allowed two walks and did not generate any swings and misses. The inning ended with a lineout 108 mph off Brandon Marsh’s bat, but Kershaw escaped unscathed.
… At least for that inning.
(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Despite struggling through the scoreless inning, Roberts sent Kershaw back out for the eighth, and J.T. Realmuto promptly added an insurance run on a solo homer to give the Phillies a 4-1 lead. Within moments, that lead doubled after a two-run single from Turner and Schwarber’s second homer of the night.
It was Kershaw’s first appearance since Sept. 28, when he threw 5.1 scoreless innings in Seattle in the final regular season start of his Hall of Fame career. It was his first relief outing in the postseason since 2019, when he allowed two home runs in Game 5 of the NLDS. He allowed five runs, four earned, on six hits and three walks in two innings of work.
4. Thomson’s pitching plan goes to plan
Despite Aaron Nola registering an ERA almost double that of Ranger Suárez’s this year, Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he still trusted Nola and would regret not having either pitch in the series.
So he decided to use them both in Game 3, starting with Nola and piggybacking Suárez.
The move paid off.
(Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)
Nola’s velocity ticked up more than 2 mph faster than his season average with the time off, and it saved him from having to go to his bullpen in the middle innings. In the first two games of the series, the Dodgers scored all of their runs in the sixth and the seventh.
Suárez surrendered a home run on his first pitch of the night, a solo shot to Tommy Edman to start the third, and then carved through the Dodgers lineup for five innings.
4 ½. Banda enters the trust tree?
It’s hard to remember now, but this was a two-run game entering the eighth inning, in large part because of the work of Anthony Banda.
Roberts turned to Banda after Yamamoto put two on to start the fifth. The southpaw got Schwarber to strike out, induced a flyout from Harper and ended the scoreless inning with a strikeout of Brandon Marsh to keep the Phillies off the board.
It, of course, made no difference in the final score. But with so few conventional options for Roberts in the Dodgers’ bullpen, Banda made a case for himself moving forward.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.
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