Phillies news: Dodgers win in 11 innings, move on to NLCS after throwing error from Orion Kerkering

It took 11 innings and every move that manager Rob Thomson had up his burgundy-colored sleeve.

But the Phillies couldn’t save their season.

It ended at 9:40 p.m. on Thursday, when reliever Orion Kerkering came in from the bullpen and was unable to handle Andy Pages’ two-out, bases-loaded tapper back to the mound. Kerkering picked up the ball and uncorked a throw that sailed wide of home plate, allowing pinch-runner Hyeseong Kim to score from third base in a 2-1 Dodgers victory.

Nine innings weren’t enough for the Phillies to extend the season.

Jesus Luzardo, the presumptive Game 5 starter for the Phillies, is warming in the bullpen, as the Phillies and Dodgers will head to extra innings Wednesday evening in Los Angeles.

Matt Strahm came on in relief of closer Jhoan Duran, who recorded five outs on 24 pitches, and set down the Dodgers in the ninth inning to push the game into extras.

Jhoan Duran picked a bad time for his first career bases-loaded walk.

Duran inherited a two-on, one-out jam from starter Cristopher Sanchez. After getting No. 9 hitter Andy Pages to ground out, Duran walked Shohei Ohtani intentionally. He fell behind Mookie Betts before getting him to foul off a 101 mph to bring the count full.

Betts laid off an elevated 101 mph above the strike zone to draw a walk that forced in pinch-runner Justin Dean and tied the game. But Duran struck out Teoscar Hernandez with the bases loaded to push a 1-1 game into the eighth inning.

Say this for the Phillies: The wind is at their back.

Nick Castellanos, the very same player who suggested the environment in Citizens Bank Park can be against the Phillies when they struggle in the postseason, delivered an RBI double against Dodgers reliever Emmet Sheehan to break a scoreless stalemate in the seventh inning.

The Phillies’ rally began with a leadoff single by J.T. Realmuto. Max Kepler grounded into a fielder’s choice but reached second base when Sheehan couldn’t handle the return throw to first from shortstop Mookie Betts, which skipped into the dugout.

It appears the bullpen will decide Game 4 — at least for the Dodgers.

After six scoreless innings from Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers are going to the bullpen here in the seventh, with starter-turned-reliever Emmet Sheehan coming on to face J.T. Realmuto, Max Kepler, and Nick Castellanos.

Meanwhile, Cristopher Sanchez ducked out of the first sustained rally by either team in the sixth inning. After back-to-back one-out singles to Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez, Bryson Stott made a nice play on Freddie Freeman’s bouncer up the middle to get a force at second base. Sanchez got Tommy Edman to tap out to the mound for the final out.

As it nears 4 p.m. on the West Coast, late afternoon shadows have arrived in Dodger Stadium.

The shadows have steadily crept across the infield over the first three innings of the game, and now both batters’ boxes on the left and right side of the plate are covered in shade.

The impact of shadows and how it can affect hitters’ visuals was a constant narrative during the Phillies’ afternoon games in the 2024 National League Division Series against the Mets.

Bryce Harper was back taking batting practice on the field on Thursday afternoon after going 2-for-4 with a walk in Wednesday’s 8-2 win in Game 3.

Harper usually prefers hitting inside in the cages pregame and rarely participates in the on-field rounds. But he hit outside during the Phillies’ workout day on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday.

While superstition likely plays a role, Harper has also talked about how much he likes playing at Dodger Stadium. It’s where he made his major league debut in 2012, and where he played his first game after returning from Tommy John surgery in 2023.

If the Phillies force a decisive Game 5 in the NLDS, they hope to have Harrison Bader back in the lineup.

“We’re going to shoot for Saturday now,” manager Rob Thomson said.

Bader hasn’t started since Game 1 because of what the Phillies have characterized as inflammation between his right hamstring and groin. Thomson said Bader will be available in a pinch-hitting role in Game 4.

The Phillies are going to run it back in tonight’s Game 4 with the same powder blue uniforms worn in last night’s 8-2 drubbing of the Dodgers.

The team had to get special approval to wear them on the road.

“We talked about it 10 days ago,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Some of the players came to me, because they like playing in them. So we had to go through a bunch of hoops with Major League Baseball just to get it cleared.”

LOS ANGELES — It seems like only yesterday that everyone was focused on Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, who went 1-for-14 with eight strikeouts in the first two games of the National League division series.

That changed quickly.

Entering Game 4, then, the talk at Dodger Stadium is centered on Shohei Ohtani. The presumptive unanimous NL MVP is 1-for-14 with seven strikeouts in the series. He doesn’t have an extra-base hit.

Scott Lauber: Kudos to Rob Thomson for coming up with a Game 3 solution to the Phillies’ sixth- and seventh-inning problems. But what will he do in Game 4?

If Jesús Luzardo comes out of the bullpen, it would be on two days’ rest and probably prevent him from starting Game 5. The Phillies will almost certainly need outs from some combination of Matt Strahm, Orion Kerkering, and David Robertson. Will they deliver?

Lochlahn March: I’m looking to see if Kyle Schwarber’s 455-foot blast woke up the offense for good. Schwarber sending a ball into the hills beyond Dodger Stadium seemed to provide an instant release for his teammates, and they racked up 12 total hits after that. But will it carry over into Thursday?

Despite last night’s win, the odds are still against the Phillies. Entering this year’s postseason, only 10 of the 90 teams that fell behind 0-2 in a five-game series came back to win it.

Suddenly, though, you don’t have to squint to at least see the series returning to Citizens Bank Park for Game 5 on Saturday night.

Manager Rob Thomson met with the team before Game 3. He was the Yankees’ bench coach in 2017 when New York became the most recent team to overcome an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five series. He kept it brief. His message was simple.

Nick Castellanos made waves when he said the Red October environment at Citizens Bank Park can easily turn into a weakness. The Phillies lost the first two games of the series at the Bank, and the crowd let a fair amount of boos ring down during Monday’s loss.

During TBS’s pregame show, Jimmy Rollins said the blame put on the environment was misplaced.

“It is hard to get booed at home, but you have to understand the fans’ perspective,” Rollins said. “They’ve been frustrated for years. This isn’t one game, this is years of games, not winning series at home, not finding a way to get it done, not getting the big hit. This year, probably the most expectations they’ve had, the way they ended the season. [The window] is closing. If that’s how you feel, you can silence all that by going out there and getting the job done.”

Cristopher Sánchez (13-5, 2.50 ERA) will take the mound for the Phillies in the biggest game of the season since Wednesday night’s Schwarbomb-fueled win against the Dodgers.

Sánchez started Game 1 against the Dodgers, and kept Los Angeles scoreless through 5 2/3 innings (with eight strikeouts) before allowing Teoscar Hernandez’s two-run double. He also faced the Dodgers on Sept. 16, where he went seven innings and the win.

“It’s the same preparation for me,” Sánchez told reporters. “I prepare myself in the same way for every game. Whether we were up or down, I was going to pitch tomorrow either way.”

Game 4 of the National League Divisional Series between the Phillies and Dodgers begins Wednesday night on TBS, with first pitch scheduled for 6:08 p.m. Philly time.

Calling all the action from Citizens Bank Park is veteran TBS announcer Brian Anderson and Jeff Francoeur, who spent most of his career with the Atlanta Braves but played for the Phillies during the 2015 season.

Lauren Shehadi will report from Dodger Stadium.