Dodgers push Phillies to the brink of elimination, head back to L.A. with 2-0 lead in the NLDS after 4-3 win

The moment was right there.

With the Phillies down to their final out in Game 2 of the National League Division Series on Monday, the tying run was at third base. The winning run was at first. The Phillies had one last chance, thanks to a ninth-inning rally sparked by the bottom half of their lineup.

But Trea Turner grounded out to second base on the second pitch from Roki Sasaki to end a 4-3 Dodgers victory. Once again, it was the Phillies’ biggest stars who failed to come through. The top third of the order, including NL batting champion Turner, Bryce Harper, and regular-season home run king Kyle Schwarber, finished 1-for-10.

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“Everyone feels that, the stadium feels that, we feel it,” Turner said. “It feels like we’re one hit away. Two nights ago, it felt like that, too.”

Unlike last October in their NLDS loss to the Mets, there were no shadows creeping across the infield to blame things on, no lucky McDonald’s characters aiding the other side, no cursed ballparks. In a battle of best on best, at their home, the Phillies’ bats failed them, and they lost. They head to Los Angeles with their season on the line. They will face elimination on Wednesday in Game 3.

“I don’t think any team’s ever out of it. If we were up 2-0, I wouldn’t feel like we won the series,” Turner said. “This time of year, you never know what’s going to happen. You’ve got to keep pushing, keep grinding, keep fighting, and make big things happen for you. And you can pull something off that’s pretty crazy.”

The Phillies wasted a spectacular start from Jesús Luzardo, who stood toe-to-toe with Blake Snell for six innings. Luzardo needed 24 pitches for the first inning but managed to strand a pair, and was far more efficient after that. He had retired 17 consecutive Dodgers — including Shohei Ohtani three times — until Teoscar Hernández’s leadoff single in the seventh.

Meanwhile, the offense mustered one hit — a single from Edmundo Sosa — against Snell. The Phillies especially struggled with the lefty’s off-speed offerings. He induced 23 whiffs, 20 of which came on his slider, changeup, and curveball.

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In the sixth, Turner and Schwarber worked consecutive walks, setting the stage for the type of moment that Harper is supposed to be made for. Instead of adding another chapter to his Phillies mythos, though, Harper swung at three sliders down and outside the zone to strike out.

As he walked back to the dugout, the Phillies’ path to the next round had narrowed ever so slightly. When the Dodgers tagged the Phillies for four runs in the next inning, it shrank much further.

“I think those guys are trying to do a little too much right now, instead of just being themselves and looking for base hits,” manager Rob Thomson said. “And the power will come.”

After Hernández’s single, a double from Freddie Freeman chased Luzardo from the game, and Orion Kerkering came in to try to escape a jam.

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Kerkering struck out Tommy Edman, and then got Kiké Hernández to hit a soft grounder on the infield grass. Teoscar Hernández had a late break from third base, but Turner’s throw was slightly off line, allowing him to slide into home to end the stalemate.

Max Muncy walked on four pitches to load the bases, and a single from Will Smith scored two more. Matt Strahm took over to face Ohtani, who twisted the knife further with his first hit of the series, a single that gave the Dodgers a 4-0 lead.

Still, they did not lie down. Pinch-hitting Max Kepler laced a triple into the right-field corner for the Phillies’ first extra-base hit of the night in the eighth, and Turner scored him with a single. But Schwarber and Harper again did not meet the moment, striking out and flying out to end the inning.

“I can look at myself in the mirror and say that I want to be better,” Schwarber said. “I’m going to be better.”

When Jhoan Duran entered for the ninth with his light show, down three runs, he was met with boos from the crowd.

Hope sprang when Blake Treinen came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth for the Dodgers, and the Phillies rattled off three straight hits: a single from Alec Bohm, a double from J.T. Realmuto, and a double from Nick Castellanos. The right fielder reached out and poked a sweeper into the outfield to make it a 4-3 game, diving under the tag at second base.

Bryson Stott failed to move the runner with a bunt attempt to third base, and Castellanos was thrown out at third. Thomson said he had called the bunt for the lefty-on-lefty matchup with Alex Vesia on the mound, as he was playing for the tie at the time.

“They ran it as perfect as you can,” Stott said. “They just did it exactly how they drew it up.”

Pinch-hitting Harrison Bader delivered a single to keep the line moving before a force out from Kepler put runners on the corners for Turner. And the Phillies’ last hope was snuffed out back at the top of the order.

As the Phillies board the plane to Los Angeles, the odds are stacked against them. Only 10 teams in baseball history have come back from being down 0-2 in a five-game series. The Phillies are taking it one day at a time, but it will need to start from the top.

“We know that we’re going to have nine innings of baseball in L.A. at the minimum,” Schwarber said. “And we’ve got to take it from there.”