Another Sweep Slips Away, Phillies Can’t Close Series Against Dodgers
Sep 17, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages (44) beats the throw to Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Weston Wilson (37) for a stolen base in the fourth inning at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
On Monday night, when Harrison Bader was asked about the feeling of celebrating winning the National League East during the celebration in the clubhouse, he said that it’s nice to cross off the first step, and then said the now-famous line, on to the next one. That next one is clinching a first-round bye, which, going into tonight’s game, was at 4 games. While winning tonight would be a luxury, it’s a luxury that would do wonders not only for the magic number but also would plant a seed of doubt in the Dodgers’ heads that there is a chance.
The starting pitchers on both sides pitched well tonight, and the Dodgers’ offense jumped out fast again, but this time Blake Snell pitched well, and the Dodgers bullpen held the lead and the line, with the Dodgers taking the win 5-0, to avoid the sweep, and put a hold on the Phils march towards a first-round bye in the playoffs. In this game, there were only 2 innings pitched by the Dodgers’ bullpen, which had fallen apart in the previous 2 nights, limiting the chances for the Phils to mount any offense at all.
Baseball is a strange sport at times. Coming into tonight, Jesus Luzardo‘s last 9 starts have been nothing short of electric. He’s 6-1 with a 2.91 ERA, 64/13 strikeout to walk ratio, and opponents are hitting .189 against him. His opponent tonight, two-time Cy Young award winner Snell, has never gotten a win against the Phils. He had a 0-3 record with a 4.28 ERA and a 1.75 WHIP. The Phils were one of 2 teams he doesn’t have a win against. One thing is that he’s been able to miss Phillies bats, averaging 11.52 strikeouts.
Snell, who has battled injuries all season, looked like vintage Snell tonight, going 7 innings and striking out 12, staying true to his average strikeouts. He had 24 swing through, showing just how in control he was in the game. In a strange move in the 7th, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts came to the mound, which normally means that there is a call to the bullpen incoming. Snell quickly convinced Roberts to let him face the one last batter to get out of the 7th after his only two walks of the game, and he rewarded Roberts’ faith in him by shutting down Otto Kemp to end the frame.
Luzardo, who got his 200th strikeout in the game, pitched well, but was stung by the extended second inning, where the Dodgers hit him pretty hard, in large part because his sweeper, which has been his kill pitch this season, was flat, and the LA hitters made him pay. Much like a slider, a sweeper that lacks bite is just like a batting practice fastball, and the Dodgers certainly teed off on it. Freddie Freeman hit a long home run off of him in the second, the thorns in the Phillies’ pitching staff all series, Miguel Rojas and Andy Pages got on base with stinging singles, and Ben Rortvedt singled home Pages to bring home the second run. The Dodgers added a third run in the fourth, and the way that Snell was throwing, that would be more than enough.
In the questionable move of the night, Rob Thomson sent Luzardo out to start the 8th, and likely that was to pitch to the lefty leading off the inning. It’s just too bad that lefty was Shohei Ohtani, who took another flat sweeper that started in and floated back over the plate, and Ohtani didn’t miss it. Depositing the 2-2 pitch into the seats to stretch the lead to 5-0. Of course, it’s easy to play armchair manager, but with it being the 8th inning, Matt Strahm could have come out to start the 8th. Orion Kerkering came in to give up a couple of hits, and if not for a spectacular play by Nick Castellanos, it could have been so much worse. Kerkering was missing the zone very badly, and when he was in the zone, it was more of a ‘get it over’ type of pitch.
Throughout this series, the starting pitching has been spectacular, and the bullpen for the Dodgers has collapsed, but tonight that was not the case. Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott shut the Phils hitters down in the 8th and 9th to avoid the sweep. Scott, who has been the Dodgers’ version of Jordan Romano this season, a highly anticipated arm who looked like a very good signing at the time, but hasn’t lived up to the expectations of being the dominant closer both teams hoped they’d be. Though the Phils have scored an MLB-leading 279 runs after the 7th inning this season, that magic wasn’t there tonight.
This is something I brought up before, and I think it’s worth mentioning again: the Phillies let another series sweep get away. It’s a similar result, where the Phils looked flat offensively in a closeout game. Granted, Snell was dealing, but they will need to solve this if they have any desires to go deep in the playoffs. Honestly, I would have expected that the Phils would be flat last night, especially with how thoroughly they celebrated winning the division Monday night. What Snell had tonight is what the Phils can expect to see in October. Am I being greedy? Possibly. Beating the Dodgers two out of three at Dodger Stadium and taking the season series is huge, but as with the other missed sweeps, it just looked like the Phils were flat and lacking intensity, which is frustrating. Bader’s next step remains 4 games away still.
Steve Hamilton
Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible, we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.
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