Phillies Get Blown Out by Dodgers in Rubber Match 9-1, Finish Road Trip 4-2

The Phillies closed out the month of May with a six-game road trip in San Diego and Los Angeles. The Phillies completed that road trip with a 4-2 record, heading home with a record of 30-29. Even with what seems to be a successful road trip, it seems very bitter with how it ended and looked at times.

The Phillies closed out the road trip Sunday afternoon in LA, and it was not pretty. The offense was completely decimated by Yoshinobu Yammamoto, only putting up a single run on the day in the ninth inning. Andrew Painter reverted back to his earlier struggles and couldn’t get out of the fourth inning, the pitching staff as a whole gave up 9 runs to the defending World Series Champions.

The Sunday loss caused the Phillies to drop the series against the Dodgers. It looked ugly from the beginning. The Phillies went down quickly in order to start the game. Andrew Painter was hit by the Dodgers hard and quickly, Shohei Ohtani led the game off with a single, then Andy Pages blasted a ball to straight away center that required a spectacular grab from Justin Crawford that slammed him into the wall but held on to the ball for the out. As exciting as the play was, and valuable since Painter was able to get out of the first unscathed, the quick attack and strong swings from the Dodgers did not put a good feeling in the Phillies stomach.

The 2nd inning was similar, the Phillies went down in order, made worse by the fact that Marsh got on by a walk but then thrown out stealing second. Painter continued to get hit around, and while he still limited the damage, he allowed a run on an Alex Freeland double.

The game continued to get ugly as J.T. Realmuto got hit by a pitch in the wrist that knocked him out of the game. The offense continued to do nothing, and would continue to do so pretty much the rest of the way, outside a couple at bats and the lone run in the ninth. Painter allowed his second run of the game because of a Kyle Tucker single, and even though the score was 2-0 at the time, it felt like an insurmountable lead.

Painters day was done after allowing two solo home runs in the fourth. He entered Sunday with three consecutive starts allowing two or fewer runs, he had seemed to begin to figure it out. Sunday’s game was a reversion back to earlier season woes, finishing with a line of 3.1 innings pitched, four runs allowed, and striking out three while allowing eight men on base.

The bullpen was not much better. All three bullpen arms used on Sunday allowed at least one run, and two of the three arms used allowed two runs. While granted, each arm was used for more than one inning, the box score still shows ugly numbers from an ugly game.

The offensive woes continue. It just seems like the offense can’t figure it out consistently. In the last nine games, the lineup is averaging 2.9 runs per game. There is frustration with being unable to hit left-handed pitching, the ineptness of the right handed hitters in the lineup, not being able to hit with runners in scoring position, and just overall guessing at the plate. The offense, to put it simply, is performing terribly right now, and it sours good outcomes like winning four of six games against two of the top teams in the league.

When I wrote the preview last week for this Dodgers series, I stated that this series began the latter half of four very important series. The Phillies began the latter half of four consecutive series against teams with 30 or more wins. This stretch will be telling to show how much help the Phillies need, and how competitive they currently are. Well, after three of the four series, the Phillies are 5-6, and five of those six losses were competitive losses. However, the reason those five games were competitive losses and not victories, were because the offense is just not performing well. If this Phillies team wants to be genuine World Series contenders, something has got to change in the lineup.

Christopher DeMaio

Christopher is a Delaware County Native and a graduate of Devon Preparatory School, class of 2025. He is currently attending University and is in his second semester. Chris, growing up playing since the age of 4, fell in love with his hometown Phillies and continues that love with listening to sports radio, reading articles, writing for Philly Sports Reports’ Phillies team, and, of course, watching the Phils.

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