Dodgers’ ‘dominant’ silver lining from series loss to Phillies

The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-0 on Wednesday night, salvaging the series. Shohei Ohtani hit his 51st homer, and Freddie Freeman launched his 21st to power the offense. The Dodgers also got a great performance from Blake Snell, with seven innings of two-hit, shutout ball. According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the pitching has been a silver lining for LA’s struggles.

“The Philadelphia Phillies win the series against the Dodgers, but the Dodgers’ rotation dominated the Phillies’ lineup. The Phillies hit .054 with 24 strikeouts in 56 at-bats against the Dodgers’ rotation. These two teams could meet again in the best-of-5 Division Series,” Nightengale reported.

In the first two games of the series, Philly scored 15 combined runs. All of them came off the Dodgers’ bullpen, with an opener going on Monday and Ohtani dominating on Tuesday. In 12 innings, the Philly offense mustered just two hits off of Snell and Ohtani.

The starting rotation has been great for the Dodgers, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto also on a heater. But the bullpen has been dreadful of late, including Tanner Scott at the back end. They won the World Series in part because their bullpen shut down the New York Yankees’ offense. That may not be the case this October.

Snell joined the Dodgers last winter on a five-year, $182 million contract. But his long injury history cropped up again at the beginning of the year. Wednesday was just his tenth start of the season, his 2.44 ERA should play in October. In those ten starts, he has allowed just 15 earned runs.

The Dodgers have a two-game lead over the San Diego Padres for the NL West lead. They have four games against the San Francisco Giants, which could end San Fran’s season. But if the Dodgers’ starters stumble, it could create a true division race for the final week.