NLDS Recap: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw & Dodgers Offense Struggle, Phillies Force Game 4

The Philadelphia Phillies forced a Game 4 in the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers with an 8-2 victory in Game 3.

Although it proved to not matter all that much, it was the Dodgers that jumped out to an early lead when Tommy Edman slugged a homer against Ranger Suárez, who just entered in relief in the third inning.

The Phillies started Aaron Nola with the plan of getting them through the lineup once, and he was able to get them the first six outs without a run scoring and took them to the ninth hitter in the lineup.

While the Rangers would have liked to avoid letting a lefty face Edman, they also wanted Suárez to start an inning fresh, rather than entering during the inning. For the short time the Dodgers led, that backfired a bit.

But the Phillies tied it up in the fourth when the Kyle Schwarber hit a solo home run against Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That was followed by a single from Bryce Harper, and another single from Alec Bohm that allowed a run to score due to a throwing error by Andy Pages trying to get Harper at third base.

The Phillies then increased their lead to 3-1 on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Marsh. That score remained for a few innings as Suárez shut down the Dodgers while Anthony Banda and Jack Dreyer held the Phillies in check.

But the Phillies ended up breaking the game open against Clayton Kershaw. After struggling to get through his first inning of work, Kershaw allowed five runs in the eighth inning, including two home runs.

It started off with a solo homer from J.T. Realmuto. Max Kepler walked and Nick Castellanos reached on an error before Trea Turner singled home two runs to make it 6-1.

Schwarber extended the lead to 8-1 with his second homer of the night. The Dodgers finally got out of it, but not before Bryce Harper doubled.

The Dodgers added a run in the ninth inning with an RBI single from Edman.

Bryce Harper was excited to play at Dodger Stadium

Harper made his MLB debut at Dodger Stadium in 2012, and he’s hit .286/.354/.524 across 34 games at Chavez Ravine. He hoped returning to L.A. would help him break out of his postseason slump.

“I love playing here, I love being in L.A., I love the West Coast, always have,” Harper said. “Obviously, when you’re growing up, the Dodgers were the Dodgers. My dad hated the Dodgers because he was a Big Red Machine fan, but I loved them.

“It’s a good baseball team. It’s a lot of fun to watch. They do a great job over there, obviously. They’re the team to beat year in, year out. It’s always fun for me to come out here. I enjoy it, I’ve got a lot of family and friends out this way. I love playing at Dodgers, always have.

“The ball flies here. It wasn’t always like that, but it does now. It’s a lot of fun coming here and playing.”