Steve Webb
PHILADELPHIA, PA — Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The Dodgers played well enough to win, but got walked off instead. Again. For the third time on this road trip, the Dodgers had to hang their heads and walk off the field as an opposing player got the Gatorade shower after hitting the game winner. This time, it was Kyle Schwarber who was the recipient of the bath. The Phillies slugger hit a no-doubter in the bottom of the 9th off Caleb Ferguson to give the Phils a 5-4 win as this tough road trip continues.
Michael Grove got the bulk job after Victor Gonzalez opened for the Dodgers, and for the most part acquitted himself quite well. However, one inning got away from him a little bit as he surrendered three runs in the bottom of the fifth, leaving the game on the wrong side of a 4-1 score.
But as the Dodgers have shown regularly this year, they’ve got some fight in them. The team came back with three runs of their own to tie it up in the top of the seventh. With two outs in the frame, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman went back-to-back with long balls and suddenly the game was tied at four apiece.
That set up Schwarber’s late game heroics. Ferguson came in to start the bottom of the 9th, and for a time, it looked like he was going to have a good, clean inning. He retired the first to Phils hitters on just seven pitches. Ferguson then got ahead of Schwarber 0-1 on a nice pitch, but the count evened up when he didn’t get the call on a borderline pitch. That set up the last pitch of the game, a cutter that hung up in the zone. Schwarber demolished the pitch and the game was over.
“It’s tough. It stings,” manager Dave Roberts said. “A loss is a loss, but when you feel like you’re in it, and you get walked off, that never feels good.”
