Bellinger’s two homers lead Dodgers to another soggy win in Philly

PHILADELPHIA — Another East Coast game, another rain delay. So once again, the bullpen had to step up and deliver some key innings in the second game of the this series against the Philadelphia Phillies. With the solid bullpen performance, the offense didn’t need to do a lot, but they did plenty. Cody Bellinger got going in a big way with two home runs and four RBI, leading the Dodgers to a 8-2 victory at Citizens’ Bank Park.

Scoreless two innings before rain delay

Because of an incoming weather pattern, both managers knew that sooner or later the tarps would be out. Because of this, Phils manager Joe Girardi opted to go with a couple of relievers to start out the game, and held his starter Kyle Gibson back until after the rain delay. Dave Roberts, on the other hand, stuck with David Price as the Dodger starter, and let him go as far as he could. Both strategies seemed to work out okay. Phils pitchers Conner Brogdon and Hector Neris threw a scoreless two innings before the sky opened up, as did David Price. So, once the rains came, the two teams went into the dugout in a scoreless tie.

Fourth inning fireworks

After the nearly one-hour rain delay, Kyle Gibson finally toed the rubber for the home team in the top of the third. Gibson threw a scoreless third, and Price did the same. However, both teams broke through in the fourth inning. In the top of the fourth, Corey Seager led off with a walk. Then, one batter later, Cody Bellinger put together one of his best at-bats of the season. He battled Kyle Gibson for thirteen pitches before he finally got one that he could put a hurt on. He got a sinker from Gibson that didn’t do a whole lot of sinking, and drilled it to the opposite field. It easily cleared the fence and the Dodgers were up by a score of 2-0.

But the Dodgers got one more in the inning, in the most unlikely of ways. Hitting out of the 8-hole, Matt Beaty got a two-out single. Great, Dodger fans thought. That will clear the pitcher’s spot in the lineup, and they can start with the top of the order in the fifth. However, David Price had other ideas. In his last start, he scorched a single to right, the hardest hit ball of his career. And on Wednesday, it was Price the powerful once again, as he laced a double into the right centerfield gap to score Beaty all the way from first.

Sloppy D leads to two Phillies runs

Now leading 3-0, David Price was let down a bit by his defense in the bottom of the inning. On what should have been a inning-ending double play, second baseman Trea Turner airmailed the throw to first and extended the frame. Price then gave up a double to Didi Gregorious and a two-run single from Ronald Torreyes, and just like that a 3-0 lead had shrunk to 3-2.

Three more in the seventh

However, the Dodgers got some garbage runs of their own in the top of the seventh. With two men on and one out, Corey Seager snuck a ball under the glove of first baseman Alec Bohm, and the Dodgers pushed a fourth run across the plate. The play was scored an error, but it was a crucial run of separation between the Dodgers and the Phils. Then, the Dodgers scored again on a passed ball, and a third time on a seeing-eye single from AJ Pollock. With barely a hard-hit ball, it was now 6-2.

Because of the weird nature of the rain delay, Dave Roberts pulled Price after four innings. But just as they had done on Tuesday night, the bullpen was nearly perfect in relief. Phil Bickford handled the fifth, Brusdar Graterol shut the Phillies down in order in the sixth and seventh, and Blake Treinen struck out the side in the eighth.

Belli puts it out of reach in the ninth

Though the Dodgers had a pretty comfortable lead going into the ninth, Cody Bellinger made sure that the Dodgers could relax the rest of the way. He obliterated a four-seamer from reliever Mauricio Llovera for a two-run shot to right. It was the second long fly of the night for Bellinger, and his OPS for the last 15 games now sits at a very respectable .883. More of this please. Edwin Uceta finished up the game, and sent the Dodgers back into the locker room with a 8-2 win.

Day game on Thursday

It’ll be another bullpen day on Thursday, so hopefully there are enough live arms in the pen to cover nine more innings. Even so, their record in Philly has been great: 10.2 scoreless innings with 16 strikeouts and only four walks. We’ll see how Dave Roberts decides to play it in the final game of the series. It’s a morning game tomorrow, with a 10;15 start on the West Coast. Then, off to New York to test the Mets.