Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — If there is a pitcher in the Dodger organization who knows how to get Bryce Harper out, could he please take one step forward? Cuz none of these guys on the roster seem to have any clue how to do that right now. For the third straight night, Harper and the Phillies absolutely torched the Dodger starter in and 8-3 loss at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night.
This time, the victim was Julio Urias. When he finally exited the game after six painful innings, he had surrendered eight runs to the visitors, five of them earned. It was one of the worst outings of his career. This after Tyler Anderson and Walker Buehler both got knocked around the yard pretty hard in their starts in this series. It, um, wasn’t good.
Segura and Harper homers give Phils big lead
Jean Segura‘s first inning home run put the Phillies up 3-0, but it’s hard to lay that one on Julio Urias’s doorstep. Justin Turner made a vital throwing error in the inning that opened the door for the Segura blast. And even though Mookie Betts led off the bottom of the first with a home run of his own, the mega-hot Bryce Harper blistered a three run shot in the third to make it a 6-1 ballgame. Things were looking very bad, very quickly for the Boys in Blue.
Two more homers put the game on ice
To add insult to injury, the Phillies were not done hitting the ball over the fence on this warm night at Dodger Stadium. In the fourth inning, Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins both took Urias deep for solo homers, pushing the Phillies’ advantage in this one to 8-1 with the game barely an hour old.
Cody Bellinger did have a nice two-run double in the bottom of the inning to make the final score a little closer, but the Dodgers were really out of this one from the start. It was the fourth straight loss to a sub-.500 team for the Dodgers. But most of all, it raised questions about the Dodgers’ pitching staff, so good until about a week ago. One is starting to wonder if maybe those who doubted the Dodger pitching before the season began had been right all along. Reyes Moronta and Garrett Cleavinger did at least keep the Phillies off the board in the last few innings, but by then most Dodger fans were too depressed to care.
Grove to debut on Sunday
With the Dodgers’ pitching already depleted, the team turns to prospect Michael Grove to start Sunday’s finale against the Phillies. Grove, a second round pick from 2018, has been pitching well for AA Tulsa this season. In five appearances, he has a 2.76 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 16 innings. But he is really being thrown into the lion’s den in this one, facing a Phillies lineup that is hitting on all cylinders. Advice to Mike: DON’T GIVE BRYCE F’N HARPER ANYTHING TO HIT!!!
Cans of Corn
- This slump has shades of last season, when the club went into a funk in May after a 15-5 start. Let’s hope they can pull out of this tailspin quickly.
- The Dodgers went with a right-hand heavy lineup in this one, sitting both Gavin Lux and Max Muncy on the bench. Muncy had a pinch-hit strikeout late in the game, as did Edwin Rios.
- Once Segura hit that home run in the first, it kind of felt like this one was over. And in fact, it pretty much was.
- Gotta give some love to Reyes Moronta for eating a couple of innings in this one.
- After the Phillies the red-hot Diamondbacks come into town (yes, I wrote “red-hot” and “Diamondbacks” in the same sentence).
