PHILADELPHIA – James Outman took one step, then two, then a third before he realized his folly. By the time the Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder finally broke in on Nick Castellanos’ fly ball, it was already plummeting toward grass for a single. The next batter made the flub sting, the batter after that put yet another game out of reach.
Over three nights against the Philadelphia Phillies, a dichotomy formed. The Dodgers are one of the most successful clubs in the sport. But then there’s this middling version of the Dodgers that has revealed itself in the past couple of months.
“They’re clearly playing a lot better baseball than we are,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the Phillies. “They’re clearly a better team than we are right now.”
The Phillies’ 5-1 victory Thursday capped off an emphatic series sweep over a Dodgers team limping toward the All-Star break.
Little has gone right for the Dodgers of late. Through their past 50 games, they are 26-24. It’s an unwatchable brand of baseball: thin pitching, a top-heavy lineup and a proclivity for mistakes that seemed uncharacteristic compared to years past.
The Dodgers lost, 5-1. They are 55-39 after getting swept by the Phillies.
They’re now 26-24 over their last 50 games.
Time of game: 2:43.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) July 12, 2024
Outman’s misplay in center field sparked the Phillies’ gut-punch rally in the fifth inning Thursday night. Andy Pages’ misstep in center field that same inning Wednesday allowed Whit Merrifield to reach on a leadoff triple and ignite the Phillies’ game-changing rally. Outman’s decision Wednesday to square to bunt not once, but twice in a two-run game with one runner on that left manager Roberts confused in his postgame comments.
The mistakes weighed the Dodgers down like cinder blocks.
“We don’t have much margin for error,” Roberts said. “I hate to say you’ve got to play perfect baseball to win, but it’s seeming like that.”
The Dodgers are searching for answers, and the looming All-Star break offers little reprieve. Their rotation remains in flux, with their most effective pitcher (Tyler Glasnow), most expensive pitcher (Yoshinobu Yamamoto), most promising pitcher (Bobby Miller) and most experienced postseason pitchers (Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler) all injured, ineffective, or both.
“If you had told us in spring training that we would be where we’re at with the depth of our starting pitching, I would have doubted it,” Roberts said Thursday afternoon. “But we are.”
The lineup suffers from the absence of Mookie Betts and Max Muncy. The Dodgers managed just five runs in the three games. This month’s trade deadline offers potential solutions, but it will be a matter of plugging up those holes before another one pops up.
The Dodgers’ logic in deploying an opener on Thursday was sound. Rather than have rookie right-hander Landon Knack (making his eighth career appearance) face lefties Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper three times, Roberts opted to deploy left-hander Anthony Banda. Banda retired both but allowed a solo home run to right-handed hitting Trea Turner in between to give the Dodgers another deficit. They trailed in 26 of the 27 innings they played at Citizens Bank Park.
With the Dodgers hanging in the game partly due to Gavin Lux’s solo home run and a stretch in which Knack retired 11 Phillies in a row, more trouble emerged. Outman’s poor read allowed Castellanos to reach safely. Castellanos scored one batter later on Brandon Marsh’s triple as part of a two-run inning to expand the Phillies’ lead. It was one of several productive stretches from the bottom of the Phillies order in the series.
Los Angeles rallied twice to load the bases but made nothing of it. Shohei Ohtani struck out and Will Smith grounded out to end a second-inning threat. When Harper’s error opened the door for the Dodgers to bring up the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, it was immediately closed: Miguel Rojas lined out to second baseman Bryson Stott, who turned and threw to second to double off Teoscar Hernández.
“I think that those guys capitalized on every opportunity they had,” Roberts said. “Mistakes, miscues that we had defensively, they took advantage of.”
It led to a rather uneven-looking fight, one that left little doubt about which club has been the class of the sport and which has been stuck in it for the better part of two months.
“We didn’t play very good that series,” Freddie Freeman said. “There’s nothing to spin it any different way. We are still a first-place team. We are still a very good ball team. But sometimes breaks come at good times. But let’s finish it off with a good series win in Detroit and play better baseball. Then it will be a good time for a break.”
(Photo of Miguel Rojas: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
