Kyle Schwarber hit three home runs and matched his career high with seven RBIs, leading the Philadelphia Phillies to a 9-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night.
With this loss, the Dodgers have now dropped two out of three games in their series with the Phillies, reducing their lead in the NL West to three games over the rising Arizona Diamondbacks. This is their smallest margin since late April.
“It’s good to finally win a series,” said Phillies manager Rob Thomson. “Recently, we’ve been playing really good baseball and faced a very strong team.”
Schwarber’s three-run homer highlighted a five-run sixth inning where the Phillies, who lead the NL East, tied the game and then took the lead. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was ejected by third base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt after a call involving Miguel Rojas during the Phillies’ rally.
With the Phillies trailing 4-3, Alec Bohm hit a double to left, and Brandon Marsh hit a grounder that was handled by third baseman Kiké Hernández. Hernández threw to Rojas, and Bohm slid in, being called safe by Wendelstedt due to interference by Rojas.
“He was in front of the bag without the ball, and that’s the new obstruction rule,” crew chief Marvin Hudson explained. “Plus he was running in front of him to third. He was in front of third without the ball, so he obstructed the runner. The runner didn’t have a lane to get to the bag.”
Rojas was charged with an error and became very upset, arguing with Wendelstedt as Roberts came out of the dugout.
Wendelstedt gestured for Roberts to stop arguing. When Roberts didn’t, Wendelstedt turned his back and ejected him. This was Roberts’ 12th career ejection and his first this season.
“He went out there to argue the play,” Hudson said. “And once you go down that road to argue the play, then you’re ejected because you can’t argue that play.”
Bohm scored on J.T. Realmuto’s groundout to third, tying the game at 4. Kelly then walked Nick Castellanos and Johan Rojas, loading the bases. Marsh scored on Kelly’s wild pitch to make it 5-4. Schwarber’s 426-foot home run to right-center extended the lead to 8-4.
Schwarber hit his 27th home run leading off the ninth inning against Michael Grove. “The biggest thing is just being able to come through for the team,” Schwarber said. “There were a lot of other cool things that were done by guys today.”
In the fifth inning, the Phillies closed the gap to 4-3 with Schwarber’s two-run double into the right field corner, which led to Gavin Stone being taken out of the game.
Stone had previously given up a two-strike home run to Schwarber at the start of the game. Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia (2-4) took the loss.
After Gavin Lux’s single in the third inning, the Phillies’ pitchers retired 12 batters in a row. In the eighth inning, Grove hit Nick Castellanos with a pitch, and Matt Strahm hit Lux in the same inning. Freddie Freeman drove in three of the Dodgers’ four runs, giving them a 4-1 lead.
Both of Freeman’s RBI singles came on the first pitches from Phillies starter Tyler Phillips (4-1). Teoscar Hernández hit a double, Phillips hit Kevin Kiermaier with a pitch, and Freeman singled up the middle to score Hernández and tie the game 1-1.
Freeman later scored on a single by Miguel Rojas, who was playing his first game since July 21. In the second inning, Freeman’s two-run single to left field extended the lead to 4-1.
The Phillies were successful with all three of their challenges, getting calls overturned in the first, second, and fifth innings.
