LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers might be the best team in baseball, but it’s stunning how they have handled the Phillies in the first two games of the National League Division Series.
The Phillies’ lackluster play at Citizens Bank Park has them one loss from another early October exit and an offseason that probably will include significant changes to the way the team looks.
“Does it suck we didn't get a win here?” slugger Kyle Schwarber said following Monday night’s 4-3 loss in Game 2. “Absolutely. But now we have to go out there, we have to focus on one game at a time. There's no looking ahead, right? Make that flight back home into Philly -- because we're going to be coming back at some point -- make it worth something.”
A few thoughts before Game 3 on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium:
Missing meatballs
The top of the Phillies’ lineup has been a major disappointment. Trea Turner, Schwarber and Bryce Harper are a combined 2-for-21 with 11 strikeouts. Harper said he has missed too many hittable pitches. He has taken 10 swings on pitches classified as being in the heart of the plate (more than one baseball's width inside the strike-zone borders). Six of the 10 were pitches that Statcast classified as “meatballs,” which are true middle-middle pitches.
Here is how Harper fared on those pitches (the six “meatball” pitches are bolded):
Game 1
- Shohei Ohtani slider, 1st inning: Tapped back to pitcher
- Ohtani 4-seamer, 3rd inning: Swing and miss
- Ohtani 4-seamer, 3rd inning: Fouled off
- Ohtani 4-seamer, 6th inning: Fouled off
- Tyler Glasnow curveball, 8th inning: Soft ground-ball single between first and second
Game 2
- Blake Snell 4-seamer, 1st inning: Swing and miss
- Snell slider, 4th inning: Soft groundout to second base
- Snell slider, 6th inning: Fouled off
- Emmet Sheehan 4-seamer, 8th inning: Swing and miss
- Sheehan changeup, 8th inning: Routine flyout to center field
Not all pitches are created equal, of course. Both Ohtani foul balls were on pitches 100 mph or more. The Ohtani slider and Sheehan changeup were more hittable.
“All in all, not where I want to be obviously in the results, but feeling good,” Harper said Tuesday.
The Phillies are batting just .148 in the series against pitches in the heart of the plate. It’s the worst mark of any postseason team. (Teams are hitting a combined .303 against them.) The Phils ranked second in baseball against them in the regular season, batting .343.
Where is Ranger?
Ranger Suárez is not only one of the Phillies’ best pitchers, but he is one of the best pitchers in baseball. He finished the season tied for 11th in the Majors with 4.0 fWAR.
Why hasn’t he pitched this series? And if he hasn’t pitched yet, why isn’t he starting Game 3 on Wednesday?
Phillies manager Rob Thomson made the surprising announcement following Game 2 that Aaron Nola will start Game 3.
Suárez will follow him.
“You're going to see Ranger tomorrow,” Thomson said. “I would be shocked if you don't see Ranger tomorrow.”
The Phillies said Suárez had been available to pitch in relief in each of the first two games of the series, although he has never warmed up. Each time Suárez did not pitch, it seemed to solidify his position to start Game 3. Instead, it will be Nola, who went 5-10 this season with a 6.01 ERA and 0.9 fWAR.
Thomson said Nola is starting because he has never pitched out of the bullpen before. But Nola also has a 7.94 ERA in the first inning this season.
It's a gamble, but the Phillies don’t see it that way.
“Well, you know, Nola's last couple of starts -- his last start was phenomenal, that's the Nola we've seen,” Thomson said. “So I'm banking that we're going to get that.”
Why bunt?
Thomson asked Bryson Stott to do something that almost no team has done in the 2025 regular season or in postseason history: Bunt with a runner on second and no outs in the ninth inning or later.
There were four sacrifice bunt attempts like that in the ninth inning this season. Two were successful sacrifices. One was a bunt single. One was a strikeout. It has happened in postseason history only two previous times (expanded into the ninth inning or later):
- 1910 World Series: Cubs’ Solly Hofman (successful sacrifice)
- 1926 World Series: Yankees’ Tony Lazzeri (bunt single)
Thomson said he had no regrets about the call in Game 2.
“I just think they made a great play,” he said. “Mookie Betts did a heck of a job by breaking very late so the hitter can't adjust to the slash. And it's tough for Nick [Castellanos] to get a proper secondary or bigger secondary because Betts is sitting right behind him. At the end of the day, they made an aggressive play and they made it work. It was a good play.”
Another runner?
Thirteen teams have used 12 or more pitchers in the best-of-five Division Series since 2021.
That’s a lot. So it wasn’t a surprise that the Phillies carried 12 pitchers on their NLDS roster, too. But they have used only seven pitchers in the first two games. They are expected to use two more in Game 3 with Nola and Suárez.
Walker Buehler, Taijuan Walker and Tim Mayza have not pitched. They might never pitch, with an off-day on Tuesday and another off-day on Friday, if the Phillies find a way to extend the series. Buehler and Walker are long men. Mayza is the third left-hander behind Matt Strahm and Tanner Banks.
Teams need a long man in the bullpen in the postseason, especially with no automatic runners used in extra innings. But it was always difficult to see a scenario in which the Phillies used Buehler, Walker and Mayza in a series with three off-days in total, allowing the Phillies’ most trusted relievers to rest between appearances.
Could the Phils have gone with 11 pitchers instead? Maybe. Now, the Phillies couldn’t have predicted Harrison Bader’s hamstring injury in Game 1, but his inability to run in Game 2 meant they needed to have Weston Wilson pinch-run for him in the ninth inning. Bader’s status for Game 3 is again up in the air, though he seems likely to be limited to pinch-hitting duties, at best.
How might the game have changed, if the Phillies had another player on the bench who could have been a pinch-runner for Castellanos in the ninth?