Phillies 5, Dodgers 4: Grant Dayton victimized late again by the Phils

The Dodgers were trying to get a road sweep of the Phillies tonight, but ended up falling late, 5-4. While the Dodgers jumped out to an early lead, the bats stalled after that and the Phils slowly chipped away at the deficit before the fatal blow came in the seventh.

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As mentioned, the offense got started early, with Chase Utley and Corey Seager starting the game off with back-to-back singles, and then Justin Turner hitting another sky-shot homer to left.

That remained all the Dodgers got until the fourth when Yasmani Grandal hit a no-doubter off the scoreboard in right field.

Besides the pitchers not doing their job, the Dodgers made things hard on themselves by not scoring after the fourth. And in total they only had seven hits (two homers, two doubles) and two walks on the day, while going 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

Ross Stripling continued to do quality work on the mound for the Dodgers, surrendering just two earned runs on 94 pitches in five innings. The runs came on six hits and two walks while he struck out five, but there was also unfortunately an unearned run that crossed the plate after Utley tossed away a potential double-play ball.

The relief corps started with Casey Fien, who got two batters in the sixth frame before issuing a walk. Fien was removed for Grant Dayton due to matchup reasons, and Dayton got out of any trouble with a strikeout. Dayton wasn’t so effective in the next inning, however, as he allowed a single up the middle to nemesis Freddy Galvis and then a homer to Maikel Franco. He did manage to retire the next batter, but Joe Blanton entered to relieve him. Blanton got the next two outs without trouble and got through the seventh without further damage.

Josh Fields entered to get the eighth and pitched a scoreless inning to keep the Dodgers in it, but it was for naught in the end because the offense couldn’t rally.

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Lest you think it was all bad, at least Chase Utley threw his bat awkwardly on consecutive swings.

67-53 is now the Dodgers record after today’s loss, and they also fall back to 29-29 away from home. The Giants are playing later today, so temporarily the Dodgers lead in the NL West is down to 1 game.

The Dodgers have to fly out to play at the Reds tomorrow night at 1:10 PM HST/4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM EST. The pitching matchup is Bud Norris (4.34 ERA/4.15 FIP/No DRA) fresh off the disabled list against rookie Tim Adleman (3.72/5.10/4.75).