Phillies’ offense falls flat in 9-1 series finale loss to Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — Not much went right for the Phillies on Sunday.

Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto carved up their offense. Andrew Painter turned in the shortest start of his major league career. And J.T. Realmuto left the game in the fourth inning with a bruised left wrist after getting hit by a 97.1 mph fastball.

Realmuto’s X-rays came back negative, and interim manager Don Mattingly said that while the catcher was sore, he will be OK.

But the Phillies still boarded their flight home on a sour note, closing out their West Coast road trip with a 9-1 blowout loss to the Dodgers.

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“It’s a little weird that I feel like we kind of go into funks as a team,” Trea Turner said. “It seems to be like kind of balling up sometimes, and we got to figure that out a little bit.”

Yamamoto became the latest Dodgers pitcher to shut down the Phillies offense. In this series, Los Angeles’ starters — Justin Wrobleski, Roki Sasaki, and Yamamoto — collectively posted a 1.02 ERA. Each of them saw their fastball tick up at least a mile per hour compared to their season average.

“I think Yamamoto was 94, 95 [mph] against Milwaukee, and he’s 98, 99 against us,” Bryce Harper said. “So, obviously, we’re going to get their best stuff, and I love that. I like getting their best stuff.”

Though he only went 5⅓ innings on Sunday, Yamamoto set a season high with 10 strikeouts and the Phillies whiffed 21 times against him. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, when Turner dropped a bloop into shallow left field.

Painter only lasted 3⅓ innings, and in that span the Dodgers racked up four runs on seven hits.

“Just missing spots, not commanding the ball well, kind of fully with everything,” Painter said.

In the first inning, Justin Crawford made a spectacular catch on a well-hit ball from Andy Pages, hanging onto it as he smacked face-first into the center field wall.

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The Dodgers got on the board in the second inning on an RBI double from Alex Freeland, though Painter limited the damage by striking out Shohei Ohtani to end the frame. He won a nine-pitch battle against the Dodgers’ designated hitter, bringing him to one knee while his helmet flew off whiffing on a curveball.

Another Dodgers run scored in the third, partially due to some bad luck. Freddie Freeman singled on a ground ball that deflected off Painter’s backside, and then scored when Kyle Tucker hit a ball that bounced off first base and out of Harper’s reach.

“I thought Paint was OK, really,” Mattingly said. “The bottom of the order kind of hurt us. Two-out hits hurt us. Freeland gets the two-out hit and drives in a run. Tucker hits the ball down the line, hits the bag. I think we make that play. That’s another run.”

Painter was lifted with one out in the fourth after allowing two solo homers on a pair of mislocated pitches to seven-hole hitter Ryan Ward and nine-hole hitter Freeland. Tanner Banks took over, making his first appearance of the road trip, and allowed two runs on a walk and three hits.

The Dodgers tacked on two more runs against Chase Shugart, who was pitching for the first time since May 19. Mattingly had not been able to find spots for Banks or Shugart recently as the Phillies have played a string of close games that required the use of higher-leverage arms.

While the Dodgers continued to add on, the Phillies continued to come up empty. They mustered five total hits to the Dodgers’ 13.

Adolis García went 0-for-3 to finish hitless on the road trip.

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“The story for me was they got two-out hits with guys in scoring position, and we weren’t able to do it,” Mattingly said.

With the game still within reach in the fifth inning, the Phillies had runners on second and third, thanks to a single from Rafael Marchán and a double from Crawford. Kyle Schwarber and Turner struck out to end the inning.

Bryson Stott hit a solo home run to spoil the shutout in the ninth, snapping an 0-for-20 skid.

The Phillies closed out their road trip against the two top teams in the National League West with a 4-2 record. But even in the wins, runs were relatively hard to come by. In six games, they scored 17 times. The Phillies have not scored more than four runs in a game since May 17 against the Pirates.

“I don’t know if it’s just keeping a little bit simpler, or not trying to do too much, I mean all those cliché things, but we just got to figure out ways to keep the innings going and have those big innings,” Turner said.

The Phillies dug themselves out of a 9-19 start and are still a game above .500 at 30-29, but they remain at the bottom of MLB in many offensive categories. That includes team batting average (.224, second-worst in baseball) and OPS (.673, third-worst).

The 38-21 Dodgers happen to lead baseball in both categories with a .263 average and .792 OPS.

“Obviously shocked by that, right?” Harper said. “When you go into a season with the team that you have, you don’t think you’re gonna have that. Just gotta keep plugging along. Obviously, get better.

“June starts tomorrow. So have a good June. You won the month of May, so that’s huge for us. Just got to continue to win months, and get where we need to be at the end.”

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