Nick Pivetta’s sensational outing wasted as Dodgers sweep Phillies

LOS ANGELES – The Nick Pivetta the Phillies thought they would see coming out of spring training showed up Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, and still it was not enough to prevent an ugly 8-0 loss and a three-game sweep at the hands of the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers.

With Pivetta departed from a scoreless game in the bottom of the seventh inning, David Freese put the Dodgers in front with a two-out home run off Vince Velasquez, and the Phillies’ relief duo of Edgar Garcia and Yacksel Rios imploded in the eighth, surrendering seven runs to put the game out of reach.

The Phillies, who made a deal with Seattle for the left-handed hitting Jay Bruce before the game, slipped to 6-10 against left-handed starters this season as they failed to score in seven innings against lefty Rich Hill. The Phillies were swept in a series for the first time this season and their lead over the Atlanta Braves in the National League East dwindled to a single game, their slimmest margin since April 30.

The Dodgers, meanwhile, improved to 41-19 and made an emphatic statement that there is quite a bit of distance between them and the 33-26 Phillies, who entered the series with the second-best record in the National League.

“They played well,” first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. “I think we didn’t play well. Obviously, we’re not as healthy as I think they are. This is a tough place to play. They’re really good here. They feed off this crowd. I think it’s a pretty good sign that our first [sweep] is June 1. I think they come pretty late to us. My guess is that it will be a different series.”

The teams will play a four-game series in Philadelphia starting July 15.

For six scoreless innings Sunday, Pivetta unveiled an impressive repertoire of pitches, including a searing fastball and a nasty curve that helped him record nine strikeouts while throwing just 82 pitches. The 26-year-old right-hander did not walk a batter and allowed only three hits, but the Phillies’ offense, marked absent for much of the three-game series, could not produce a single run against Hill and relievers Pedro Baez and Joe Kelly.

The Phillies batted .158 (15-for-95) in the three games against the Dodgers and scored just six runs. They were 3-for-20 with runners in scoring position.

Pivetta was the only silver lining on another cloudy day in Southern California. This was by far his best start of the season and exactly what the Phillies hoped they would get from him when they left spring training. Instead, he struggled mightily out of the starting gate and was sent to triple-A Lehigh Valley with an 8.35 earned run average on April 17.

“It’s nice to get back to the pitcher I am,” Pivetta said. “I put in a lot of hard work over the last five days to get to where I needed to be, and I think it showed today. I’m getting smoother in my delivery, attacking the strike zone, and making sure my breaking ball is over for strikes. That allowed me to compete against a good team.”

Pivetta could have and would have gone deeper into the game if not for the circumstances that unfolded in the top of the seventh inning. With two outs, Cesar Hernandez accounted for just the Phillies’ third hit of the game, a double to left field. After a meeting at the mound, the Dodgers sent Maikel Franco to first base via an intentional walk. That forced manager Gabe Kapler’s hand and he opted to send Phil Gosselin to the plate as a pinch-hitter for Pivetta.

Gosselin looked at a called third strike from Hill and things fell apart for the Phillies from there.

Kapler opted to use Velasquez as his first reliever of the afternoon. It marked the first time since his move to the bullpen that Velasquez pitched in consecutive games and he was on the verge of keeping the game scoreless after inducing a double-play grounder from Alex Verdugo.

But then he left a slider up to Freese and the veteran infielder and former World Series MVP crushed it for the Dodgers’ first run. They tacked on seven more in the eighth, and the Phillies gladly headed south to San Diego, where they will begin a three-game series Monday night against the Padres.

“I know that we have a better level of play in us and I think we’re going to bring that level to San Diego,” Kapler said.