Phillies’ bullpen blows sweep at Dodger Stadium with 5-4 walk-off loss

LOS ANGELES — After three days of slugging their way to wins at Dodger Stadium, the Phillies weren’t able to do so Sunday in a 5-4 walk-off loss at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Phillies held a tenuous 4-3 lead entering the ninth inning, after Jeurys Familia gave up an RBI double to Mookie Betts in relief of Aaron Nola an inning earlier, and Corey Knebel came in for the save. He retired the first two batters, then Cody Bellinger lined a 1-2 pitch to right field for a triple. Chris Taylor drew a walk, then Gavin Lux drove them both home with a double that enabled the Dodgers to avert a four-game sweep.

“I missed my spot with Bellinger,” Knebel said. “I had the advantage and needed to go up and away there and I pulled it up in, right into his bat. So, that one hurts. But I get to 3-2 with Taylor, can’t get behind him in the first place. I didn’t execute. I thought I made a great pitch with Lux, both fastballs were just right outside the zone, and he hit the curveball. So thought it was a good pitch, curveball down, it went right into his bat.”

“It’s just frustrating, altogether. It would be nice to have a sweep against these guys. It’s tough to do in this place. Coming into Dodger Stadium, winning three out of four is still good, but I would have loved to have that sweep today.”

In the wake of three straight days of runs, runs, and more runs, the Phillies collected only eight hits. After scoring 33 runs in their previous four games, they were without their hottest hitter, Bryce Harper, who received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his right elbow in the morning. The Phillies will still return to Philadelphia with two series wins and a 5-2 record on the trip, but have now slipped back below .500, at 17-18.

Aaron Nola faced his biggest challenge of his season against a tough Dodgers lineup, but for the most part, held them at bay. Nola allowed a solo home run to Betts in the third inning, the result of a poorly placed cutter on the heart of the plate, and allowed an RBI single to Max Muncy in the fourth inning, but bounced back nicely from there.

He only allowed one walk, and no hits, over his next two innings of work. He hit a batter in the the seventh, but had an otherwise uneventful inning. Nola went seven innings, allowing four hits, two earned runs, two walks with eight strikeouts. The Phillies have lost the last four games in which Nola has thrown at least seven innings.

When asked whether that was frustrating for him, Nola said: “I mean, it’s baseball. Stuff like that is going to happen. I can just control what I can control, go deep into games as much as possible. Whatever happens after that is out of my control.”

Nola’s outing marked the second straight game a Phillies starter has gone seven innings. The right-handed pitcher was just the third starter to throw seven or more innings and allow two or fewer runs against the Dodgers this season.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, with a strikeout of Lux, Nola moved up a spot on the Phillies’ all-time strikeout list. He tied Hall of Famer Jim Bunning with 1,197 strikeouts, and finished his day in sole position of seventh place on the list, with 1,200.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, with no outs, Trea Turner lined out to Phillies rookie shortstop Bryson Stott. It was a pretty hard-hit ball, that came off of his bat at 95.2 mph, but Stott was prepared for it. Stott leapt up, stuck out his glove, and just barely grasped the ball in the web to record the out, saving what would have been a sure extra-base hit.

Familia entered with a tenuous two-run lead and promptly allowed a walk, an RBI double, and another walk. In the next at-bat, Trea Turner grounded into double play, and then Will Smith grounded to end the inning, allowing Phillies fans to take a collective sigh of relief, but it was definitely a close call.

Familia’s numbers in high-leverage situations aren’t great. Entering Sunday’s game, batters were hitting .278 against him in eight games of high-leverage situations this season, with an .889 OPS. Interestingly enough, Seranthony Domínguez’s numbers aren’t better in those spots (hitters are slashing .286/.375/.357 against him in seven games worth of high-leverage situations) but coming off of a strong outing on Saturday, Domínguez might have been a more tenable option.

Manager Joe Girardi said he hadn’t considered Dominguez because he was off Sunday.

“If I brought in a left-hander I thought they would pinch hit for Lux,” Girardi said. “Familia, he’s a guy who’s pitched at the back end. Brad [Hand]’s been used a lot. [Jose] Alvarado’s been used a lot. So, I did it.”