Phillies’ slide continues with 7th loss in 8 games as the Dodgers pounce on Aaron Nola’s mistakes

LOS ANGELES — The last time the Phillies faced the Dodgers, in early July, they were in a different place. They sat at 26 games above .500 with an eight-game lead in the division. They proceeded to sweep Los Angeles at home, which felt like a statement win, given that both teams are World Series contenders.

Things have since changed. After that Dodgers sweep, the Phillies went 5-13. They lost their last six series. They arrived to Dodger Stadium as a team ready to build some positive momentum, but on Monday night, in a 5-3 loss, they weren’t able to get it.

It was their seventh loss in their past eight games, but those losses weren’t created equal. Manager Rob Thomson said he was encouraged by his team’s at-bats against a tough starter in Tyler Glasnow. Right fielder Nick Castellanos conceded that the Phillies are grinding, but said that he noticed a shift in energy in the dugout.

“All of our attention I think was more on the field than it was on our iPads,” he said. “I think that we were more in the competition — it was a good baseball game, right? A couple of things here, a couple of things there, and it changes. But I feel like they beat us today, we didn’t beat ourselves. We played a good baseball game. We also have to realize that that’s a great baseball team over there.”

The Phillies got to an early 2-0 lead in the second, but the Dodgers responded almost immediately. Castellanos hit a two-out triple and Bryson Stott followed that up with an RBI single. Glasnow threw a wild pitch to allow Stott to score from third.

After cruising through his first two innings, Aaron Nola struggled in the third. He hung a number of curveballs and left his fastball up, and the Dodgers pounced on his mistakes. The right-handed starter allowed four earned runs — an RBI double, a sacrifice fly, and a two-run home run — but settled in after that. Nola allowed just two hits over his next three innings.

“I mean, doubles hurt me,” Nola said. “They’ve hurt me the past few games, especially leadoff doubles. I’ve haven’t had too many 1-2-3 innings, and I think that’s hurt me. But I felt like fastball command was off tonight. Overall it wasn’t that good. Curveball, threw some hanging ones right there in the third inning, and they capitalized on it.”

The Phillies didn’t do enough offensively to overcome Nola’s struggles. They combined for three runs on eight hits with 12 strikeouts. After getting off to their early lead, they were only able to tack on one insurance run, off of an RBI groundout hit by Alec Bohm in the sixth inning.

But, as Castellanos said, the game easily could’ve gone the other way. The Phillies threatened a rally in the top of the eighth. Kyle Schwarber collected a walk to start the inning. Trea Turner lined out and Bryce Harper struck out, but Bohm singled to move Schwarber to second with two outs, which brought Brandon Marsh up to the plate.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Nick Castellanos sees results after making a situational adjustment to his batting stance

Marsh entered the at-bat with four hits in his last five at-bats against left-handed pitching, and worked reliever Anthony Banda to a 3-1 count. He took the fifth pitch, a sinker well above the zone, but home plate umpire Marvin Hudson called it a strike.

Marsh swung at the next pitch, a slider outside, to end the inning. The moment was not lost on either manager.

“You know what? I didn’t see it,” manager Dave Roberts said with a coy smile. “But I liked the call.”

Thomson conceded that it was frustrating.

“He’s really looked a lot better against left-handed pitching lately,” Thomson said. “I thought that was a good at-bat, I thought he laid off some stuff until the last pitch.”

Despite the outcome, there were some positive takeaways. Castellanos and Austin Hays both had two-hit nights. The infielders played some good defense. Stott made a number of savvy plays, including a sliding grab in the sixth that robbed Will Smith of an extra base hit. In the bottom of the seventh, Bohm made a nice barehanded play to throw Nick Ahmed out at first base.

But unfortunately for the Phillies, it didn’t result in a win. Shohei Ohtani tacked on an insurance run with a solo shot in the eighth off of reliever Tanner Banks. Castellanos singled in the ninth, but Stott, Hays, and Garrett Stubbs went down 1-2-3 — all on first pitches — to end the game.

It was a far cry from the Phillies of the first half, who frequently got out to early leads, and held them.

“There’s a lot of weird stuff happening that wasn’t happening at the start of the year,” Thomson said. “We’ve just got to fight through it.”

The Phillies are 66-46, and lead the Dodgers by just half a game for the best record in the National League. This is something that could have postseason implications, since the team with the better regular season record is given home-field advantage in the playoffs. But the Phillies say they aren’t thinking about that yet.

“The way I go about it is tomorrow, we have a baseball game, and if we do the best that we can to prepare, we’re in the best position to win,” Castellanos said. “And if we win tomorrow, that’s a good thing.”