LOS ANGELES -- Seventeen years ago, in this very ballpark, when the Phillies needed it most, a stout slugger with a short left-handed swing crushed a fastball over the right-field pavilion and changed a playoff series.
Did Kyle Schwarber do an uncanny Matt Stairs impression, or what?
It depends, of course, on whether the Phillies can come all the way back and win this National League division series after dropping the first two games at home. But they could win only Game 3 Wednesday night to extend the season by another day, and Schwarber -- who else? -- provided the biggest swing in an 8-2 trouncing of the Dodgers.
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With the Phillies trailing by one run after three innings and Dodger Stadium rocking, Schwarber teed off on a 96-mph fastball from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Schwarber dropped his bat. Yamamoto let out a scream.
And suddenly, the Phillies had life.
It's amazing what a 117.2-mph, 455-foot Schwarbomb -- his first of two homers in the game -- will do.
There were other factors that went into a season-saving victory. Rob Thomson's pitching gambit paid off, with Aaron Nola getting six outs before Ranger Suárez got the next 15, including three big ones in the seventh inning so the Phillies didn't have to put a two-run lead in the unsteady hands of their bullpen.
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Oh, and for only the second time in nine postseason games dating to Game 6 of the 2023 NL Championship Series, the Phillies busted out for more than three runs. They broke it open with five runs in the eighth inning against future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, as the Dodgers seemed intent on saving their bullpen for Game 4.
The Phillies took the lead by taking advantage of a Dodgers error. Bryce Harper followed Schwarber's game-tying homer with a single, then went first to third on Alec Bohm's single. The aggressive baserunning forced center fielder Andy Pages' throw to third. It skipped into the dugout, enabling Harper to score and Bohm to take third base.
One batter later, Bohm scored on a sacrifice fly for a 3-1 lead and, at last, an exhale from the Phillies' dugout.
But let's face it: Schwarber was the story.
The Dodgers came right after Schwarber in the first two games of the series, challenging him with 15 fastballs in 38 pitches. Schwarber was nevertheless 0-for-7 with five strikeouts. And when he grounded out in the first inning, his postseason slumber grew to 3-for-29 since Game 6 of the 2023 NLCS, including 0-for-19.
Schwarber led off the fourth inning and laid off two pitches out of the zone. Yamamoto tried to elevate a heater, but didn't get it high enough.
For the record, Schwarber hit it 117.4 mph, the second-hardest homer of his career, according to Statcast. Only his famous moonshot to the third deck in San Diego in Game 1 of the 2022 NLCS was hit harder (119.7 mph).
At 455 feet, it was also the longest homer hit at Dodger Stadium this season, according to Statcast.
It's too soon to say that Schwarber's blast turned around the series. It's a quick turnaround for Game 4, which starts at 6:08 p.m. Eastern time. The Phillies will have neither Nola nor Suárez available, but they do figure to have the pitching advantage, with Cristopher Sánchez likely opposing Tyler Glasnow.
Entering this year's postseason, only 10 of the 90 teams that fell behind 0-2 in a five-game series came back to win it. Suddenly, though, you don’t have to squint to see the series coming back to Citizens Bank Park for Game 5 on Saturday.
At first blush, Thomson’s choice to have Nola start Game 3 instead of Suárez seemed so illogical as to raise questions about whether Suárez was healthy.
But there was a method to the apparent madness.
Entering the postseason, the Phillies’ underrated weakness was the rickety bridge from the starting pitcher to Duran. Through two games, the Dodgers exposed that weakness, scoring all nine of their runs in the sixth and seventh innings.
To Thomson, the best way to mitigate the problem, at least in Game 3, was to have Nola and Suárez cover most of the innings.
Nola hasn’t pitched in relief in 11 major-league seasons, so Thomson figured he would go first. If Nola, with a big-game playoff track record that belied a career-worst season, was able to get through the Dodgers’ order once, Suárez could take the baton.
“If we could get a bunch of innings between Noles and Ranger,” Thomson said before the game,“and get closer to Duran, not that I don’t have confidence in the other guys,but it helps,sure.”
Nola got the first six outs, skating in and out of trouble in the first inning before tossing a spotless second. Thomson reflexively followed the pregame script -- one batter too soon, as it turned out.
Rather than sticking with Nola to face No. 9 hitter Tommy Edman, who was 1-for-20 against him, Thomson brought in Suárez to begin the third inning. Edman hit the first pitch -- a hung curveball -- into the left-field bleachers to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.
Otherwise, the Nola-Suárez plan worked perfectly. Because when the seventh inning rolled around, it was Suárez -- not David Robertson, or Matt Strahm, or Orion Kerkering -- on the mound with the Phillies clutching a two-run lead.
But there was another part of the equation. The Phillies had to actually get a lead against Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.