Dodgers starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow delivers during the third inning of an 8-7 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday. (Derik Hamilton / Associated Press)
On a windy, wet and dreary afternoon at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday, the Dodgers twice watched a lead slip frustratingly from their grasp.
It first happened in the third inning, when a steady drizzle, slippery ball and muddy mound caused Tyler Glasnow to come unglued in a six-run implosion.
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It happened again in the seventh, when the Dodgers stormed back in front with five unanswered runs only to let a sloppy inning of defense cost them their first series defeat of the season.
Such were the lapses that decided the Philadelphia Phillies’ 8-7 win in Sunday’s series rubber match; reminding a Dodgers team that won eight straight games to start the season that they’re also capable of beating themselves.
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“Two evenly matched teams, good series,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We just didn’t do some fundamental things well today.”
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The Dodgers’ problems began almost as soon as the rain did, derailing what had been a promising start from Glasnow.
Over his first two innings, the veteran right-hander was cruising through his second start of his second Dodgers season, seemingly picking up where he left off after his scoreless five-inning season debut the week before.
He stranded a walk in the first. He worked around a single in the second. And when he took the mound for the third, he was working with a two-run cushion, thanks to an opposite-field first-inning blast from Teoscar Hernández — the first of two home runs he hit in a five-RBI performance.
At the start of the third, however, a steady drizzle had begun to descend from low overcast clouds.
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And within moments, the impact it had on Glasnow became abundantly clear.
First, Glasnow began kicking mud from his cleats between almost every pitch. Then, he repeatedly dried his hand by wiping it on his pants and tried to get a grip with repeated grabs of the rosin bag.
At one point, pitching coach Mark Prior came out for a visit alongside a trainer, ensuring that Glasnow wasn’t battling any physical limitations beyond the rain-soaked mound.
None of the remedies, however, could get the pitcher back into a rhythm. Glasnow walked the first three batters he faced in the inning. And as the pressure mounted, he failed to find a way to settle himself back down.
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“Once I had a couple poorly gripped balls, I think I lost my aggression and rhythm,” Glasnow said, wishing he “could have just eliminated the thought a little bit more about the mound and the conditions, and just tried to get out of my head.”
“I think I just lost some feel and then that kind of compounded into a bad inning,” he added. “I was just thinking about other stuff.”
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Granted, pitching in such conditions has been a rarity in Glasnow’s career. Over the last eight years, sunny Dodger Stadium and Tampa Bay’s domed Tropicana Field have been his home stadiums.
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But, Glasnow noted, “there’s not really any excuses. I just kind of have to go out and find a way to execute next time.”
In agreement, Roberts added: “He just couldn’t reset and regroup to kind of slow the game down, and it just went sideways on us.”
Indeed, after an RBI bloop single and run-scoring wild pitch tied the score, Roberts replaced Glasnow with left-handed reliever Alex Vesia — who promptly surrendered a grand slam on his first pitch to Nick Castellanos.
In all, Dodgers pitchers issued 11 walks in what was easily their worst performance of the young season. The Phillies, who got a 5⅔ innings of four-run ball from left-handed starter Cristopher Sánchez, yielded only two.
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“The weather, it’s a factor, but every pitcher that took the mound today had to deal with it,” Roberts said. “You’ve still got to find a way to reset and try to minimize some damage and put the ball in play. But we just couldn’t do that today.”
Read more: Dodgers suffer their first loss after ninth-inning rally sputters vs. Phillies
Despite being down 6-2 at that point, the Dodgers didn’t go away quietly.
Hernández almost single-handedly dragged them back within striking distance, launching another opposite-field home run off the right-field foul pole in the fourth inning before lining an RBI double inside the third-base bag in the fifth.
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“I was trying to get a little bit more space between home plate and the batter’s box, just so I can get more space to get the sinker,” Hernández said, noting his three-hit game was aided by an adjustment he made to his stance in preparation for facing Sánchez.
“I got some [pitches] out over the plate,” Hernández added, “and I was just ready for it.”
It helped set the stage for the Dodgers’ three-run go-ahead rally in the seventh.
Mookie Betts had the key hit that inning, belting an RBI double to center. Hernández hit a sacrifice fly that tied the score, giving him his fifth RBI on the day (one shy of his career high) and 13th of the season (second-most in the National League).
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Then, Will Smith narrowly missed a two-run home run by only a few feet off the top of the right-field wall, settling instead for an RBI double that pushed the Dodgers in front 7-6.
However, the Phillies (7-2) responded in the next half-inning. And once again, the Dodgers did themselves no favors.
The inning began when Andy Pages misread a 107-mph missile from Bryce Harper in the outfield, taking a few steps into the left-center field gap before retreating too late and letting the ball get over his head.
Blake Treinen then gave up a walk and score-tying RBI single, before Edmundo Sosa outraced a bouncing throw to first base from Tommy Edman that negated a potential inning-ending double-play and allowed the go-ahead run to score with two outs.
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“We kept competing and gave ourselves a chance to win,” Roberts said. “But yeah, we put ourselves behind the eight ball today.”
As a result, the Dodgers dropped a winnable series against a rival World Series contender — failing to overcome their own self-inflicted mistakes, as well as their host’s typically sloppy early-April weather.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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