Dodgers quickly let Game 3 sail away

Schwarber’s titanic homer off Yamamoto in the fourth wakes up dormant Phillies’ offense in an 8-2 victory.

- By Jack HarRIs

The Phillies seemed rattled. The Dodgers looked confident. And the Chavez Ravine crowd was excitedly smelling blood.

Early in Game 3 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday, the Dodgers had all the momentum. They’d already taken each of the first two games of this best-of-five set in Philadelphia. Their best pitcher this season, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, had started his night with three scoreless innings. The Phillies, most of all, appeared to be pressing, with Trea Turner leading the game off with a curious bunt and Brandon Marsh misplaying a ball in the bottom of the first with an overaggressive dive that gifted Mookie Bettsa triple.

Then, after a questionable pitching change from Phillies manager Rob Thomson in the bottom of the third, Tommy Edman greeted newly inserted left-hander Ranger Sudrez with aleadoffhome runto open the scoring.

As Edman rounded the bases, and Dodger Stadium erupted around him, the Dodgers looked wellon their way to an NL Championship Series berth.

In postseason baseball, however, momentum can be a fickle thing. Every new inning brings the potential for a plot twist. Every at-bat carries the threat of a turning point. And every single pitch can prove to be the difference.

On Wednesday, in the Phillies’ come-from-behind, elimination-staving 8-2 victory, the pitch that swung the Dodgers’ loss came with no outs in the fourth.

Just moments after Edman had put the Dodgers in front, slumping Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber answered with a statement — clobbering an elevated Yamamoto fastball for a staggering 455-foot home run that went bouncing off the roof ofthe right-field pavilion.

“It’s ridiculous how far that ball went,” Turner said.

“[It] just sort of woke everybody up and got a lot of energy going in the dugout,” Thomson added.

With one titanic swing, Schwarber had given the flat-lining Phillies a breath of new life.