The China Mail - Dodgers hold off Phillies, Brewers on the brink

The reigning World Series champions, who stunned the Phillies in game one of the best-of-five National League Divisional Series on Saturday, can complete a sweep with a victory in game three at Los Angeles on Wednesday.

"That was a heck of a game," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said afterwards. "Huge, huge momentum-maintainer. We're looking forward to getting back home, but great ball game, great plays and a huge win."

A tense game two at a deafening Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia quickly unfolded as a classic pitchers duel, with Phillies starter Jesus Luzardo and Dodgers counterpart Blake Snell dominant from the mound.

Snell threw six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts to bamboozle the vaunted Phillies batting lineup, while Luzardo also went scoreless through six innings.

Yet as the game entered the late innings, it was Luzardo who blinked first, giving up a leadoff single to Teoscar Hernandez in the top of the seventh that was followed by a no-out double from Freddie Freeman.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson pulled Luzardo and the Dodgers promptly attacked Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering.

Hernandez dived over home plate after Kike Hernandez grounded into a fielder's choice, aided by a fractionally wayward throw from Phillies shortstop Trea Turner to make it 1-0.

Dodgers pinch-hitter Will Smith then belted a two-run single to score Freeman and Kike Hernandez, and Shohei Ohtani piled on with a single to make it 4-0 at the end of the inning.

Dodgers skipper Roberts then turned to starter Emmet Sheehan to navigate the seventh and eighth innings, although a Turner single to score Gabe Kepler gave the Phillies a flicker of hope and cut the deficit to 4-1.

- Brewers dominate Cubs -

Yet the Dodgers season-long problems with the bullpen materialized once more in the ninth inning, with reliever Blake Treinen soon in trouble, giving up a single to Alec Bohm and a double for J.T. Realmuto that left the Phillies with men on second and third base with no outs.

Nick Castellanos then triggered bedlam after doubling into left field to send Bohm and Realmuto home and make it a 4-3 game.

A superbly executed wheel play between Max Muncy and Mookie Betts saw Castellanos out at third base, before Weston Wilson was out at second moments later.

That left Japanese reliever Roki Sasaki to come in and grab the final out, Turner's ground ball finding Tommy Edman, whose throw was snaffled at first base by Freeman.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson insisted his team had not given up hope as they face Wednesday's must-win game three in Los Angeles.

"They fought like hell, and hopefully that carries over into Wednesday," he said. "But this is a resilient group. Our backs are against the wall. We've just got to come out fighting."

The winner of the Phillies-Dodgers series will face either the top-seeded Milwaukee Brewers or the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series for a place in the World Series.

The Brewers opened up a 2-0 lead in their series with Chicago on Monday, once again relying on their stellar offense to pummel the Cubs into submission and clinch a 7-3 victory.

The Brewers, 9-3 winners over Chicago in game one on Saturday, were rocked by an early three-run home run from Cubs slugger Seiya Suzuki in the top of the first.

But Milwaukee came roaring back with a three-run homer of their own from first baseman Andrew Vaughn in the bottom of the inning before William Contreras and Jackson Chourio belted homers in the third and fourth inning to stretch the Brewers lead.

A.Kwok--ThChM