Phillies 3, Dodgers 2: Bad defense ends win streak at 10

Well, it had to come to an end at some point. Hanley Ramirez committed two errors in the bottom of the ninth, including a walk-off E6 to give the Phillies a 3-2 win over the Dodgers, snapping Los Angeles' win streak at 10 games.

Casper Wells reached base with one out in the ninth when Ramirez bounced a throw to first base. Ramirez got the error, but it was really a ball that should have been caught by Jerry Hairston, making a spot start on Sunday for Adrian Gonzalez.

After Carlos Ruiz advanced Wells to third base with his fourth hit of the day, pinch hitter Jimmy Rollins was walked intentionally to load the bases for pinch hitter Michael Young. With the infield in and one out, Young grounded to Ramirez, who booted the ball then inexplicably threw to first base but at that point the game had been all but decided, as he had no chance to get Wells at home.

Brandon League, who replaced Paco Rodriguez after the lefty retired all four batters he faced on just 15 pitches, allowed one single, an intentional walk and two ground balls to shortstop. But thanks to the defense he got no outs and was hung with the loss.

The Dodgers got on the board first with a home run by Andre Ethier off Cole Hamels in the second inning. It was his ninth home run of the season for Ethier, and his third against a left-handed pitcher. Ethier went 2-for-4 on the day, and is hitting .317/.402/.477 on the road this season.

Ethier also singled in the fourth inning and ultimately scored on a single by Hairston, who was 2-for-4 in his spot start at first base. But that was all for the offense on Sunday.

"We didn't do enough," manager Don Mattingly said after the game, via Prime Ticket, "We didn't put ourselves in position to win. Really we just kind of stayed in the position to have a chance to lose, and extend the game. We just didn't tack on any runs."

Ricky Nolasco allowed a home run to Darin Ruf in the fourth inning, snapping the Dodgers' collective streak of 30 consecutive scoreless innings. It ruined the chances of matching the 1966 Dodgers as the last team in franchise history with a shutout sweep of three or more games (the 1966 team shutout Houston in four straight games).

Then the Phillies rallied in the sixth. The statuesque Chase Utley watched a pitch hit him, then beat Yasiel Puig's throw to third base on a single to right field by Domonic Brown.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers Puig's throw was too high to get Utley and too high to be cut off, and Brown easily advanced to second base. Fortunately for the Dodgers, Philadelphia was unable to cash in the extra runner in scoring position, though they did tie the game at 2-2 when Utley scored on a slow ground ball by Cody Asche.

That was all Nolasco would allow in his six innings, the eighth straight start with the Dodgers for the right-hander allowing three or fewer runs.

The Dodgers were unable to score again off Hamels, who struck out eight and walked none in his seven innings. Hamels has a 2.05 ERA in his last nine starts with 55 strikeouts and just eight walks in 63 innings.

Jonathan Papelbon pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pick up the victory for the Phillies.

Up next

The Dodgers take their road show down to Miami for four games. Hyun-jin Ryu, who faced and beat Matt Harvey in his last start, goes for the Dodgers in the opener Monday night. Ryu got another challenging draw, facing Jose Fernandez of the Marlins as the Dodgers try to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time since June 20-21.

Sunday particulars

Home runs: Andre Ethier (9), Darin Ruf (8)

WP - Jonathan Papelbon (3-1): 1 IP, 1 hit, 2 strikeouts

LP - Brandon League (6-4): 0 IP, 1 hit, 1 unearned run, 1 intentional walk