Dodgers drop their longest game of the year to the Phillies in 16 innings

After nearly six hours of baseball, the Phillies finally ended it in the 16th inning on a three-run homer off the bat of Trevor Plouffe.

The Dodgers simply didn’t have enough arms to last any longer in the game and sent Kiké Hernandez to the mound as the ninth pitcher of the game for his team. After two walks, Plouffe drilled the 84-mph offering from Hernandez to send the Phillies to a 7-4 win.

The two teams will meet less than 12 hours after the walk-off, starting Wednesday’s game at 9:35 a.m. PT. The Dodgers are now 4-6 in extra innings.

It was the second straight night the Dodgers couldn’t hold a 4-1 lead. This time it didn’t turn out so well for them.

But at least we have this:

Five hours prior to them dropping the game, they had success against a tough pitcher.

Phillies’ starter Aaron Nola has been every bit the ace his team envisioned him to be when the took him seventh overall in the 2014 MLB draft. The right-hander has been stingy at home, going 8-0 with a 1.71 ERA with the Phillies winning all of his nine starts at Citizens Bank Park this season.

The Dodgers were able to tag him for three runs in only his second start all year where he didn’t at least pitch into the sixth. Just like any good pitcher, the old cliche applies when it comes to scoring early.

More than a third of Nola’s 33 runs allowed this year have come in the first inning.

The Dodgers were able to take advantage of a gift in the first to take a 1-0 lead. With runners on first and third, Joc Pederson came in to score on a wild pitch. But it wouldn’t be until the fourth when Los Angeles started a picket fence, with one run in three consecutive innings.

Aside from what Matt Carpenter is doing for the Cardinals, there isn't a hotter hitter in baseball than Yasmani Grandal since the calendar flipped to July. Coming into the night, the Dodger catcher had reached base in 29 of 54 plate appearances this month.

All he did Tuesday was come up with three more hits, including a pair of solo homers. But it wasn't enough to just hit the two home runs. Grandal hit one from both sides of the plate for the fourth time in his career, the third in a Dodger uniform.

The 29-year-old is now 20-for-49 (.408) in July with 10 extra-base hits, including five homers.

Bookending the long balls was an RBI-double for Pederson in the fifth.

Kenta Maeda suffered the same fate as his teammate Ross Stripling had just 24 hours prior. On the verge of leaving the mound with a 4-1 lead, Philadelphia’s offense came to life.

The right-hander had allowed three hits and no walks going into the seventh inning, with a Nick Williams solo shot standing as the only blemish. It was the third time through the heart of the order where it went sideways.

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The non-musical Carlos Santana led off with a single and came around to score on a Maikel Franco double to get the Dodger bullpen up and moving. Maeda battled back to get the next two hitters before Jorge Alfaro hit one into that very bullpen as Scott Alexander was warming, tying the game at four apiece.

Maeda would finish the frame for his fourth start in 2018 of at least seven innings. The Dodgers as a team have 14 such starts on the year.

Up Next

The Dodgers and Phillies will play at 9:35 a.m. PT Wednesday when Walker Buehler (4-2, 3.45) squares off with Jake Arrieta (7-6, 3.47).

Tuesday particulars

Home runs: Grandal 2 (16), Williams (12), Alfaro (7), Plouffe (1)

WP - Vince Velasquez (7-8): 1 IP, 1 walk, 1 strikeout

LP - Kiké Hernandez (0-1): ¹⁄₃ IP, 1 hit, 3 runs, 2 walks