Dodgers break through late as Blake Snell dominates again in thrilling 4-3 win over Phillies in Game 2 of NLDS, LA steals home field advantage

The Philadelphia night felt like it was holding its breath. 

The air at Citizens Bank Park was thick with October tension — that uniquely cruel brand of anxiety reserved only for playoff baseball. For nine anxiety-inducing innings, it was pure theater. Two left-handers — Blake Snell for the Dodgers and Jesús Luzardo for the Phillies — dueling under the lights, trading zeroes like heavyweight jabs, each knowing one mistake could unravel everything, before both bullpens turned up the drama to a ten.

It was the kind of game that reminded you why postseason baseball doesn’t need fireworks to feel electric. The silence between pitches was deafening, the collective inhale of over 45,000 sellout fans as Snell lifted his leg, as Luzardo leaned in for the sign. It wasn’t offense; it was survival.

Thankfully for the Dodgers, Blake Snell won the battle, and the war, as Los Angeles broke through late against Lazardo and hung on for a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Phillies in Game 2 of the National League Division Series at Citizen’s Bank Park on Monday night. 

“Hats off to our starting pitching again. They were countering each, 0-0. That’s what you’ve got to do in this series is match zeroes. It’s hard to score runs in this environment, especially on the road,” said Dodgers’ first baseman Freddie Freeman after the game. “To get two wins in this environment is obviously massive. You can’t understate it. This is a really hard place to play in the regular season, let alone here. This is my first time ever playing here in the playoffs. It is loud. So, just hats off to all of us to pull out two wins here.”

Blake Snell looked every bit the ace the Dodgers believed they were getting when they signed him to a five-year, $182 million contract in the offseason. He carved through a potent Philadelphia lineup with precision and swagger, that signature whippy delivery exploding through the zone with a mix of fastballs, sliders, and his crippling changeup that seemed to teleport past bats. For six scoreless innings, Snell was untouchable — nine strikeouts, one lonely single allowed, and four walks that never turned dangerous. He pitched like a man possessed, as if he was chasing ghosts of early-season struggles and reminding everyone, including himself, that this is what October was made for.

“I was just trying to figure out what their game plan was and how I was going to attack,” said Snell of his strategy in Game 2, especially early in the game. “I just faced them not too long ago. I knew I was going to have to adjust and do some things differently and keep some things the same as well, reading the approach, trying to figure them out and attack.”

Luzardo, the 28-year-old lefty who had grown up idolizing pitchers like Clayton Kershaw, matched him every step of the way. His tempo was quick, his rhythm sharp. After allowing a first-inning single, he retired 17 straight Dodgers hitters. Seventeen.

“He was Dynamite. He was getting ahead. He was attacking. The slider was really good. The change-up was good. Fastball had a lot of life,” said Phillies’ manager Rob Thomson of Luzardo. “He was fantastic.”

Every time a Dodger made weak contact, the Philly crowd erupted, sensing that their young starter might be authoring something special. It was the kind of performance that builds legends in this city — until the baseball gods decided otherwise in the top of the seventh inning.

It started innocently enough. Teoscar Hernández, who has a knack for making big moments feel small, lined a single to center to open the seventh. The Dodgers dugout stirred. Freddie Freeman followed with a laser down the right-field line, a double that sent the Dodgers’ bench into motion and the Philly crowd into an uneasy murmur. Luzardo had been perfect for nearly six innings, but suddenly, trouble had arrived uninvited.

That’s when the moment found Kiké Hernández — the most unpredictable postseason performer on a team that seems to collect them like souvenirs. With runners on the corners, Kiké chopped a swinging bunt up the middle, a slow-rolling ball that forced Trea Turner to charge hard and throw on the run. Turner’s throw was sharp, the kind of play that wins Gold Gloves, but Teoscar’s slide was smoother — feet-first, brushing home plate by inches before the tag. The Dodgers bench erupted as Teoscar pounded his chest, dust rising around him like a halo. Los Angeles had drawn first blood.

Luzardo, who had been so dominant, now looked shell-shocked from the Phillies’ dugout. Two batters later, Will Smith, who had entered the game just an inning earlier as a pinch-hitter, ripped a two-run single to left. It was a quintessential Will Smith at-bat — patient, methodical, deadly. The Dodgers, who had looked helpless for six innings, suddenly led 3-0.

And then, as if to complete the poetic symmetry of the night, Shohei Ohtani — the man who’d dominated on the mound in Game 1 — finally made his offensive mark on the series. With two outs and runners aboard, Ohtani lined a sharp single to center, his first hit of the NLDS, scoring another run and blowing the game open. The scoreboard read 4-0, but the body language told a different story. The Dodgers were loose, smiling, and celebrating in the dugout. The Phillies looked stunned, their fans quiet for the first time all night.

“Obviously some huge two-out hits that we got in the seventh inning by Will and then Shohei too,” said Freeman, who’s double knocked Luzardo out of the game in the seventh. “Great play by Teo getting his foot in. A lot of good things happened in that seventh inning.”

The Dodgers epitomized the idiom “game of inches,” a saying usually reserved for football, the Dodgers proved throughout the game how fundamental baseball and an inch here-or-there can sway a game.

The Phillies had a chance to score in the bottom of the sixth inning, but Miguel Rojas beat the speedy Trea Turner to the third-base bag for a force out at third base to end the threat.

Hernandez’s feet-first slide in the top half of the next inning, changed the entire dynamic of the game. Had he been out, the Dodgers might have never scored and would be looking at a tied series headed back to Los Angeles.

Another play that changed the outcome of the game, was Max Muncy’s decision to throw to third base on a bunt attempt in the bottom of the ninth. Muncy, who did not start the game, made the smart, albeit risky throw to get the lead runner in Castellanos. Had they not run the wheel play, the game would have been tied one batter later on Harrison Bader’s single.

Muncy credited Betts after the game for coming up with the idea to run the play, which Roberts signed off on, but complimented the execution of his players for winning the game on that play.

“We said, ‘let’s just run a wheel play,’ Max be aggressive and field it, and Mookie get over there and beat Castellanos there,” said Roberts. “And those guys executed it to perfection. It was a lot tougher — they made it look a lot easier than it was. And for me, that was our only chance, really, to win that game in that moment.”

Finally, Freeman’s ability to dig the ball out of the dirt on Tommy Edman’s bounced throw on the final play of the game, showed how baseball can also be a game of inches. An inch in either direction and the ball bounces off his glove and the game would have been tied.

“Obviously Tommy threw one into the dirt. Thankfully I was able to catch it and stay on the base,” said Freeman of the game-ending (and saving) play. “After the game my gray right here might be up to my sideburns now. That was a stressful inning.”

After Snell’s night was over, the ball went to Emmet Sheehan — one of the Dodgers’ many young arms who has been asked to fill every role imaginable this season. He didn’t flinch. The tall right-hander threw two innings in the seventh and eighth, pounding the zone with conviction while the Philadelphia crowd turned on its own team.

Despite scoring their first run on a Otto Kemp triple and an RBI single by Trea Turner, Schwarber struck out and Harper filed out to end the threat in the 8th. Boos rained down from the upper decks — frustration, disbelief, maybe even a touch of resignation.

But the Dodgers bullpen, known for their meltdowns all season, reared its ugly head once again. Blake Treinen, the Dodgers’ worst reliever in the month of September, allowed two doubles and a single to start the bottom of the ninth, to cut the score to 4-3. Treinen left the game without recording a single out.

“I love the fight in the eighth and ninth inning,” said Thomson of his team. “They fought like hell, and hopefully that carries over into Wednesday. But this is a resilient group. Our backs are against the wall. We’ve just got to come out fighting.”

The two relievers who secured the win in Game 1, came out of the pen to save the day in Game 2. Alex Vesia relieved Treinen and recorded two outs, before giving way to rookie Roki Sasaki, who earned the save in Game 1 on Saturday.

“I thought about pitching Roki there to start the 9th, but he hasn’t gone two out of three much at all,” said Roberts of his pitching decisions in the bottom of the ninth inning. “Blake’s [Treinen] has pitched some of the biggest outs in the postseason for us, and I felt really confident there and with Vesia behind him if needed. Fortunately, Roki was ready when called upon and I liked him versus Trea [Truner], and he got a big out for us.”

Sasaki got former Dodger, Trea Turner, to ground out to second base to record the final out and end the ballgame. Allowing all fans in Los Angeles to finally exhale.

Through two games of this National League Division Series, Ohtani and Snell pitched brilliantly, with the Dodgers offense providing timely hitting late in the games. 

Snell didn’t overpower as much as he out-thought, weaving his fourpitch mix through the heart of a Phillies lineup built to slug. Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber both fanned twice, and the Phillies 1-4 hitters combined for 10 strikeouts in the game. Even the crowd, so loud early, was reduced to restless murmurs.

The Dodgers, who have built their identity around depth and adaptability, now look like a team hitting its stride at exactly the right time. Shohei Ohtani has already made history in this postseason — winning a playoff game on the mound while hitting atop the lineup — and now his bat has joined the party. Teoscar and Kiké Hernández continue to add their brand of chaos and clutch, turning moments into momentum.

There’s something about this team that feels inevitable. It’s not arrogance; it’s assurance. The kind that comes from experience, from having seen the worst and survived it. The kind that travels well, even into hostile ballparks like this one.

As the Phillies filed quietly off the field, their fans still buzzing with disbelief, the Dodgers walked down the tunnel to the visitors’ clubhouse with the quiet confidence of a team that understands the math of October: two games down, just one more to go as the series shifts to Los Angeles.

In a postseason built on unpredictability, the Dodgers have found calm in chaos. Behind the brilliance of Blake Snell and the timely thunder of their bats, Los Angeles heads home with a commanding 2-0 series lead — and all the momentum in the world.

“That was a heck of a ball game,” said a relieved Roberts after the win. “To come away with a win right there, huge, huge momentum maintainer. So looking forward to getting back home. Huge win.”

Source: NBC Los Angeles