Brandon Marsh belted a home run and an RBI triple, while Trea Turner launched his sixth longball in nine games, as the Philadelphia Phillies capped a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 5-1 triumph on Thursday night in front of a sold-out crowd at Citizens Bank Park.
Aaron Nola (11-4) was masterful, striking out nine over six innings, and Kyle Schwarber added a solo shot for the Phillies, who completed their first sweep of the Dodgers since 2011—and their first in Philadelphia since 2008. The loss extended Los Angeles's skid to four games, as the victory moved Nola into a tie with Curt Schilling for the seventh-most wins in franchise history with 101.
In a clash between the National League's top contenders, the Phillies dominated, leading in every inning of the series except the first frame on Tuesday, which ended in a scoreless tie. Philadelphia outscored Los Angeles 19-5 over the three games.
Turner set the tone early, depositing an Anthony Banda fastball over the middle of the plate into the seats in right-center field to put the Phils on the board in the opening frame. He finished 2-for-4 on the night and is hitting .452 with a 1.385 OPS over his last 10 games.
"He's really swinging the bat and he's barreling everything," manager Rob Thomson said of Turner. "Doesn't matter if it's a fastball, breaking ball, it doesn't matter. He goes opposite field to get us going, and when you score in the first inning, it puts the other team on their heels. I thought that was huge."
Marsh followed suit in the second, crushing a 3-1 fastball from Landon Knack into the right-field seats. In the sixth, he ripped a triple down the right-field line off Knack, driving in Nick Castellanos to extend the Phillies' lead to 3-1.
Johan Rojas made an outstanding running catch to his right in the seventh inning on a Kiké Hernandez fly to the gap in left-center, saving at least a run and securing a crucial second out of the inning. Since being recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on June 28, Rojas is hitting just .229, but it's evident his defensive skills and speed can compensate for what he's lacking at the plate.
"He's electric and can do a lot of different things," Thomson said of Rojas. "Gets a big base hit with the infield in, makes that [catch], can steal a base, he puts pressure on the other team."
OH MY ROJAS pic.twitter.com/aHtGXKbONl
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) July 12, 2024
"Every hitter that hits the ball towards me, if he wants it to be a hit, he's going to have to hit it out," Rojas said via Diego D'Aniello, the Phillies interpreter. "Ball that's hit, ball I catch. If it's not out, it's in my glove."
Marsh, who witnessed Rojas' catch, was full of praise. "I knew I wasn't going to get there, so I just looked straight at him and I just started screaming, 'go, go, go,'" Marsh said. "That's Ro just being Ro. He goes and gets them with the best of them out there. I love defense like that. I take a lot of pride in my defense myself, so when I see my teammates, especially my partner, do something crazy like that, something special to help us win a game. I love it."
The Phillies’ pitching staff effectively neutralized Shohei Ohtani throughout the series, limiting him to just three singles. Nola struck out the superstar twice on Thursday.
"Just get ahead and try to stay ahead," Nola said. "It's a lot easier to pitch and you have more options when you're ahead in the count, so that's what we tried to do."
With the series win, the Phillies now welcome the Oakland Athletics to Citizens Bank Park for a three-game set starting Friday, the final series before the All-Star break. "There's still a lot of baseball to be played," Nola said. "We want to finish strong against Oakland going into the break and take it from there after that."
