Baseball doesn’t hand out “Get-Well” cards. But on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, it handed Rob Thomson and the Phillies something even better: nine innings when everything finally worked.
For at least one night, the script looked like it was written by the baseball gods themselves — and the Phillies read every line. They thumped the Dodgers, 8-2, in Game 3 of the National League Division Series and, just like that, a season teetering on the edge had a pulse again.
Kyle Schwarber showed up carrying an 0-for-22 and a bat that might as well have been encased in ice. Then he melted Los Angeles. In the fourth inning, he demolished a game-tying solo blast that will live in postseason folklore — 455 feet of Statcast art, 117.4 miles per hour off the bat, the second-hardest-hit homer of his career. Only one ball he’s ever struck harder — the 119.7-mph missile off Yu Darvish in the 2022 NLCS — left his bat louder.
And because one thunderclap wasn’t enough, he launched another in the eighth, a two-run exclamation point off Clayton Kershaw that capped a five-run avalanche.
Aaron Nola opened the night with two scoreless innings. Then, true to his word and his notebook, Thomson turned to Ranger Suárez — the calm within October chaos. His first pitch of the night? A 92-mph fastball that Tommy Edman swatted into the right-center seats. After that, nothing. Suárez scattered five hits, walked one, struck out four, and restored order for the middle innings that have so often haunted this team.
And that top of the lineup — the one that looked lost for two straight games? They roared awake. Trea Turner rapped three hits. Schwarber and Bryce Harper chipped in two apiece. Alec Bohm and J.T. Realmuto joined the hit parade with two each.
A night earlier, those three stars at the top were a combined 2-for-21 in the series. On Wednesday, they were the reason Dodger Stadium fell silent.
It marked just the second time in their last eight postseason games — dating back to Game 6 of the 2023 NLCS — that the Phillies scored more than three runs.
Maybe it’s a blip. Maybe it’s a turning point. But for one night in October, the Phillies rediscovered their noise. And the series, somehow, rediscovered its drama.
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