For much of Saturday night, Don Mattingly's decision to hit for Brandon Marsh looked like the moment the Phillies let a winnable game slip away.
Two innings later, Edmundo Sosa made sure it became the moment they won it.
Sosa erased a frustrating sixth-inning strikeout with a go-ahead two-run homer in the eighth, lifting the Phillies to a 4-3 victory over the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.
The win improved the Phillies to 30-28 overall and 21-9 under Mattingly.
Alec Bohm provided Philadelphia's first run when he launched a solo homer to center field off Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki in the second inning.
The lead lasted only briefly.
Alex Call answered with an RBI single in the bottom half of the inning, and the Dodgers moved ahead in the fourth after a defensive miscue turned what should have been a single into a triple. Call eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Santiago Espinal to give Los Angeles a 2-1 advantage.
The Phillies struggled to generate much offense against Sasaki, who struck out seven and limited them to one run on three hits over 5⅔ innings. Entering the night with a 4.72 ERA in his major-league career, the highly touted right-hander kept Philadelphia off balance throughout his outing.
Their best opportunity against him came in the sixth.
After Sasaki departed with two runners aboard and two outs, Alex Vesia walked Bryce Harper to load the bases. Mattingly then made the night's defining decision, sending Sosa to the plate for Marsh against the hard-throwing left-hander.
The move immediately backfired.
Sosa chased pitches out of the strike zone and struck out on four pitches. Bohm followed with a groundout, leaving the bases loaded and preserving the Dodgers' lead.
Los Angeles added another run in the seventh.
In his first appearance at Dodger Stadium since Game 4 of last year's NLDS, Orion Kerkering allowed an RBI single to Mookie Betts that scored Andy Pages. The Phillies challenged the play at the plate, but the safe call stood after review, extending the Dodgers' advantage to 3-1.
Down two runs entering the eighth, the Phillies finally broke through.
Justin Crawford opened the inning with a single, and Harper followed with an RBI hit to pull Philadelphia within one run.
That brought Sosa back to the plate.
This time, he didn't miss.
Facing Tanner Scott, Sosa got a pitch he could handle and drove it over the left-field wall for a two-run homer, turning a one-run deficit into a one-run lead and completely changing the complexion of the game.
The bullpen handled the rest.
Brad Keller bridged the game into the ninth before Jhoan Duran closed it out, preserving a victory that appeared unlikely only an inning earlier.
For seven innings, the conversation centered on whether Mattingly had made the wrong move by taking Marsh's bat out of the lineup.
By night's end, Sosa had provided a much different answer.
The Phillies will attempt to secure the series Sunday afternoon when Andrew Painter takes the mound against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the rubber game.
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