PHILADELPHIA — The Dodgers have developed quite the habit for late-inning heroics at Citizens Bank Park, and on Tuesday night they added another chapter, though this one came with an assist from one of the Phillies’ most reliable veterans. Los Angeles escaped with a rain-soaked 2-1 victory after Philadelphia ran itself out of the game with a baserunning blunder that left even the players involved shaking their heads. What began with runners on second and third and one out in the ninth inning ended with a double play that sealed Tanner Scott’s save and sent the Dodgers home happy from their East Coast road trip.
The sequence started innocently enough when Brandon Marsh hit a grounder to third baseman Max Muncy, who was playing in. Pinch-runner Justin Crawford broke for home from third but got caught in a rundown, with Muncy firing to catcher Dalton Rushing, who relayed to shortstop Mookie Betts for the tag near third base. That should have been only the first out. But then JT Realmuto, standing on second, made the kind of mistake that will keep him up tonight — he broke for third and then tried scrambling back to second, giving Betts time to turn and fire across the diamond to Tommy Edman for the inning-ending tag.
Realmuto called it a lapse of judgment afterward, and that felt generous. Had he simply stayed put at third, the Phillies would have retained runners on the corners and kept their comeback alive after Alec Bohm’s leadoff single and Realmuto’s own double had put them in position to tie or win it. Instead, his ill-fated dash turned what could have been a dramatic rally into one of the more bizarre endings you’ll see all season.
The wild finish overshadowed what had been a strong night for Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski, who continued his breakout campaign with six and a third innings of efficient work, striking out seven while needing just 89 pitches. Max Muncy provided all the offense Los Angeles needed with a two-run homer off Zack Wheeler in the fourth inning, tying Ron Cey for second on the franchise’s Los Angeles-era home run list. Not that the Dodgers were immune to sloppy play themselves — earlier in the game Shohei Ohtani was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double while a run was still crossing the plate, wiping away what would have been the tying tally at the time.
Manager Dave Roberts called it a fun ballgame to be part of, and given everything his team endured just getting through it, that was understandable. A weather delay of over an hour pushed back first pitch, steady rain fell throughout, and flash flood warnings had threatened postponement entirely. After playing a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, the Dodgers were relieved just to get this one in. Winning it the way they did, with instincts taking over on a muddy infield where they’ve now authored two unforgettable highlights inside of a year, was something else entirely.
