Phillies fight back to beat the Dodgers, taking 2 of 3 from the World Series champs

Rob Thomson didn’t need to consult the schedule magnets that a sold-out crowd took home Sunday to give context to an April series with the defending World Series champions.

“There’s 52 series in the year,“ he said before the Phillies wrapped up their clash of National League titans against the Dodgers. ”If you win 28, 29, 30 series out of 52, you’re probably guaranteed to get in [the playoffs]. So, it’d be nice to get a series win. I don’t care who it’s against."

OK, sure. But Thomson also conceded that maybe this did mean a smidge more. Nothing gets decided in April, but in pocketing two of three games from the Dodgers, including a back-and-forth 8-7 decision in the finale, the Phillies confirmed what they already believed.

The pennant could go through Philly just as easily as L.A.

“I know that we have a good team,” Nick Castellanos said after the Phillies won their third consecutive series to open a season for the 11th time in franchise history and first since 2011. “I know that we have a team that is not going to roll over for anybody. And I think we want to be good, right? We want to show people that we’re a good team, and I think this weekend, we did a good job.”

Said Bryce Harper: “I thought it was a great series. That’s a really good team over there, obviously. Knowing we match up pretty well against them, that’s huge for us.”

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Consider that to be the takeaway after a rubber game that featured a little bit of everything. To wit:

Oh, and the deciding run scored because fill-in infielder Edmundo Sosa sprinted down the first-base line to beat out a potential inning-ending double play in the seventh inning, one pitch after getting knocked down by a high-and-tight fastball from Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen.

Sometimes it’s the little things that win a big series.

“It was a great battle, that at-bat,” Sosa said through a team interpreter. “A 3-2 count, I’m facing Treinen, who’s a great pitcher with a great sinker. [If] I’m going to hit something on the ground, I’m thinking about trying to be a step ahead and trying to beat it out.”

Indeed, in extending both arms as he crossed first base to signal that he was safe, Sosa looked like a sprinter running through the tape at the finish line. He was playing in place of resting third baseman Alec Bohm, but the longer Sosa’s torrid early-season pace lasts (he’s 11-for-20), the more Thomson will find ways for him to play.

“I don’t think anything ever amazes us with him,” Harper said. “He brings that energy, brings that force with him a little bit. He’s just a lot of fun to watch. He’s done a great job for us early this year. I expect him to do the same all year.”

Other subtleties contributed to the Phillies winning for the seventh time in nine games. They drew 11 walks, including four in one inning as Glasnow battled the elements and himself.

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The majority of Glasnow’s starts over the last 6½ seasons have come under the dome at Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field, where the threat of rain was nonexistent, or in Southern California, where it’s only slightly greater.

And when a cloud burst in the third inning, well, let’s just say it appeared he never witnessed such a phenomenon.

Glasnow kept going to the rosin bag, wiping his right hand, and kicking at the mound to clean mud from his cleats amid a steady drizzle. Oh, and he ceased throwing strikes, walking the bases loaded on 17 pitches.

A Dodgers pitcher hadn’t come so unglued in South Philly since the Veterans Stadium boos engulfed Burt Hooton in 1977. (Google it, kids.)

“We picked up that he was getting flustered maybe after the first three pitches in the inning,” Castellanos said. “I think we did a great job of just kind of letting him fight against himself.”

Harper halved the deficit by dropping a single into left field, and after Max Kepler walked to reload the bases, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hooked Glasnow.

Cue an elevated fastball from reliever Alex Vesia.

And Castellanos’ slam.

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But nothing is ever perfect, and the Phillies have reason to fret about Romano. His fastball usually averages at least 96 mph. It was 93.5 mph in the seventh inning, two days after averaging 93.7.

Romano maintains he’s healthy. Maybe it’s a mechanical issue. He has been working on being faster to the plate to hold runners. Regardless, he also knows that something is off. He has allowed runs in three of his five appearances, and after giving up a single, walk, and double to three hitters, he got booed as he walked off the mound.

“I’m trying to throw a good heater, and it just wasn’t there today,” Romano said. “It’s just something I’m definitely going to have to figure out pretty soon.”

Thomson said he chose Romano with a 6-4 lead to save Orion Kerkering for later in the game, perhaps against righty-hitting Teoscar Hernández and Will Smith.

Now, he may have to revisit using Romano in close games until the Phillies figure out the problem.

“It’s something we’ve got to check into,” Thomson said. “Everything out of the trainer’s room, there’s no red flags. It concerns me a little bit.”

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The Phillies have a day off in Atlanta to come to some conclusions before opening a three-game series against the 1-8 Braves.

Three winning series down. Forty-nine to go.

“Somebody asked me, ‘What’s it going to tell you at the end of the series about your club?‘” Thomson said. “I pretty much know our club. And they’re grinders. They’re fighters. I love the club. I love the chance that we have of being special.”