Wednesday’s sixth inning was already heading off the rails before Joe Kelly entered the game.
In what became a five-run disaster for the Dodgers, the right-handed reliever simply made the train wreck complete.
After leading by three runs early in the night, and one run entering the sixth inning Wednesday, the Dodgers came undone by a controversial umpire call, some sloppy high-leverage pitching from Kelly and, ultimately, a back-breaking three-run home run from Kyle Schwarber — the most important of his three home runs in the Philadelphia Phillies’ series-clinching 9-4 win at Dodger Stadium.
The whole sixth-inning sequence only took about 15 minutes.
But everything that could go wrong for the Dodgers just about did.
Up 4-3 at the start of the fateful frame, the Dodgers’ trouble started when Alec Bohm laced a leadoff double against left-hander Alex Vesia, putting the tying run on base three pitches into the inning.
Things got worse in the next at-bat, when a bunt from Brandon Marsh led to controversy at third base.
As third baseman Kiké Hernández charged on Marsh’s bunt up the foul line, Bohm and shortstop Miguel Rojas raced toward the bag at third. Rojas got there first, received a throw from Hernández and applied a swift tag for what looked like a key first out in the inning.
Immediately, however, third base umpire Hunter Wendelstedt began waving his hands.
Rojas, Wendelstedt determined, had been blocking the base before he received the ball, triggering a defensive interference call.
The only problem: Video replays appeared to show that Rojas was out of the base path until he reeled the ball in. Where Bohm probably should have been out, Wendelstedt made a safe call that wasn’t subject to a manager’s challenge.
Frustration quickly ensued.
First, Wendelstedt got an ear full from Rojas, growing animated while telling the Dodgers shortstop to move on from the play. Roberts then came running out of the dugout to continue the argument, eventually getting ejected — his first of the year — after ignoring Wendelstedt’s instructions to return to his seat.
What could have been a one-on, one-out situation instead turned into a dangerous runners-on-the-corners jam.
Kelly entered the game for the next at-bat, and got one out on a J.T. Realmuto swinging bunt that scored Bohm from third, tying the score at 4-4.
But then, Kelly loaded the bases by walking two of his next three batters (including light-hitting No. 9 hitter Johan Rojas). He threw a wild pitch that gave the Phillies their first lead since the first inning. And to top it all off, he hung a two-strike changeup to Schwarber, teeing up the Phillies’ hottest hitter for a decisive three-run home run — the highlight of Schwarber’s four-for-four, seven-RBI outburst.
Up to that point, the Dodgers seemed positioned for an important series win over the Phillies, taking a commanding 4-1 lead early on against the National League’s winningest team.
After Schwarber led the night off with a solo homer in the top of the first, the Dodgers got RBI singles from Freddie Freeman and Rojas in the bottom of the opening frame. Freeman tacked on two more runs with a bloop two-out single in the second.
Starting pitcher Gavin Stone preserved the 4-1 lead until the fifth inning, when he was chased from the game following a two-run double from Schwarber. Stone now has a 3.71 ERA this year, and a 6.91 ERA in his last six starts.
Vesia replaced Stone in the fifth and stranded Schwarber by getting Bryce Harper to fly out.
For a moment, the Dodgers’ lead was intact.
An inning later, though, everything would change — leaving the Dodgers, who have now lost seven of their last 11 games and three out of their last four series, with just a three-game lead in the ever-tightening NL West.