LOS ANGELES — Rafael Marchán watched the ball hit the top of the right-field fence at Dodger Stadium and skip into the stands for a go-ahead, three-run home run in the ninth inning.
It looked like he skipped his way onto first base, too.
“I knew I hit the ball good,” Marchán said, following Tuesday night’s 9-6 victory over the Dodgers. “When I saw it hit the small wall, I just tried to jump. I was excited.”
It was another exciting night for the Phillies in L.A. They clinched their second consecutive NL East title on Monday night. They faced Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher for the first time on Tuesday night. They could face him again in the postseason — possibly in the NL Division Series — making Tuesday an important first look for them.
“That’s big for us,” Kyle Schwarber said.
Tuesday’s victory gave the Phillies a 6 1/2-game lead over L.A. for the No. 2 seed in the NL playoffs, which includes a first-round bye. It’s effectively a 7 1/2-game lead with 10 games to play because the Phils also won the season series against the Dodgers, giving them the tiebreaker. The Phillies are 1 1/2 games behind the Brewers for the No. 1 seed.
Either seed would give the Phillies home-field advantage against L.A. in any round.
“It doesn’t matter what team it is,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “We play better at home than on the road. … Getting home-field advantage is always crucial.”
In seasons past, many of the Phils’ everyday players followed a clincher with a day off. It gave guys like Darick Hall, Nick Maton, Dalton Guthrie, Cristian Pache, Jake Cave, Rodolfo Castro and Garrett Stubbs the opportunity to play. But there were most of the Phillies’ regulars in Tuesday night’s lineup: big boppers like Bryce Harper and Schwarber and other notables like Harrison Bader, Brandon Marsh, Max Kepler and Bryson Stott. If Trea Turner and Alec Bohm were healthy, they probably would have been in the lineup, too. If J.T. Realmuto wasn’t ill, he might have played as well.
“They’re gathering information potentially for a rematch,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game.
Ohtani threw five no-hit innings against the Phillies. He showed them seven different pitches.
“He’s like the stud that he is,” Marchán said. “He’s really special. But they took him out. They took him out and we had a chance and we won the game.”
Marchán laughed just thinking about it. He was happy.
Ohtani got pulled after five because he is limited in his first season pitching following right elbow surgery in Oct. 2023.
He likely will be limited in the postseason, too.
Maybe the Phillies will have better at-bats against him next time. If not, they can at least try to build up his pitch count, get him out of the game and get into the Dodgers’ bullpen. The Phillies have scored all 15 runs this series against Dodgers relievers.
“To be able to get eyes on him and see that the way the ball comes out, the way that the different pitches move … familiarity is always nice to have whenever you’re facing someone,” Schwarber said. “I felt like we saw a pretty good version of him tonight. He was always around the zone the whole time. Moving forward, if we do see him, we feel like we can have somewhat of a better understanding of what the ball’s going to do.”
Marchán broke up the Dodgers’ no-hit bid with a one-out single against left-hander Justin Wrobleski in the sixth. Bader and Schwarber followed with singles to load the bases.
Harper’s double to right-center field scored two runs to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 4-2. Marsh’s three-run home run to right gave the Phils a 5-4 lead. It was Marsh’s second homer against a left-hander this season and the third in his career in a 0-2 count. Kepler then crushed a solo homer against Edgardo Henriquez to make it 6-4.
But the Dodgers scored twice in the eighth to tie it. Ohtani hit his 50th homer of the season, joining Babe Ruth in 1921 as the only two players in baseball history to hit 50 homers with any strikeouts as a pitcher in a season.
But Weston Wilson hit a two-out double against Blake Treinen, who intentionally walked Stott to face Marchán.
Moments later, Marchán enjoyed what have been might be the biggest hit of his life.
“I was ready to run onto the field, like we were in the bottom of the ninth,” Marsh said. “It was a whole lot of fun.”
