Aaron Nola dominates and Dodgers look outmatched in latest loss to Phillies

Getting swept to open up a road trip is far from encouraging, but that’s how the Dodgers leave Philadelphia after a 5-1 loss to the Phillies on Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park. The theme of this one was of missed opportunities on the underdog side, with Landon Knack on the mound against Aaron Nola.

The starters' duel went as you’d expect, but the Dodgers had chances against the Phillies’ top relievers and simply failed to capitalize.

Trailing 4-1 in the seventh, the first inning after Nola left the mound, Kiké Hernández hit a ball into deep right-center off Matt Strahm which would’ve made it 1 4-2 game if it got down. However, Johan Rojas had other plans and made a great defensive play to catch it.

An inning later, the rally opportunity came against Jeff Hoffman, another reliever having a great campaign. Freddie Freeman reached on a one-out error and was followed by a walk and a single. With the bases loaded, and as the winning run, Miguel Rojas grounded into a double play and killed the threat.

The Dodgers on the night had the bases loaded with one out in two different innings but did not score.

Moving back to how the Phillies got the lead in this one, so much for the opener to give Knack an easier time. While it worked in the sense that Knack carried himself well early in his outing, by the time he was on the mound the Dodgers were already trailing in this one. Trea Turner went deep in the first to open the scoring off lefty Anthony Banda.

As this team faces great rotation issues, while the win didn't come, it was important to see Knack holding his own against the class of the National League, even though it may not look like it by his final line.

Overall, Knack allowed three runs in 4⅓ innings, which is far from great, but for much of this one he kept the Dodgers in it. In fact, Knack went as far as retiring 11 Phillies in a row, with the struggles coming at the beginning and end of his outing.

Facing yet another unfavorable pitching matchup in this series, the Dodgers found themselves overmatched at the plate against the veteran Nola.

Even on an evening when it looked like the ball was traveling well early on, the offense failed to muster anything apart from driving Nola’s pitch count high enough that he’d have to leave after six frames and 101 pitches.

The sole blemish on the Phillies’ starter came in the most unexpected of situations as Gavin Lux managed to hit one out to the opposite field right at the base of the foul pole. It was only the third opposite-field homer of his entire career.

There was very little to go on with Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith, and Freddie Freeman combining for a 0-for-11 evening.

Game particulars

Home runs: Gavin Lux (3); Trea Turner (9), Brandon Marsh (9), Kyle Schwarber (19)

WP — Aaron Nola (11-4): 6 IP, 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts

LP — Anthony Banda (1-2): 1 IP, 3 hits, 1 run, 2 strikeouts

Up next

From Philadelphia to Detroit as the road trip continues, and the pitching matchups don’t get any easier. On Friday (3:40 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA) the veteran James Paxton will take the hill against Tarik Skubal of the Tigers, currently the odds-on favorite to win the American League Cy Young award.