The Dodgers didn't need to be great Tuesday night. They just needed the Phillies to blink first, and Philadelphia obliged in the worst possible way. Los Angeles beat Philly 2-1, and the game will be remembered less for anything the Dodgers did and more for the meltdown that ended it.
The scoring was simple enough. Zack Wheeler was cruising until Max Muncy turned on one and sent it to dead center, a 2-run shot that put the Dodgers up 2-1 in the top of the 4th and held up as the difference for the rest of the night.
Max Muncy's 2-run homer off Wheeler gave the Dodgers the lead they'd never relinquish.
That homer looked like it might just be a footnote by the 9th inning. Down to their final outs, the Phillies actually built a rally: Alec Bohm singled to start the frame, pinch-runner Justin Crawford took over, and after a strikeout, J.T. Realmuto doubled to left, pushing Crawford to third with the tying run now standing at second base. Brandon Marsh then chopped a squibber to third, and that's when everything fell apart.
Crawford broke for home on the play and got hung out to dry in a rundown, tagged by Mookie Betts. But the real disaster was Realmuto, who had advanced to third on the same play and then tried to scramble back to second — only to get thrown out there too, completing an absurd 5-2-6-4 double play that ended the game on the spot.
The tag at second on Realmuto that finished off the game-ending double play.
It's the kind of baserunning error that gets a guy's name trending for reasons he doesn't want. Realmuto has owned it, reportedly taking the blame himself for misjudging the situation and getting caught retreating instead of holding at third. Pardon My Take summed up the vibe simply enough with an 'Oh no JT' reaction to the replay, and it's hard to argue with the framing.
Pardon My Take's reaction to the Realmuto blunder that sealed the loss.
For a Phillies team that's been in constant playoff contention mode, this is the type of loss that lingers, a winnable game handed away on a mental mistake rather than lost on the scoreboard. For the Dodgers, it's just business as usual: get enough offense to matter, let the other team implode, and walk away with two more runs in the standings without needing a signature performance.