LOS ANGELES — There is a chalkboard that hangs in the hallway between the lockers and the kitchen on the visitors’ side at Dodger Stadium and, every day, a clubhouse employee updates it with the latest standings. It’s easy to miss. The Phillies, 112 games into this season, are not discussing the standings. They don’t need to know the exact numbers to understand this week in Southern California is another barometer.
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But the manager is aware of the significance.
“It’s a big series,” Rob Thomson said. “It’s best record — could be. Also, head-to-head could be in effect. So, certainly want to win this series.”
Winning the series would be great for a Phillies team that needs something to go right. Just winning one game against the Dodgers this week is paramount; that would hand the Phillies the tiebreaker for home-field advantage if the two teams are tied at the end of the season and somehow meet in the National League Championship Series.
Right now, after a 5-3 Phillies loss Monday for their 14th defeat in 19 games, that feels light-years away.
“We got two months left in the season,” Aaron Nola said. “We’re honestly just focusing on winning. We’re not really looking at the standings. If you look at the standings, you get caught up in that instead of winning baseball games.”
The Phillies were 6 1/2 games ahead of Los Angeles after last month’s sweep at Citizens Bank Park. Now, they are a mere half-game in front.
This is the current state of things: Brandon Marsh takes a pitch that should have been ball four to load the bases in the eighth. Instead, it’s called a strike. He whiffs at the next pitch for strike three. Then, in the bottom half of the inning, Shohei Ohtani launches a solo homer to center. Nick Castellanos begins the ninth with an eight-pitch at-bat that results in a single to right. The tying run comes to the plate … and the next three Phillies hitters are retired on three pitches. Three popouts.
The end.
Shohei Ohtani hits a solo home run in the eighth inning against the Phillies. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
“I think we’re grinding right now,” Castellanos said. “We’re just in a funk. But I will say our dugout was very good today. All our attention, I think, was more on the field than it was on our iPads. We were more in the competition. It was a good baseball game, right? Couple things here, a couple things there, and it changes. But I feel like they beat us today. We didn’t beat ourselves.”
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That platitude won’t make any motivational posters, but the point is fair. Except for Tyler Phillips’ implosion over the weekend in Seattle, the Phillies have been competitive in five of the last six games. They have won only once. Thomson has refused to deviate from how he’s handled things, including letting backup catcher Garrett Stubbs hit Monday night with two outs in the ninth. He could have used J.T. Realmuto there. Maybe it would not have mattered.
“You think about it,” Thomson said. “Sure. But I still want to keep him healthy and give him a day.”
The Phillies have always prioritized the bigger picture, and those decisions were easier to make (and justify) when the club soared. There will be harder choices to make if the losing continues.
A lot begins and ends with the rotation. The Phillies have won 28 straight games in which their starter has logged seven innings. Nola fell short of that Monday; he was decent in his six innings except for one. He hung too many curveballs in the third inning. The Dodgers scored four runs.
The inning began with three consecutive hits from the bottom three hitters in Los Angeles’ lineup. That continued a confounding trend for Nola. The No. 7-9 hitters in opposing lineups have hit .323 with an .889 OPS against Nola in 2024. Only Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco has permitted a higher OPS to the bottom three hitters he’s faced.
The bottom of the order hurt Nola last season en route to a .273 average and .786 OPS. It’s even worse in 2024.
He has a 3.54 ERA in 142 1/3 innings.
“I missed spots,” Nola said. “The doubles hurt me. They’ve hurt me the past few games. Especially leadoff doubles. I haven’t had too many 1-2-3 innings. And that’s hurt. I feel like fastball command was off tonight. Curveball, I threw some hanging ones in the third inning and they capitalized on it.”
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The Phillies are exploring ways to keep the rotation fresh and effective. Ranger Suárez threw a bullpen session Monday and it went fine. He’ll probably throw another bullpen session Thursday in Arizona, then face hitters in a simulated situation when the team returns home. That could put him back in the Phillies’ rotation two weekends from now. Suárez has not reported any lingering back pain; the Phillies have applied caution to his situation. They are, in essence, managing his innings with this break.
Taijuan Walker could start Sunday against the Diamondbacks. (Tommy Gilligan / USA Today)
The Phillies would like Taijuan Walker to pitch the final game of this road trip on Sunday in Arizona, and that will depend on how he feels after a minor-league rehab start Tuesday for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. They are not expecting miracles from the veteran righty. But he could provide a more stable presence at the back of the rotation. His return, coupled with Suárez’s re-emergence, would open the door to a six-man rotation.
In the immediate scenario, Walker pitching Sunday can pad Cristopher Sánchez, who pitches Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, with two extra days before his next outing. The Phillies are going to monitor Sánchez’s workload. That doesn’t mean shutting him down.
If Walker returns Sunday, the Phillies can rearrange the rotation. They might want to split Zack Wheeler and Nola — at least for a few weeks. The veteran righties tend to pitch deep into games and it might be better to more evenly spread the bullpen innings.
These are secondary concerns if the Phillies (66-46) keep losing. The standings are right there for everyone in the clubhouse to see.
“No, I’m not aware of the standings,” Castellanos said. “I can’t speak on behalf of the team. The way I go about it is that tomorrow we have a baseball game. And, if we do the best we can to prepare, that puts us in the best position to win. If we win tomorrow, that’s a good thing.”
GO DEEPERFreddie Freeman returns to the Dodgers after his son's 'miraculous recovery'(Top photo of Brandon Marsh after he was called out on strikes in the eighth inning: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
Matt Gelb is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Philadelphia Phillies. He has covered the team since 2010 while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, including a yearlong pause from baseball as a reporter on the city desk. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Central Bucks High School West.
