PHILADELPHIA — On a windy, wet and dreary afternoon at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday, the Dodgers watched their first series rubber match of the season twice slip frustratingly out of their grasp.
It started in the third inning, when a steady drizzle, slippery ball and muddy mound caused Tyler Glasnow to come unglued.
It crescendoed in the seventh, when the Dodgers stormed all the way back from what had been a four-run deficit, only to watch a temporary one-run lead fail to last.
Instead, in an 8-7 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, a Dodgers team that began this cross-country trip with a perfect 8-0 record left town with its first series defeat of the season.
It didn’t matter that Teoscar Hernández drove in five runs. Or that Mookie Betts and Will Smith hit RBI doubles in the seventh that pushed the club in front.
In the end, the Dodgers couldn’t overcome the powerhouse Phillies — or their home city’s typical early-April weather.
The Dodgers’ problems began almost as soon as the rain began.
Over his first two innings, Glasnow was cruising through his second start of the year, seemingly picking up where he left off after his scoreless five-inning season debut the week before.
He stranded a walk in the first. He worked around a single in the second. And when he took the mound for the third, he was working with a two-run cushion, thanks to the first of Hernández’s two home runs on the day.
But then, a steady drizzle began to descend from the low overcast skies.
Within moments, the impact it had on Glasnow became abundantly clear.
While repeatedly kicking mud from his cleats, drying his hands on his pants, and grabbing for the rosin bag to find any semblance of feel for the ball, Glasnow walked each of the first three batters he faced in the third, growing visibly more frustrated by the misty conditions around him.
Pitching coach Mark Prior visited the mound at one point. Glasnow stepped off the rubber several times to try and gather himself.
None of it, however, could get him back into rhythm. A bloop single from Bryce Harper scored the Phillies’ first run. A wild pitch from Glasnow led to a second.
Glasnow was eventually pulled after reloading the bases on another walk to Max Kepler. His replacement, left-handed reliever Alex Vesia, gave up a grand slam to Nick Castellanos on the very next pitch.
Down 6-2 at that point, the Dodgers didn’t go away quietly.
Hernández almost single-handedly dragged them back within striking distance, launching a solo home run off the right-field foul pole in the fourth inning before lining an RBI double inside the third-base bag in the fifth.
That made it 6-4, and set the stage for a three-run go-ahead rally in the seventh. Betts had the key hit that inning, belting a double to center. Hernández hit a sacrifice fly that tied the score, giving him his fifth RBI on the day (one shy of his career high) and 13th of the season (second-most in the National League).
Then, Smith missed a two-run home run by only a few feet off the top of the right-field wall, settling instead for an RBI double that pushed the Dodgers in front 7-6.
However, the Phillies responded. Center fielder Andy Pages opened the door by misreading a 107-mph missile off the bat of Harper, resulting in a leadoff double. Blake Treinen then gave up a walk and score-tying RBI single, before Edmundo Sosa raced to first to beat out a potential inning-ending double-play that got the go-ahead score across the plate.
