The Dodgers advanced to the National League Championship Series with a 2-1, 11-inning victory over the Philadelphia Phillies Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
Hyeseong Kim, who pinch-ran for Tommy Edman, scored the winning run when Philadelphia pitcher Orion Kerkering could not cleanly field a grounder by Andy Pages — then threw wildly to home plate in an attempt to get the force out on Kim.
The victory gave the Dodgers a three games to one triumph in the best-of-five National League Division Series.
The championship series will begin Monday. Game 1 will be in Milwaukee if the Brewers win their division series against the Chicago Cubs and at Dodger Stadium if the Cubs win.
Chicago forced a decisive fifth game of the series Saturday in Milwaukee with a 6-0 victory in Chicago Thursday night.
Edman singled with one out on the eighth pitch of the at-bat against Jesus Luzardo, who was pitching in relief for the first time since 2021 when he was with the Oakland Athletics. Kim then ran for Edman and moved to third one out later on Max Muncy’s single, which prompted Phillies manager Rob Thomson to summon Orion Kerkering from the bullpen.
Kiké Hernández drew a full-count walk to load the bases.
Pages hit an 0-1 sinker to bring home the winning run in front of a crowd announced at 50,563.
Alex Vesia (1-0), the fourth Dodger pitcher, pitched a hitless 11th for his first postseason victory in 24 appearances since 2021, all with the Dodgers.
Luzardo (0-2), the fourth of five Philadelphia pitchers, was charged with the loss. He was also the losing pitcher in Game 2 Monday.
The Phillies opened the scoring in the seventh when Nick Castellanos’ one-out double drove in Max Kepler. J.T. Realmuto had led off the inning with a single and was forced out at second on a ground ball hit by Kepler, who advanced to second on a fielding error on the play by Dodger pitcher Emmet Sheehan.
The Dodgers tied the score in the bottom of the seventh when Mookie Betts was walked by Jhoan Duran on a full-count pitch with the bases loaded and two outs, forcing in Justin Dean, the pinch runner for Alex Call.
Call had walked on a full-count pitch from Cristopher Sánchez, the Philadelphia starter, with one out. Hernández singled Call to second, where Dean ran for him. Sanchez was relieved by Duran. Dean moved to third and Hernández to second on Andy Pages’ ground out.
Shohei Ohtani was intentionally walked to load the bases just before the bases-loaded walk to Betts.
Ohtani was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts Thursday. He was 1-for-18 with nine strikeouts for the series.
The Dodgers out-hit the Phillies, 7-4, with no players on either team having a multiple hit game. The Dodgers were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base. Philadelphia was 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base.