PHILADELPHIA — A laughably thick fog hung over the Phillies’ clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday night.
Fog is nothing new after home wins. A few years ago, Aaron Nola bought a fog machine, which sits next to Zack Wheeler’s locker. But Nola recently upgraded to a bigger, better, more powerful model. The smoke blanketed the home team’s clubhouse in an absurdly thick white cloud after a 5-1 victory over the Dodgers to complete a three-game sweep.
“The other one was leaking,” Nola said. “I had no more water [fog] juice, so I bought some other juice and it was weak. Wheels’ locker got sticky and stuff because it was leaking.”
Nola looked at the new machine.
“That thing is fun,” he said.
The Phillies (61-32) played well this week, taking a 6 1/2-game lead over Los Angeles (55-39) for the best record in the National League.
“Coming from the Braves series and going straight to the Dodgers, it’s a big test for us to see where we’re at,” outfielder Brandon Marsh said. “I think we’ve held our own. Yeah, I’d be lying if I said we didn’t wake up a little bit different for games like this. This is why we play the game. Dodgers-Phillies. That’s what it’s all about.”
Is there such a thing as a statement series in early July? Maybe. The Phillies already believed they were one of baseball’s elite teams, because they already had the best record in the majors.
They already believed they could win the World Series.
The audit only confirmed this belief.
“We don’t care who comes,” Johan Rojas said through the team’s interpreter. “We don’t care who we play. We’re just going to beat them. Anyone can come here and they’re going to lose the game or the series. Same goal with the World Series. We’re going to go out there and win. We’re hungry to win.”
It was also a harsh confrontation with reality for the Dodgers, who were without Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and others.
“They’re obviously a better team than we are right now,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We really haven’t done a great job this series. Starting pitching, defense, we had an error on the bases tonight. Situational hitting, getting hits — all that stuff, we were outclassed. It’s definitely … I know where we’re at right now.”
Trea Turner continued to hit a hot bat. He hit a solo home run to right-center field in the first inning to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead. It was his sixth home run in his last nine games, and his second of the series.
Marsh hit a home run in the second inning to make it 2-0. He also hit two home runs in the series.
Nola (11-4, 3.38 ERA) allowed four hits and one run in six innings, while striking out nine and walking two. He held Shohei Ohtani hitless in three at-bats. He struck out Ohtani with a 1-2 curveball with the bases loaded and one out in the second.
The pitch before that was a 95.5 mph fastball inside. It tied for Nola’s hardest pitch of the season.
“I wanted to hit the corner there or miss the ball to set up that curveball,” Nola said. “It worked. He’s fast there, too. I didn’t want to let the ball go over the plate. That was the first time I’d ever faced him. He’s a big man. He’s a big man in the box. I tried to capture it as best I could.”
There were plenty of nice at-bats this week from Ohtani, who went 3-for-10 with one RBI, one walk and four strikeouts. He didn’t have an extra-base hit.
Wheeler struck out Ohtani with a 97.6 mph fastball in the first inning Tuesday night to open the series. It was his sixth-hardest pitch of the season. Matt Strahm struck out Ohtani with a 1-2 slider with runners on the corners and one out in the seventh Wednesday night.
“Keeping those guys in the ballpark is key,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “I just think our guys executed at the right time.”
Rojas hit a single to left with the infield pulled in in the sixth inning to score a run, and later ran 100 feet to make an incredible catch in left-center field in the seventh.
According to Statcast, Rojas’ catch rate of 50% was the sixth lowest of all actions this season.
“It’s like I’ve always said,” Rojas said. “Any batter that hits the ball to me, he’s going to have to strike it out if he wants it to be a hit. The ball they hit, the ball I catch. If it’s not out, it’s in my glove.”
The Phillies and Dodgers meet again August 5-7 at Dodger Stadium. It’s LA’s chance to strike back.
“There’s still a lot of baseball left,” Nola said.