LOS ANGELES — Taijuan Walker’s first playoff appearance came at Dodger Stadium in 2017. It would take eight years, plenty of heartbreak and more than a few missed opportunities to get back there.

In his third season as a Phillie, Walker finally got to the mound in Wednesday night’s Game 3, recording two outs in the ninth inning of the 8-2 win.

“It’s nice to get in there to contribute,” Walker said. “Tried to get out of there with no runs, but make some good pitches, got some broken bats.”

Walker made the roster for all three series in 2023 but never appeared. It came after he went 15-6 with a career-high 172.2 innings that season, leading to a bit of acrimony, indelicately expressed on social media and precipitating a clear-the-air meeting with Rob Thomson after the season.

There was little question of his postseason viability in 2024, when he posted a 7.10 ERA in 83.2 innings to plummet out of the rotation. Kolby Allard made the roster for the NLDS against the Mets ahead of him.

But an offseason arm-strengthening program helped Walker go 5-8 with a 4.08 ERA in 123 innings this year, filling in the rotation when Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez and Zack Wheeler endured stints on the injured list before settling into the bullpen. It made him an option in Game 3 to spare others, Thomson ready to use closer Jhoan Duran for up to six outs.

Walker spent most of the game in the dugout. But he headed to the bullpen in the seventh, with the Phillies up 3-1 and looking to break the game open against the Dodgers’ bullpen-sparing starter Clayton Kershaw. The future Hall of Famer blew up, the Phillies tacked on five runs in the eighth and Duran sat down.

Orion Kerkering navigated 2-3-4 in the Dodgers order in the eighth, then Walker came in for the ninth. He got the first out, walked Kike Hernandez and gave up a hard-hit single to Max Muncy before striking out Dalton Rushing. Tommy Edman’s broken-bat single to left, which left the bat at 53.8 miles per hour, scored a run, and Tanner Banks finished the game by getting Shohei Ohtani to fly out on the first pitch.

“Having that lead 8-1, it was easier just to attack the zone,” Walker said. “I didn’t have to be too cute, just go right after them. And I feel like I did that. Kike’s at-bat kind of got away, some close pitches. I thought they were pretty close. But after that, I was pretty locked in, got some ground balls and broken bats.”

• • •

Thomson twice on Wednesday opted to keep Brandon Marsh in the game against lefties. It’s a vote of confidence based on how Marsh is swinging the bat.

Marsh is just 1-for-9 with an RBI in this series, but he’s been hitting the ball hard and has had to return to center field in the absence of Harrison Bader.

“I’m encouraged by Marsh’s at-bats,” Thomson said. “He hit a bullet off Kershaw. It was pretty impressive. The one (at-bat) he got in the hole with the clock violation. But all those guys, I’ve liked their at-bats against lefties.”

With the bases loaded in the fifth, Marsh struck out against lefty Anthony Banda, a plate appearance that started with an 0-1 count after a pitch-clock violation from Alec Bohm’s intentional walk. Marsh drove a ball 332 feet to right off Kershaw with two on in the seventh, off the bat at 108 miles per hour with a .620 expected batting average.

And he tagged a Kershaw delivery 394 feet to the wall in center in the eighth, flagged down by Justin Dean as he crashed into the wall.

Between Marsh getting good swings and Max Kepler walking twice against Kershaw, Thomson feels good about where his mid-lineup lefties are at.

“Anybody that puts a good swing on a ball – even Marsh today hit the ball hard two, three times, didn’t get the result,” Kepler said. “But just to see everyone putting good swings on the ball is a beacon of hope and a move in the right direction.”

Some of those good vibes, of course, are attributable to Kyle Schwarber’s dam-breaking homer.

“I think in that scenario, that kind of made the hitting get contagious a little bit,” Bohm said. “And then we started to string some things together and have good at-bats and just kind of keep the pressure on.”

• • •

On the subject of xBA, the ball off the bat of Tommy Edman to start the fifth had an expected return of .660. That was until Bohm, using all of his 6-5 frame, climbed the ladder to snare it out of the Southern California night.

It saved a certain double from the nine-hitter, who had homered off Ranger Suarez two innings prior, with the lineup turning over.

“That was a huge play, keeps a guy off second,” shortstop Bryson Stott said. “I think I was jumping with him and trying to give him a little extra inches to the vertical.”

• • •

The status on Bader remains the same: His medial hamstring strain was not strong enough to start Game 4, but he may be in play to pinch hit without requiring someone to run the bases for him.

Bader grabbed a helmet at several points in Game 3 and appeared poised to enter, but Thomson didn’t call his number.

“We’re going to shoot for Saturday,” Thomson said, of an if-necessary Game 5. “He’ll probably play the same role today as he has the last couple of days.”

• • •

The Dodgers were forced to make a roster move, replacing relief pitcher Tanner Scott with fellow lefty Justin Wrobleski.

Scott has a lower body abscess that required an excision procedure, manager Dave Roberts said. It explained why Roberts left Kershaw in so long in Game 4, as Scott could’ve mopped up the eighth.

Scott is ineligible for the NLCS roster, if the Dodgers advance. Signed to a four-year, $72 million deal, he lost his place as the team’s closer, with a 4.74 ERA and 10 blown saves in 35 chances.

Wrobleski was on the roster for the Wild Card series but not the NLDS. He had a 4.32 ERA in 66.2 innings this year, including five earned runs allowed to the Phillies on Sept. 16.

Scott’s status would seem to cull the Dodgers’ list of reliable leverage relievers to Alex Vesia, Banda, Jack Dreyer, Emmet Sheehan and closer Roki Sasaki. Banda and Dreyer pitched in Game 3.