PHILADELPHIA – The Phillies fell apart in the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the National League Division Series Monday and are now one loss away from being bounced in the same round for a second straight year.

The Dodgers took a commanding two-games-to-none lead with a 4-3 win on Monday night as the Phillies’ offense continued to fail in clutch situations.

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Down three runs, the Phillies rallied to score twice in the ninth. Alec Bohm singled and J.T. Realmuto and Nick Castellanos each doubled off Blake Treinen – Castellanos luckily making it to second – to make it 4-3, but manager Rob Thomson killed the momentum by calling for a Bryson Stott bunt, which he bunted to third for a fielder’s choice.

Pinch-hitter Harrison Bader singled, but Max Kepler grounded into a fielder’s choice and Roki Sasaki induced a groundout from Trea Turner to end the game. The Phillies had to run Weston Wilson for Bader instead of hitting him for Kepler because Bader had a sore groin.

After Phillies starter Jesus Luzardo and the Dodgers’ Blake Snell traded zeroes for six innings, Los Angeles broke out with four runs in the top of the seventh.

The Phillies very well could have, and maybe should have, been out of the inning without any damage.

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Teoscar Hernandez – who was the star of Game 1 with a seventh-inning three-run homer in a 5-3 win – led off with a single, and Freddie Freeman reached out and hooked a double down the right-field line to put runners on second and third.

Orion Kerkering entered and struck out Tommy Edman, then induced a dribbler to the right of the mound. The ball slipped past Kerkering and Hernandez broke for home.

Shortstop Trea Turner’s throw was to the right of catcher J.T. Realmuto and Hernandez just beat the tag. A better throw would have resulted in an out.

After Max Muncy walked, Andy Pages popped up for what could have been the final out. Instead, with two outs, Will Smith lined a two-run single to left and Shohei Ohtani followed with an RBI hit off Matt Strahm.

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The Dodgers batted around in the inning. Luzardo took the hard-luck loss, allowing just three hits.

The Phillies finally put a run on the board in the eighth when Max Kepler tripled and scored on Turner’s RBI single. It could have given them the lead.

Snell allowed just one hit in six innings. After walking two batters in the bottom of the sixth, he struck out Bryce Harper and induced a ground out from Alec Bohm.

After reaching the World Series in 2022, the Phillies lost the last two games of the NLCS to fall in seven games to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023, then were knocked out of the NLDS in four games by the New York Mets last year.

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They have lost five of their last six playoff games at Citizens Bank Park. They will need to win two games in Los Angeles to force a Game 5 back in Philadelphia Saturday.

If the offense doesn’t pick up, it will be a short trip to the West Coast.

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