LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Dodgers were facing a team with the worst bullpen ERA in the majors and got outscored 4-1 in the final three innings.
Carlos Ruiz hit a tiebreaking two-run double off Brian Wilson in the ninth inning, Marlon Byrd added a two-run single against Jamey Wright to give him four RBIs for the game, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Dodgers 7-3 Thursday night.
“This is a lot like games last year,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “You never saw us really go out and throw a bunch of runs up offensively. We’ve got to continually grind.”
Adrian Gonzalez - whose fielding error in the fifth led to two runs - had tied the game 3-all in the seventh with a solo homer to center against former San Diego Padres teammate Mike Adams before Philadelphia scored four in the ninth.
“I was basically trying to throw a backdoor cutter and it kind of ran back over the plate,” Adams said. “Knowing Adrian from playing with him for many years, I knew he was going to be aggressive with the first pitch. I just missed my spot, and he did what he does.”
Ruiz regained the lead for the Phillies when he lined a 3-2 pitch down the right field line with one out after singles by Cody Asche and Ben Revere. Byrd greeted Jamey Wright with a bases-loaded two-run single after Wilson (0-2) intentionally walked Chase Utley and hit Ryan Howard with a pitch.
Adams (1-0), making his third appearance after having shoulder surgery last July 31 and missing the first two weeks of the season, pitched two innings for the victory despite allowing Gonzalez’s homer.
Both managers lost replay challenges.
The defending NL West champions were trailing 3-2 in the fifth when Asche, the Phillies third baseman, fielded Yasiel Puig’s grounder behind the bag and threw home, where Ruiz tagged out Hanley Ramirez as he came in standing up without a collision.
“That was a big play,” Ruiz said. “It was a good throw. I was lucky because those plays happen so fast, you don’t have time to think, but I got the ball early. I was on the side of home plate a little bit and he had room to slide, but he didn’t and we got the out. I was still a little worried it would get changed because now with the replay, you never know.”
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly requested a review from umpire Mike DiMuro based on the new rule pertaining to home plate collisions. It took several minutes but the call was upheld.
“Really, he tells me that New York tells him safe or out,” Mattingly said. “He doesn’t give me an explanation. Basically they’re as confused on it as everybody else. To me, it doesn’t give you a place to go, and that’s what I thought the rule was. … The runner has to have a place to slide, and you can’t set up where the guy has nowhere to go.
Ryne Sandberg challenged a call by first base ump Hunter Wendelstedt in the Dodgers’ sixth. Juan Uribe was initially ruled safe on a grounder to shortstop Freddy Galvis. After a review of several minutes - and a few choruses of “If It Takes Forever” by stadium organist Nancy Bea Hefley - the call stood.
Kyle Kendrick pitched 5 2-3 innings and allowed two runs and 10 hits, including a two-run homer by Uribe. The right-hander remained 0-7 in his last 12 starts.
Dodgers right-hander Dan Haren was charged with three runs - one earned - and seven hits in six innings while striking out seven.
Kendrick, who gave up a two-out single in each of the first three innings, yielded Uribe’s two-out homer to left field after a leadoff double by Gonzalez. But the Phillies capitalized on Gonzalez’s second error of the season to grab a 3-2 lead.
The three-time Gold Glove winner botched a one-out grounder by Utley with runners at the corners, as Revere scored the Phillies’ first run. Utley was credited with an RBI, and Byrd drove in two more with a double just out of the reach of a diving Puig in right-center. Gonzalez’s error was the Dodgers’ 23rd in 23 games.
NOTES: The Phillies entered Thursday with a bullpen ERA of 5.64, the worst in the majors. … Ruiz was 7 for 14 in the four-game series with a home run, four walks and his first six RBIs of the season. … Byrd had two doubles in three at-bats against Haren, and is 12 for 24 for his career against him. … Dodgers pitchers have given up 14 unearned runs. … Jimmy Rollins, 5 for 21 against Haren, got the night off and Galvis started at SS for the first time since Sept. 7 of last season. … Puig was 0 for 3 against Kendrick, after coming in 5 for 6 against him with a double and a triple.
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