PHILADELPHIA—All-Star reliever Matt Strahm got superstar Shohei Ohtani to flail at an 83-mph slider for strike three and leave the potential tying runs on base in the seventh inning Wednesday night, July 10, as the Philadelphia Phillies hung on to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4–3.
The Los Angeles slugger nearly lost his helmet while making the pivotal out as Philadelphia won while again playing without standout first baseman Bryce Harper.
Ohtani “is one of the greatest ever to pick up a bat,” Strahm said. “It’s cool.”
The 32-year-old Strahm is known in Philadelphia as much for his stringy, shoulder-length hair and baseball-card collecting as he is for clutch performances out of the bullpen—the kind that earned him his first All-Star spot after nine seasons in the big leagues.
The left-handed Strahm inherited runners on the corners with the Phillies nursing a 4–2 lead in the seventh when the left-handed sensation Ohtani was introduced to the tune of nearly 42,000 boos from another packed house at Citizens Bank Park.
‘Like a playoff game,” Philadelphia Manager Rob Thomson said.
Strahm threw one slider as part of two quick strikes and then a ball, creating a 1–2 count that had fans standing and roaring during the nationally televised game.
He got Ohtani—the Dodgers’ $700 million global phenomenon—and fans erupted in a scene straight out of Philadelphia’s crazed October atmosphere.
“You’re obviously aware of who’s in the box,” Strahm said. “Again, the energy of these fans is unmatched.”
With another batter due up, Strahm had no time to exhale and completely savor the moment. He retired Teoscar Hernández on a flyball to escape the jam and pushed the Phillies toward their 60th win of the season.
The Phillies (60–32) have won the first two games of the three-game set in a showdown of two National League division leaders. In Philadelphia franchise history, only the 1976 team reached 60 wins faster, in 88 games.
Kyle Schwarber hit his eighth leadoff homer of the season to help offset Harper’s absence.
The Phillies again beat Ohtani and the National League West leaders without Harper, out this time with a bruised left hand. Harper had missed the previous nine games with a strained left hamstring until he returned for Tuesday’s 10–1 win.
A two-time National League most valuable player, Harper was hurt at an unspecified point Tuesday, though he clearly grabbed his hand and hunched over in pain on a second-inning chopper by Miguel Rojas.
With an All-Star slugger sidelined, an All-Star reliever in Stram bailed out the Phillies.
The Dodgers made it 4–3 in the eighth. Jeff Hoffman—one of seven Phillies selected for the National League All-Star team—tossed a scoreless ninth inning for his ninth save.
“We know we stack up with those guys. They know we stack up with them,” Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said. “Unfortunately, we haven’t won two games. I still think we have a pretty good ballclub.”
Key cogs Harper, catcher J.T. Realmuto, who is out until after the All-Star break, outfielder Brandon Marsh, and Schwarber have all been on the injured list for the Phillies this season. All-Star pitcher Zack Wheeler, meanwhile, is fighting back stiffness.
Yet nothing has truly slowed a Phillies team determined to win the World Series they could not capture the past two seasons. Philadelphia lost to Houston in the 2022 World Series, and to Arizona in last year’s National League Championship Series.
If the Phillies are looking for that one last push ahead of the All-Star break to chase 70 wins at a franchise-record pace, a three-game weekend series against the Oakland A’s might get them there.
Cristopher Sánchez (7–4) struck out five and allowed two runs in six innings for the Phillies on another sticky night. He coughed up a 2–0 lead, the Dodgers tying it on Ohtani’s RBI single in the fifth.
Sánchez has a 1.50 earned-run average in 10 home starts this season.
Whit Merrifield—who led the American League with 10 triples in 2019 but hadn’t hit one since 2022—opened the fifth with a lazy fly to center that Andy Pages lost in the lights. Merrifield hightailed it around first and landed on third for his 27th career triple.
After Garrett Stubbs and Schwarber failed to hit the ball out of the infield, Merrifield scored on Trea Turner’s grounder. Turner made it to third on All-Star Alec Bohm’s National League-best 32nd double and scored on Bryson Stott’s infield single for a 4–2 lead.
Schwarber’s shot off Gavin Stone (9–3) was his 39th career leadoff homer. Stone allowed four runs and nine hits in 4 2/3 innings.
