Dodgers Dismantle Phillies 9-3 Move Into Tie for First Place

It's about time.

Howie Kendrick, Yasmani Grandal, and Justin Turner each hit two-run homers as the Los Angeles Dodgers moved into a tie for first place in the National League West with a 9-3 dismantling of the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.

Kendrick led the way for LA, conjuring up memories of Manny Ramirez as the left-fielder homered on his own bobblehead night to give the Dodgers the lead in the second inning.

"It's a good night for the team in general, but it's always cool to do something like that on your first bobblehead night," Kendrick said of the performance on his night. "You go out and hope you get a win and it came true. It was a good night all around."

Kendrick finished 2-for-4 with a home run, double, and three RBI as the Dodgers finally closed an eight-game gap on the rival San Francisco Giants.

"It's a testament to our hard work throughout the season. Early on we lost a lot of games and people said 'they're falling behind too much,' but when is 'too much' too much," Kenrick said of catching the Giants.

San Francisco was shut out by Miami earlier in the day and LA took care of business with their fourth straight victory and are 13-9 since the All Star break. 

"It's about playing well in the second half and seeing what happens in September. Some of it was luck, but it was a lot of hard work from a bunch of guys in this locker room. We've had guys step up."

Five total home runs were hit in the game, a relatively large amount for a supposed "Pitchers Park," that sits atop Chavez Ravine. 

"We're finding the barrel. An old mentor used to tell me, 'extension and elevation equals damage,'" Roberts said of the large amount of long balls in the game. "There's a lot of that to be had."

Philadelphia outfielder, Aaron Altherr, started the home run barrage with a two-run shot to right-center off Kenta Maeda in the second inning.

The Dodgers responded by doubling up the Phillies in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a two-run home run by Kendrick and RBI singles by Joc Pederson and Corey Seager.

"I saw it hit the top of the wall, but I had some good spin on it," joked Kendrick of his second-inning homer. "I thought he caught it first, but I'm just glad it bounced over. I'll take it!"

Grandal homered for the second consecutive game when he took Vince Velasquez deep for his 18^th home run of the season, extending his career-high and giving the Dodgers a 6-3 lead. 

"I wish I could tell you, but I don't know," Grandal said of why he's hitting so many home runs this season. "If I was healthy last season, I had a shot of hitting 25, maybe 30 last season. The power has always been there, it's just a matter of staying healthy."

Freddy Galvez hit a bomb to right field in the top of the fourth inning to cut the lead in half, but Justin Turner answered in the bottom half with his team-high 21^st home run of the season. 

Turner leads the NL with 17 home runs and 47 RBI since June 10, a span of 51 games.

Maeda (11-7) won his third consecutive decision despite allowing a pair of homers. The Japanese right-hander surrendered three runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts in five strong innings as he continues to lead all MLB rookies in wins (11), strikeouts (129) and ERA (3.31).

"The offense really helped me today because I didn't have my best stuff in general," Maeda said through a translator. "The team scored some early runs and it gave me a margin of error to play around with."

Pomona native Velasquez (8-4) saw victory fall through his fingers as he lost an early two-run lead, allowing a career-high nine runs on 11 hits with six strikeouts in just 4 and 2/3 innings of work in his first start at Dodger Stadium.

"My mentality was to attack the hitters, but everything went south," Velasquez said of his worst Major League outing. "They have a solid lineup. I was missing locations and they put good swings on the ball that ended up going over the wall."

Adrian Gonzalez had his fourth consecutive multi-hit game as he smoked a pair of doubles and scored two runs on the night. In total, eight of the nine players in the starting lineup got a hit in the win. 

The only player not to record a hit was newest Dodger, Josh Reddick who finished 0-for-4.

Players of the Game:

Howie Kendrick: 2-for-4 with a home run, double and 3 RBI.
Yasmani Grandal: Two-run home run.
Justin Turner: Two-run home run.

Three Takeaways:

1. Dodgers Goin' Deep: The Los Angeles Dodgers have hit 10 home runs in the last three games and have 3+ home runs in three straight games for the first time since May 7-10, 2006 when they did at home against the Brewers and Astros. They also have scored 8 or more runs in three consecutive games, the first time they've accomplished that since July 21-24, 2013.

Dodgers have 3+ HR (4 last night) in 3 straight games for the first time since May 7-10, 2006 https://t.co/RzkIf4mZE4 — Eric Stephen (@truebluela) August 10, 2016

2. Decade Dodgers: Before this season, the Los Angeles Dodgers did not have a third baseman or shortstop who had hit 20 or more home runs in a single season. Now they have two as Justin Turner (21) and Corey Seager (21) both lead the team.

It had been 12 years since a Dodger shortstop or third baseman had 20 homers. Now they have both. (Turner with 20 at 3B, one as a PH.) — Dodger Insider (@DodgerInsider) August 10, 2016

3. Best in the West: The Dodgers moved into a tie with the San Francisco Giants for first place in the National League West by virture of their 9-3, victory against the Phillies on Tuesday night. Since the All-Star Break, the Dodgers are  3-9 whereas the Giants are 7-16.

#Dodgers are an NL-best 13-9 since #AllStarGame and #SFGiants are an NL-worst 7-16. #NLWest#LetsGoDodgers — Michael J. Duarte (@michaeljduarte) August 10, 2016

Up Next:

Phillies (52-63): Trade target Jeremy Hellickson heads to the hill on a rare Wednesday day game.

Dodgers (64-49): Scott Kazmir gets the call for the Dodgers as they go for the sweep at 12:10 PM PST.