For Phillies, 'big series' in LA could have October implications

LOS ANGELES -- It has been 26 days since the Phillies swept the Dodgers in a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park.

It extended their lead over L.A. to 6 1/2 games for the best record in the National League.

But the lead has dwindled to a half-game following Monday night’s 5-3 loss to the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. The Phillies have lost 14 out of 19 games, so forgive them if they are not closely monitoring the standings every morning.

They have enough things to worry about.

“We have two months left of the regular season pretty much,” Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola said. “We’re honestly just focused on winning. We’re not really looking at the standings. If you look at the standings, you get caught up in that instead of trying to win baseball games. We’ve just got to take it game by game and series by series. We’ve got to go out tomorrow … it’s a new day.”

The Phillies hoped Sunday’s 6-0 victory over the Mariners in Seattle might spark a turnaround. Maybe it still could. One loss does not prevent that from happening. But the Phillies continue to fall short one way or another almost every night. Nola pitched well the first two innings, then missed his location on a few pitches in the third as the Dodgers jumped to a 4-2 lead.

Meanwhile, the Phillies couldn’t come up with a big hit after scoring twice in the second inning.

“We’re grinding right now,” Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos said. “You know? I think that we’re just in a funk. But I will say that our dugout was very good today. All our attention I think was more on the field than it was on our iPads. I think that we were more in the competition. Again, it was a good baseball game. Right? A couple things here, a couple things there, and it changes. But I feel like they beat us today. We didn’t beat ourselves. We didn’t lose. We played a good baseball game. We also have to realize that’s a good baseball team over there.”

A win on Tuesday and the Dodgers will have the best record in the National League.

The Phillies or Dodgers are most likely to finish the regular season with the best record in the league. That team will have home-field advantage through at least the NL Championship Series. It could mean either four games at Citizens Bank Park or four games at Dodger Stadium in the best-of-seven NLCS.

If the Phillies win just one game in L.A. this week, they will win the season series because of the sweep in Philly last month. It would give them the head-to-head tiebreaker if both teams finish the regular season with the same record.

“It’s a big series,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said before the game.

If the Dodgers sweep the series, intradivision record is the next tiebreaker. The Phillies still have the edge there. They are 15-10 (.600) against the NL East. The Dodgers are 21-18 (.538) against the NL West.

But none of the tiebreakers will matter if the Phillies start winning again. They still control their own destiny.

“The way I go about it is tomorrow, we have a baseball game,” Castellanos said. “If we do the best we can to prepare, that puts us in the best position to win. And if we win tomorrow, that’s a good thing.”