Tanner Scott's misplaced fastball hands Phillies a 4-3 win over Dodgers

A four-seam fastball left too far over the plate ended the Los Angeles Dodgers' six-game winning streak Saturday night, as Edmundo Sosa turned Tanner Scott's misfire into a go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth inning and the Philadelphia Phillies walked out of Dodger Stadium with a 4-3 victory.

What happened

Scott, working in relief, left a four-seam fastball over the middle of the plate with two strikes on Sosa, who had entered the game in the top of the sixth as a replacement for Brandon Marsh in left field. Sosa connected and sauntered out of the box with a pump-wave in front of a nearly packed Dodger Stadium, giving Philadelphia the lead it would not relinquish.

Scott addressed the pitch directly after the game. Per Yahoo Sports, he said he was trying to elevate the fastball but left it too far over the plate — and with two strikes, it was not out of the strike zone, which meant Sosa had every reason to swing.

The Dodgers had been playing with fire throughout the evening, per Yahoo Sports, but could not recover momentum after Scott's struggles. The 4-3 final sets up a Sunday rubber match between the two clubs.

Why it matters

The loss snapped a six-game winning streak and represented only the Dodgers' third defeat in their last 16 games, per Yahoo Sports. That context cuts both ways: it underscores how well Los Angeles has been playing, and it also illustrates how thin the margin was on Saturday — one mislocated fastball in the eighth inning was the difference between extending a streak and absorbing a rare stumble.

For the Phillies, Sosa's home run was the decisive blow in a road win that forces a deciding game in the series. Philadelphia arrived at Dodger Stadium needing to take the rubber match to claim the series, and now so do the Dodgers.

The broader operational question the loss raises is one the Dodgers will want answered quickly: Scott had the ball in a high-leverage moment and could not execute his intended pitch location. Whether that is a one-night aberration or something worth monitoring is, for now, unanswered.

Where the club stands

Los Angeles sits atop the NL West at 100-62, a .617 winning percentage, leading the division. The club's current streak is listed at W3 — meaning the Saturday loss has already been absorbed into the record and the Dodgers have since won three straight — which adds a layer of perspective to the evening's frustration. A team at 100-62 has earned the right to lose a game on a misplaced fastball without it becoming a referendum on the bullpen.

Sunday's rubber match against Philadelphia at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium features Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound for the Dodgers against Andrew Painter for the Phillies — a pairing that gives Los Angeles one of its most prominent starters for the series finale.

After the Philadelphia series concludes, the Dodgers travel to Chase Field to open a two-game set against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Emmet Sheehan is the probable starter for Monday's opener against Eduardo Rodriguez, with Eric Lauer lined up against Michael Soroka on Tuesday.

Is Sosa in the Phillies' everyday lineup?

Per Yahoo Sports, Sosa entered Saturday's game in the sixth inning as a replacement for Marsh in left field — meaning his at-bat against Scott came as a substitute, not a starter. That makes the home run a particularly sharp reminder that in baseball, the player who beats you does not always arrive in the starting lineup. The pump-wave out of the box, in front of a nearly packed Dodger Stadium, landed with full effect regardless.

What we don't know yet

Yahoo Sports does not address whether Scott's command issue Saturday reflects anything beyond a single poor pitch. His own explanation — that he was trying to go up in the zone and left it over the plate — describes a mechanical miss rather than anything structural, but no additional context is available to say more than that.

It is also unclear from the available material how the Dodgers managed the rest of the eighth inning after Scott's struggles, or what the full sequence of events looked like before Sosa's at-bat. Yahoo Sports describes the Dodgers as having been playing with fire all night, but the specifics of how the game unfolded prior to the eighth are not detailed in what was reported.

What to watch

The immediate follow-up is Sunday's rubber match. Yamamoto takes the ball for Los Angeles against Painter, and the result will determine which club claims the series. Given that the Dodgers' current streak sits at W3, the club has already demonstrated an ability to respond — but the series finale against a Phillies team that just won on the road with a late-inning substitute's home run will be worth watching closely.

Beyond Sunday, the Arizona road trip offers a look at how the Dodgers deploy their rotation and bullpen in back-to-back games at Chase Field. Sheehan and Lauer are the listed probables for those two dates, and how the club manages its relief corps after Saturday's late-inning hiccup is a thread worth following into the week.

Scott himself is the other name to track. Relievers who surrender go-ahead home runs in the eighth inning of a loss tend to get asked about it once — he answered that question Saturday night — and then the real answer comes the next time they're handed a high-leverage situation. That moment has not arrived yet, and the desk will not speculate on when it does.