Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips caught too much of the plate with a full-count fastball to Junior Caminero Saturday night, and the Tampa Bay slugger drove the 96-mph pitch 418 feet over the center-field wall for a game-tying home run in the ninth inning of a 9-8, 10-inning loss to the Rays.
Phillips then struck out the next three batters, Christopher Morel, Dylan Carlson and Jonny DeLuca, all looking at perfectly placed pitches, knee-high, 84-mph sweepers on the outside corner to Morel and Carlson and a knee-high 95-mph fastball to DeLuca.
The four-batter sequence was a microcosm of the past two months for Phillips, who pitched so poorly in July that he lost the closer job he held for 2023 and the first half of 2024, but has been so dominant in August he’s back near the top of the “trust tree” that manager Dave Roberts uses to describe his bullpen hierarchy.