PHILADELPHIA — Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing fought to end his skid.
He held up on a curveball from Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola that clipped the bottom of the strike zone. He fouled off a changeup. And he stayed disciplined as Nola tried to get him to chase a fastball up and two breaking balls in the dirt.
In a full count, Rushing fouled off another changeup. And then, finally, Nola made a mistake.
Rushing hammered the grooved fastball to left-center field, just shy of the Citizens Bank Park concourse.
It was the Dodgers’ first run during a 9-5 win and Rushing’s first hit in more than two weeks. Over the course of nine hitless games, he went 0-for-19.
Rushing has been the Dodgers’ starting catcher since early June, when Will Smith was first sidelined by a neck injury. And the Dodgers will continue to rely on him, with Smith still out indefinitely.
He’s embraced the defensive/pitcher-management side of his job as his top priority. But at his best, Rushing (.812 OPS this season) can impact games on both sides.
His performance Wednesday was another glimpse of that upside.
Rushing provided the Dodgers’ first run of the game with a homer in his first at-bat. Then, in his second, he worked a 2-2 count, before roping a curveball up the right-field line for a go-ahead two-run double.
The Phillies tied up the game in the bottom half of that fifth inning. Dodgers starting pitcher Eric Lauer, who had already given up a two-run home run to Alec Bohm in the first inning, surrendered a solo shot to Bryan De La Cruz to lead off the fifth. Those were the only runs he allowed in 5 ⅓ innings.
In the sixth, Dodgers veteran third baseman Max Muncy delivered a go-ahead solo home run, his second home run in as many games and 20th of the year. That blast was also Muncy’s 229th as a Dodgers, moving him into sole possession of No.5 on the franchise’ all-time list.
To put the final touches on the Dodgers’ offensive effort, Kyle Tucker hit a sacrifice fly and Edman a bases-clearing triple for a four-run Dodgers rally in the eighth inning. That gave them enough of a cushion to weather a ninth-inning comeback attempt from the Phillies.
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