Trevor Plouffe hits walk-off homer to give Phillies 16-inning win over Dodgers

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The Phillies rallied from three runs down in the seventh inning then needed what seemed like an eternity to post a wild, 7-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

The Phillies won it on a three-run home run by Trevor Plouffe with one out in the bottom of the 16th inning.

The homer came against Kike Hernandez, a Dodgers infielder who had taken over on the mound. Hernandez walked two before Plouffe’s big hit.

Vince Velasquez, who is scheduled to start on Saturday, was pressed into duty and got the win with a scoreless inning of work in the top of the 16th.

The game took five hours and 55 minutes to play. It ended at 1:14 a.m.

The win improved the NL East-leading Phillies to 56-44. They lead Atlanta by a game. The Braves lost at Miami.

The Phillies will look for a series win over the Dodgers on Wednesday with Jake Arrieta on the mound.

The Phillies’ bullpen delivered 11 innings of one-run ball — including 10 scoreless innings in a row — after Aaron Nola departed. Victor Arano, who was originally signed by the Dodgers and acquired by the Phillies for Roberto Hernandez in August 2014, pitched scoreless ball in the eighth and ninth after the Phillies rallied to tie the game with three runs against starter Kenta Maeda in the bottom of the seventh. Two of those runs came on a booming, game-tying, two-out homer by Jorge Alfaro with two outs.

Luis Garcia and Austin Davis both pitched two scoreless innings in relief.

Nola lasted just five innings in his shortest outing since April 4. He allowed five hits, including a solo homer, and walked two on his way to giving up three runs. However, two of the runs would not have scored had the Phillies’ defense not made another poor showing.

Centerfielder Odubel Herrera and second baseman Jesmuel Valentin combined to botch a pop up to shallow center field that would have ended the first inning. The inning stayed alive and Nola threw a wild pitch to score a run from third. Alfaro, the catcher, could have saved Nola, but he was unable to block a ball that appeared quite blockable. It was the second night in a row that happened with Alfaro behind the plate and both times it cost the Phillies a run.

In the fifth inning, leftfielder Rhys Hoskins could not make a play on a catchable ball to the wall by Joc Pederson. It went for an RBI double, giving the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.

The Phillies got a run back in the bottom of the fifth on a solo homer by Nick Williams, but the Dodgers went right back up by three runs on a homer by Yasmani Grandal against Adam Morgan in the sixth. Grandal had homered against Nola earlier in the game.

Maeda did not allow a hit until there were two outs in the fourth inning. Williams’ homer got the Phils on the board in the fifth and the bats fully awakened against Maeda in the bottom of the seventh.

Carlos Santana started the uprising with a single. He scored on a double by the resurgent Maikel Franco to make it a 4-2 game. Two batters later, Alfaro unloaded on a 1-0 fastball and sent it far over the center-field wall to tie the game at 4-4. Alfaro crushed the ball. It came off the bat at 114 mph and traveled 446 feet. Alfaro knew he hit it well and he admired the shot for a second or two before breaking into his home-run trot.

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