Phillips struck out the side with three pitch types before an eighth-inning single

Joey Ortiz fouled off an 89.5 mph sweeper, missed a 96.4 mph sinker and took a lower sweeper for a ball. Evan Phillips returned to the sweeper at 87.3 mph, below Ortiz’s recorded lower zone boundary, and drew the missed swing that completed a third consecutive strikeout.

Phillips retired Cooper Pratt, Luis Lara and Ortiz on 15 pitches in the seventh inning of NLCS Game 1 at American Family Field on October 11. He returned for the eighth, where Jackson Chourio singled on his second pitch. His final line in the Dodgers’ 2–1 loss was one inning, one hit, no walks and three strikeouts on 17 pitches.

Three different pitch types finished the strikeouts. That distribution explains the seventh more precisely than a single-pitch account, while the eighth-inning hit keeps the analysis from stopping at the strongest part of his appearance.

Four classifications, three ways to finish

Phillips threw six four-seamers, six sweepers, four sinkers and one cutter. Each of the first two types accounted for 35.3% of his pitches. Sinkers supplied 23.5%, compared with 7.6% across 423 pitches in 31 regular-season Dodgers relief appearances from July 7 through September 27.

That baseline is the available current-season Dodgers relief sample, not a claim about his entire career. Four-seam share fell from 45.2% and sweeper share stayed near its 37.1% comparison. Four sinkers are enough to identify their actual use here, but too few to establish a permanent repertoire shift.

His four-seamer averaged 96.9 mph, essentially the same as the baseline. Sweepers averaged 87.6 mph against 86.2. Pratt’s strikeout ended on a four-seamer, Lara’s on a sinker and Ortiz’s on a sweeper. Each type also supplied one of the three missed swings recorded across eight attempts.

Phillips’ 37.5% whiff rate compared with 26.7% in the baseline. He added three called strikes, again one apiece on four-seamers, sinkers and sweepers. The small game denominators matter: the three strikeouts were completed plate-appearance results, rather than evidence that every pitch of a particular type overwhelmed a hitter.

The next inning changed the finished line

Chourio opened the eighth with a 79.2 mph single on a 96.0 mph four-seamer. It was the only ball put into play against Phillips. A comparatively low exit speed does not cancel a hit or establish that the defense should have converted it into an out.

Tanner Scott inherited Chourio at first. A sacrifice bunt advanced him, two intentional walks added runners, and Scott completed the inning without allowing a run. Phillips’ runner therefore remained stranded, preserving his scoreless line after he left.

The workload panel separates 15 pitches and three outs in the seventh from two pitches and no outs in the eighth. Treating the appearance as only the first inning would omit the single and the inherited-runner resolution. The complete ledger includes all 17 physical pitches.

Phillips used multiple finishes to deliver a useful seventh, then needed a teammate to resolve the runner created in his brief return. The result supports that specific account. His next outing can test whether the increased sinker share repeats alongside the same speed and strike acquisition, without assuming that three consecutive strikeouts guarantee another clean inning.