Former Dodger great and current SportsNet LA broadcaster Orel Hershiser flat-out called it with fellow SNLA broadcaster Joe Davis:

Hershiser: “Jonny’s got bigtime pop. Wouldn’t this be a cool spot for his first big league home run.”

Davis: “On a 3-2, Deluca hits a drive, left field, back goes (Bryan) Reynolds, it’s gone!”

That ‘cool spot’ was the bottom of the eighth inning of a 7-7 ballgame between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of a sold-out Fourth of July Dodger Stadium crowd of 51,487, when 24-year-old Dodgers outfielder Jonny Deluca, who had entered the game to pinch-hit for Dodgers right fielder Jason Heyward, crushed a 95.6-mph fastball off of Pirates right-hander Angel Perdomo 390 into the Left Field Pavilion for his first major league home run, giving the Dodgers an 8-7 lead over the Bucs.

“Obviously, that spot’s a dream you dream, and at that point of the game, so, yeah, it’s just… it’s… you can’t really describe it, it’s just really special, and having a big year, definitely, it was pretty cool,” Deluca answered postgame when asked about his ‘cool spot’ first major league home run.

Unfortunately, Deluca’s historical moment was short-lived, when, in the top of the ninth, normally effective 28-year-old Dodgers right-hander (and unofficial team closer) Evan Phillips, who was called upon by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to pitch his third game in as many days, in hopes of giving the Dodgers their 48th win of the season.

Didn’t happen.

Instead, and after striking out always-dangerous Pirates first baseman Carlos Santana swinging on four pitches, the normally efficient Phillips uncharacteristically walked the next two batters. He then gave up a run-scoring single to Pirates third baseman Jared Triolo to re-tie the game 8-8. Phillips then gave up a two-run double to Pirates pinch-hitter Josh Palacios to give Pittsburgh a now 9-7 lead, giving the popular Salisbury, MD native his first second blown save and third loss of the season.

“It really hurts, without a doubt. Especially after Jonny hit a big home run. I really felt like that was a momentum shift we needed and I could come in and finish the game for us. It just didn’t work out that way tonight,” Phillips added.

To his credit, the Thousand Oaks, CA native and the Dodgers 25th-round draft pick in 2019 out of the University of Oregon did not use the three-consecutive-days thing as an excuse for his tough night.

“I take a lot of pride in being healthy and being available. I think that’s the number one role for relievers to be available for your team when called upon,” said Phillips “I took it a little bit as a challenge to be ready to go for a third day in a row. It really stings that it didn’t come out on the right side for us. But I feel proud of myself to be able to do that physically and try to help the team win. But like I said, just didn’t get the results we wanted.”

No, it did not.

Playball!

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