Dodger momentum snapped in Philly

Mitchell Leff/Getty Images

By Jon Weisman

The Dodgers’ good-time roll hit a rock in their series finale at Philadelphia.

Maikel Franco hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to complete the Phillies’ comeback from a three-run deficit, for a 5-4 victory over the Dodgers.

According to the Dodgers’ public relations department, Los Angeles was 53-6 when leading after six innings this year. The defeat left the Dodgers with a one-game lead in the National League West, ready to tilt a half-game either way once the Giants play the Mets tonight.

After leadoff singles in the first by Chase Utley and Corey Seager, Justin Turner somehow hit a home run at a higher launch angle tonight — 45 degrees — than the one he hit the night before, to give the Dodgers an early 3-0 lead. Only three homers in MLB this year have been launched so vertically.

After a Chase Utley throwing error cost Ross Stripling an unearned run in the second inning, Yasmani Grandal hit his 21st homer of the year in the fourth inning to put Los Angeles ahead, 4-1. Ryan Howard’s solo homer and an RBI double by Taylor Featherston in the bottom of the fourth then cut the Dodger lead to 4-3.

Stripling, who allowed only three home runs in his first 61 1/3 innings in the Majors, has now allowed three in his past 10 innings. His biggest pitch of the night was his 94th and final one, when he struck out Jimmy Paredes swinging at a fastball with the bases loaded and two out in the fifth.

But in the seventh, Grant Dayton, who hadn’t allowed a hit in the big leagues until Freddy Galvis hit a go-ahead homer off him August 10 in Los Angeles, gave up his fourth career hit (again to Galvis, a single), and then Franco’s 420-foot shot to center.

The Dodgers hadn’t given up a lead of any kind in the eight days between the two homers off Dayton, who has struck out 15 in 10 career innings.