Los Angeles Dodgers at Philadelphia Phillies

Dalton Rushing may not have the championship experience of Will Smith, but the young backstop has done his best to help the Dodgers bridge the gap of their three-time All-Star's absence due to neck inflammation that has lingered for a month and a half. There has been a learning curve as Rushing has assumed the starting catcher role. He's had his share of lows, but Wednesday night was a high as he homered and knocked in three runs in a 9-5 win over the Phillies, helping the Dodgers take two out of three games at Citizens Bank Park. It marked Rushing's fifth game this season with at least three RBIs, more than any Dodger except for Andy Pages, who has nine such games. In his second year in the big leagues, Rushing has perhaps drawn more attention for his mercurial personality than his performance on the field. Amid all the ups and downs, he's emerged as a productive -- albeit streaky -- cog in the lineup, which is key for a Dodgers team that is not expecting Smith back from the injured list until mid-August at the earliest. "If I can control the staff, if I can give us a chance to win every night -- essentially, that's all they ask of me," Rushing said. "Obviously, we've been winning baseball games and playing good baseball as well. So yeah, that's the main objective. And once again, anything I do with the bat is just a bonus." The Dodgers did not have a hit off Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola until the third inning, when Rushing homered with two outs to cut L.A.'s deficit to 2-1. Rushing's 11th homer of the season traveled a Statcast-projected 438 feet to left-center and left the bat at 107.7 mph. Rushing gave the Dodgers the lead in his next at-bat, lining a double into the right-field corner to bring home a pair of runs for a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth. The Phillies tied the contest in the bottom of the inning when Bryan De La Cruz took starter Eric Lauer deep for a solo shot, but the Dodgers surged back in front in the sixth on a two-run blast from Max Muncy, whose 229th homer with L.A. moved him out of a tie with Ron Cey for the fifth-most in franchise history. It was all Dodgers from that point on, with L.A. also hanging a four-spot capped by a Tommy Edman bases-clearing triple in the eighth inning. Rushing went hitless in his final two at-bats, but still had his hands all over the victory. "It's what I've done for years in the past," Rushing said. "I wasn't used to the \[backup\