Dodgers sweep sloppy Phillies out of L.A. with a walkoff grand slam by Max Muncy

LOS ANGELES — Four outs from a sweep-averting victory and a break-even road trip against the twin powerhouses in baseball for the last decade, the Phillies had the perfect matchup Wednesday.

“Alvarado against Barnes?” manager Rob Thomson said. “I’ll take Alvarado. Every day of the week.”

For the record, that’s José Alvarado, the flame-throwing Phillies lefty and most untouchable reliever in the sport so far this season, against Austin Barnes, the Dodgers’ .104-hitting backup catcher. How many times does Alvarado win that duel? Nine out of 10? Ninety out of 100?

But Barnes put a two-strike pitch in play, and the way the Phillies defended in the matinee series finale at Dodger Stadium, anything can happen. Even Edmundo Sosa, the slick-fielding third baseman, could miss a ball that went over his glove and into left field for the go-ahead hit.

And on a day when Bryce Harper lashed three hits, reached base five times, and scraped off the rust in only his second game back from a warp-speed return from Tommy John elbow surgery, the Phillies got punched in the gut, 10-6, after leading 5-0 in the third inning and 5-4 with two outs in the eighth.

“That can’t happen,” Harper said. “We just gave that game away. That can not happen. With the way we want to do it this year and the way we want to play this year, every year, that can’t happen.”

In the end, it wasn’t Sosa’s misplay — somehow, Barnes got credited with a two-run single — that sunk the Phillies. It wasn’t Nick Castellanos’ right field misadventure that led to a one-out triple for Chris Taylor in the seventh inning, either. Or left fielder Kyle Schwarber’s inability to hold James Outman to a single in the eighth.

The Dodgers won it on Max Muncy’s walkoff grand slam against reliever Craig Kimbrel and celebrated at home plate before a midweek crowd of 36,539. They sent the Phillies to their fourth consecutive loss after winning the first two games of the trip in Houston last weekend.

And now, Harper will make his grand return to Citizens Bank Park on Friday night with a Phillies team that is 15-17.

“The ball ended up in the seats, and I’m walking off the field. It’s pretty frustrating,” Kimbrel said. “I just didn’t make a couple of pitches.”

But it may not have come to that if Sosa had caught a ball that came off Barnes’ bat at only 89 mph. Maybe it knuckled or changed direction. Sosa couldn’t say for certain. It’s a play that he usually makes.

“It’s simple,” Sosa said through a team interpreter. “I should have caught that ball. That’s a play that needs to be made. Honestly, it wasn’t even a very difficult play.”

Instead of getting out of the inning with a 5-4 lead, the Phillies trailed 6-5. Harper brought them back in the top of the ninth. He cracked a two-out single to right field and scored from second two batters later on Bryson Stott’s game-tying single.

Kimbrel, who fumbled the Dodgers’ closer job late last season…