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Mattingly: Mistakes 'become a frustration'

LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly kept repeating the same statement after an unearned run in the 10th inning lifted the Philadelphia Phillies to a 3-2 victory Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.

"The plays that you're supposed to make, you've got to make," he said. "Simple as that."

The Dodgers began the day with 21 errors in 20 games, second-most in the major leagues, and committed two more against the Phillies. By far, the most costly was a dropped fly ball in shallow left with one out in the 10th that both shortstop Hanley Ramirez and left fielder Carl Crawford camped under but neither could catch.

That enabled Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz to motor into second base, and Crawford was quickly charged with the error since the ball had gone off his chest after he bumped into Ramirez. One batter later, Dominic Brown smashed a double into left-center field for a 3-2 lead, and that would be enough to send the Dodgers to their fourth extra-inning loss in the past two weeks.

Mattingly said defensive mistakes have "become a frustration," and he spent time before the past two games trying to relay that message to the players.

"We've had a number of balls that probably should have been caught [this season]," Mattingly said. "We're not going to do anything if we don't play better defense."

Ramirez and Crawford were involved in two other defensive miscues during the game. Ramirez, who had an error from a game last week rescinded earlier in the day, committed his fifth error of the season on a routine grounder in the second inning, and Crawford couldn't come down with a deep drive at the fence in the fourth, resulting in a triple for Ruiz.

Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu managed to escape those innings without any runs scoring, but those types of miscues still have an impact on a game, Mattingly said.

"It always costs you something, whether it costs you more pitches, if it's causing you to lose extra guys out of the bullpen," he said. "It can't continue or we're not going to go where we need to go."

There was some good news after the game, as second baseman Dee Gordon, whose speed helped the Dodgers tie the score in the seventh inning, left the game not long after he bumped his head on a head-first slide into third.

Gordon said after the game he passed a concussion test, though the left-handed hitter might sit Wednesday anyway since the Dodgers are facing a left-handed pitcher in Cole Hamels.