Tyler Glasnow (3-0, 3.02) v. Framber Valdez (8-9, 4.39).
Perhaps the Dodgers should give the hitters (rather than their pitchers) most of the season off. Because with Kyle Tucker (-0.2 WAR) and Teoscar Hernandez (-0.1 WAR) stinking up their respective spots in the lineup, the Dodgers don't have a chance to score any runs.
I'm done with these guys. We're out of time, you idiots.
Or maybe we just pray for Andy Pages and Will Smith to return.
Tarik Skubal (7-7, 2.85) vs. Jared Jones (2-5, 4.78).
With last night's gut-punch news that Andy Pages' HBP has fractured his hand (Pages will be out four to six weeks), the Dodgers have no choice but to expect our $60M embarrassment, Kyle Tucker (WAR: 0.0), to finally get off the schneid and hit.
Tucker can't play defense anywhere close to Pages, so moving him to center field won't be an option (looks like Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernandez will get starts in center). But if he could just hit ahead of his .230 average (worst of all Dodger regulars), maybe we can survive these next four months.
Man, this is a bummer.
After getting swept by the Diamondbacks to end the first half of the season, the Dodgers certainly seemed a little lackluster and had cause to be alarmed: their offense was sleepy; Max Muncy, who has become sure-handed at third base, made 73 errors in the series; and many of our pitchers (starters and bullpen) just got beat.
But then, we still have an 11.5-game lead in the division. So there's that.
As Jared Diamond wrote in the WSJ's "A Lot Has Gone Wrong for the Dodgers. They’re Still the Best Team in Baseball Anyway.", it's not just our profligate spending which has allowed the Dodgers to thrive even with Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Edwin Diaz, and Will Smith injured. And it's not just because we have deep pockets--it's because we have unsung players, polished in our development pipeline, who have filled in the gaps:
The truth about the Dodgers isn’t just that they’re the wealthiest team in baseball. They’re also quite possibly the smartest.
Under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, a former executive with the small-market Tampa Bay Rays, the Dodgers have built a player-development apparatus that is the envy of the entire industry. MLB.com ranks the Dodgers’ farm system as second-best in baseball behind the Milwaukee Brewers, even though they haven’t had a top-10 draft pick in 20 years.
In other words, the Dodgers seemingly have a limitless supply of MLB-ready replacements at every position. Coupled with their vast resources, it’s a lethal combination that has transformed them into an unstoppable juggernaut.
Take All-Star pitcher Justin Wrobleski. The Dodgers selected him in the 11th round in 2021, and he initially looked like little more than a mid-level prospect. He has turned into a savior in Snell’s absence, going 10-2 with a 2.69 ERA in 2026.
When All-Star catcher Will Smith went down with a neck injury, they turned to homegrown Dodger Dalton Rushing. He has an .812 OPS. Cuban outfielder Andy Pages signed with the Dodgers as a 17-year-old in 2018 and is now an All-Star for the first time this season.
Wrobleski, Rushing and Pages are all making around $800,000. Without them and others, the Dodgers would be more like the Mets.
“Guys have stepped up,” Roberts said. “We just find ways to win.”But the Dodgers’ astronomical budget doesn’t tell the whole story. Just ask the woeful New York Mets, MLB’s second-biggest spenders.
So relax, Dodgers! You've earned a break this week.
That is, except Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Andy Pages, and Justin Wrobleski. All six of you have to go to Philadelphia, if only to participate in off-field festivities!
Astros starter Lance McCullers was beaten by a pair of blisters on his throwing hand, helping the Dodgers pounce on Houston for seven XBH, three of which were home runs from Andy Pages (who also made a great catch in center field late in the game). Awesome news for the Dodgers to actually win a series on the road for a change, giving us some momentum before a rest day Thursday and a series against the red-hot Braves this weekend at home.
Boy, I hate Houston.
With the Dodgers down 4-2 going into the bottom of the ninth, Andy Pages and Dalton Rushing walked; Shohei Ohtani hit a one-out ground rule double to trim the margin to a run; and then with two out, Kyle Tucker singled to center to score Rushing from third and Ohtani from second.
The Dodgers come back to win in improbable fashion, but at least Ohtani (3-for-5 with an RBI and 2 runs) is showing signs of life, and the bullpen regained form (Alex Vesia, Tanner Scott, Edgardo Henriquez, and Jake Eder (?) with scoreless innings each.
Eder gets the win. Tucker gets the heroics. The Dodgers get to stay in first place for another day.
The last two games the Dodgers played in the Rogers Centre were nailbiters. Tonight's game, the first game since the Dodgers' victorious 2025 World Series Game 7, was an all-out romp.
There were signs of worry before the first pitch, though. Will Smith took the game off (Dave Roberts gave him a rest day), with Dalton Rushing getting the start. Mookie Betts is injured. And Justin Wrobleski was making his first start of the season, after just one other appearance (four innings against the Guardians, in which he gave up three ER, thereby entering today's game with a 6.75 ERA).
And yet, the Dodgers thoroughly dominated the Blue Jays from the get-go. Teoscar Hernandez had a two-run homer in the first inning. And even though Wrobo-Cop gave back a run in the bottom of that frame, the Dodgers got additional home runs from Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, and a pair of home runs from Rushing (who went 4-for-4). Andy Pages added a two-run double; Kyle Tucker got a RBI; and the Dodgers' middle infield of Hyeseong Kim and Alex Freeland made some great defensive plays to squelch the Blue Jays' offense.
The Toronto crowd was completely muzzled for the game, especially after seeing Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer only last two innings (he apparently left with a forearm tendonitis issue). The crowd got excited in the ninth inning when Blue Jays position player Tyler Heineman took the mound (Miguel Rojas pitched the ninth for the Dodgers, and gave up a run). But that was it.
The Dodgers have now scored double-digit runs in three of their last four contests (all road games). Let's keep this rolling!
And Miles to go, before we...party? Miles Mikolas gave up a Nationals record 11 earned runs today, including four home runs (Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Andy Pages, and Freddie Freeman). Not a good home opener for Washington, especially when the topper came in the seventh inning, when even Kyle Tucker got on the board with his first home run of the year.
Teoscar Hernandez also went 3-for-4 to raise his team-leading batting average to .320; and Pages (also 3-for-4 today) has an OPS of 1.260 right now. With Emmet Sheehan going a respectable 5.2 IP (7 H, 4 ER, 3 BB and 2 Ks), the Dodgers coasted to victory in our first road game of the year.
Nice to see the offense finally open up, after a largely sleepy first homestand!
DODGERS 5, BLUE JAYS 4 (11) DODGERS WIN WORLD SERIES, 4-3
In the end, it wasn't about ruining baseball. It was about grit.
And the Dodgers had it--arguably, even more than the Toronto Blue Jays.
For the Dodgers to go into Rogers Centre needing to win both games, and then winning Game 7 in an extra-inning classic--amazing. This one will be remembered for all time. And what a gutty win after getting kicked in the nuts early, with Shohei Ohtani giving up a three-run HR to Bo Bichette in an extremely abbreivated start.
Ohtani didn't have it on the mound this night, but the truth is, this Dodger team is much more than even its brightest star. The 2025 Dodgers showcase a roster full of future Hall of Famers, but also honors a panoply of unsung and unlikely heroes:
Max Muncy, whose eighth-inning home run brought us within one run of a comeback.
Miguel Rojas, an unlikely savior with his game-tying home run in the ninth inning.
Andy Pages, who ran over Kiké Hernandez in the ninth inning on a deep gapper fly ball, to preserve the tie game.
Will Smith, overshadowed superstar workhorse catcher, with the game-winning solo home run in the 11th.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, winner of World Series Game 6 and 7, the latter on zero days rest.
Mookie Betts, whose clutch double play to end the 2025 World Series showed off his fully-honed defensive skills at a brand new position.
And let's not forget some of the little guys who got us here:
Justin Dean, whose headsup play to call for the deadball in Game 6 saved us the game.
Will Klein, whose Game 3 heroics earned us a victory in the 18-inning marathon.
Justin Wrobleski, whose fourth-inning inside pitches in Game 7 fired the Dodgers back up.
And of course, Dave Roberts, who made incredible decisions all series long, a grandmaster of chess moves in this World Series.
I'm still processing this one (and, hung over), but I wanted to get something posted.
Congratulations to the 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers. What an incredible ride.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Kevin Gausman.
The Dodgers' 2025 season is poised to end tonight, and even with Blake Snell's crappy start throwing batting practice at the beginning of Game 5, or Teoscar Hernandez' continual misadventures in right field, or failed double play attempts in the infield, it wasn't those mistakes that ultimately derailed the Dodgers' 2025 World Series bid.
It was the hitting. Or lack thereof.
In a particularly awful time for everyone in the starting lineup to get cold, we've got Mookie Betts, Will Smith, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernandez, Tommy Edman, Max Muncy, and Andy Pages all flailing at the plate. The Game 5 lineup--which thankfully did not include Pages--amassed 15 strikeouts and too many first-pitch infield flies to give the Blue Jays any pressure.
So the Dodgers all got out to Rogers Centre today and took batting practice--which the LAT reported that Roberts took as an exciting positive (whoop dee frickin' doo!)--rather than moping in their hotel rooms, I imagine.
There will be plenty of time for moping if our offense continues to be lost tonight.
Let's frickin' go, Dodgers! Show us a treat, not a trick.
Tyler Glasnow vs. Max Scherzer.
One starter has long flowing locks of hair; the other guy has two goofy heterochromatic eyes.
One starter made his last start at Dodger Stadium (5.2 IP of 3 H, 1 ER, 8 K ball against the Brewers; coming off a gutty 6.0 IP of 2 H, 0 ER, 8 K ball clinching against the Phillies in the NLDS).
The other guy did not make his last scheduled Dodger start. (To be fair to Scherzer, his K of the Giants' Wilmer Flores in the 2021 NLDS was pretty sweet.)
With the series tied, this Game 3 is pretty pivotal. The Dodgers' bats, particularly the big three, still haven't come to life this series; and there's a lot of talk about whether to bench Andy Pages and his .093 average (Pages also does not have a walk in 47 2025 postseason plate appearances...or 67 postseason plate appearances including last season. He had 29 walks in 624 plate appearances (almost 5%) in the regular season.).
And given Glasnow has not gone long in any of his postseason starts, it's going to be up to the Dodgers bullpen at some point, which is terrifying.
I'm going to tonight's Game 3. I feel really lucky...and extremely nervous!
LET'S GO, DODGERS!
DODGERS 5, BLUE JAYS 1 World Series tied 1-1
Rogers Centre was ready to erupt again, with the Dodgers scuffling around offensively before finally breaking through on Kevin Gausman in the seventh inning. But the fact that we could keep this game close for that long was only due to the continued heroics of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who spun a 105-pitch complete game victory, limiting the Blue Jays to 4 H and 1 ER (0 BB, 8 Ks), and giving our offense the chance to take and extend the lead late in Game 2.
This is Yamamoto's second straight complete game in the postseason, which is amazing. As per Sonja Chen of MLB.com:
"I think that you look at Yamamoto," manager Dave Roberts said, "it's kind of the throwback in the sense of when he starts a game, he expects to finish it. And he'll go as long as I let him."
Yamamoto not only prevented the Dodgers from needing to reach into their mixed bag of a 'pen, but he also put his team in a much more favorable position now that the Series is tied 1-1. In the history of best-of-seven postgame series with the current 2-3-2 format, teams that have taken a 2-1 lead at home in Game 3 have prevailed in the series 29 of 48 times (60.4%).He is the first pitcher with back-to-back complete games in the postseason since the D-backs' Curt Schilling in 2001, and the first Dodger since Orel Hershiser in 1988. The most recent pitcher with multiple complete games in the postseason was the Giants' Madison Bumgarner in 2014.
Will Smith and Max Muncy broke the 1-1 tie in the seventh with solo home runs. The Dodgers manufactured two more runs in the eighth inning, on a wild pitch by Jeff Hoffman (scoring Andy Pages from third), and then Smith scoring Shohei Ohtani from third on a force out.
Watching Fangraphs' playoff odds shift will drive one crazy, but here's the recap so far: Going into the Game 1, the Dodgers had a 66.3% chance to win the 2025 World Series. After the Game 1 loss, the Dodgers' chances dipped to 48.4%. And now with the Game 2 victory, the Dodgers are back to 63.4%.
Fox analyst and former Yankee Derek Jeter noted the Dodgers' calm in the wake of the Game 1 loss: "The Dodgers have been here, they know what it takes to win," said Jeter. "They know that losing by 10 runs is the same as losing by one run. It gives the Toronto Blue Jays a lot more confidence, and they're not a team that ever lacks confidence 'cause they know they can hit. But I expect the Dodgers to bounce back."
And bounce back they did, thanks to Yamamoto's leadership and poise.
Let's look forward to Game 3 in Los Angeles!
Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Kevin Gausman.
Well, last night was pretty much a beatdown. Dodgers starter Blake Snell didn't have anywhere near the stuff he's had for this postseason; the Banda brothers in the bullpen kept serving up meatballs, and the offense missed plenty of chances to put this away early, thanks in part to untimely early-count swinging that got Toronto's pen off the hook multiple times.
And Andy Pages is batting .077 this postseason, adding two Ks last night in an 0-for-4 contribution.
All the pundits said our NLDS vs. Philadelphia was the toughest matchup of the postseason. So was the 2024 NLDS against the Padres--the difference being that we had to claw our way past the Mets as well in the 2024 NLCS, whereas we breezed past the Brewers this year.
So Game 1 was a good reminder that this 2025 World Series isn't going to be easy--just like last year.
Let's sack up and steal one on the road tonight, Yoshi!
LET'S GO, DODGERS!
Blake Snell pitched eight innings of no-run ball yesterday? No problem, said Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who went the complete game, giving up only one run (off his first pitch, a leadoff HR from Jackson Chourio), with an impressive line of his own: 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB and 7 Ks.
That was Yamamoto's first career MLB CG. And a fine time to break out that performance. It was the first Dodgers postseason complete game since Jose Lima in 2004 (NLDS G3 vs. St. Louis), which was so long ago, this blog wasn't even around then!
The Dodgers have solved their bullpen woes by simply not ever going to the bullpen. Amazing.
Teoscar Hernandez had a key home run to strike back after Chourio's blast, and then Andy Pages knocked in Kiké Hernandez (who doubled) to give the Dodgers a quick 2-1 lead.
And though the Dodgers had many other chances in this game, we simply weren't great--2-for-11 with RISP, and 10 LOB--but we continued to just chip away and extend the lead with a trio of fenceposts in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. A 2-1 lead stretched to 5-1; the Brewers had to use five pitches after Freddy Peralta, two of them picking up ER on their own pitching lines, and the Dodgers got another win on the road.
Sloppiness still abounds for the Dodgers. Max Muncy (who also homered in the game--making him the Dodger with the most postseason homeruns, all-time) had his second error of the postseason. And Teoscar Hernandez and Mookie Betts both GIDPd, the latter for the second time this series.
We still aren't firing on all cylinders offensively. But luckily, our starting rotation certainly is.
For a team that couldn't win one game against Milwaukee all regular season, it's remarkable for the Dodgers to get two wins on the road to start out this series.
Credit our starting pitchers, Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. If we never have to go to the bullpen, we might actually stand a chance this postseason.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Freddy Peralta.
Let's take the Brewers' NLCS Game 1 pitching lineup as an anomaly. The good news is, we've now gotten a good look at six of Milwaukee's relievers, especially Quinn Priester, who pitched innings two through five. And we did get some hits and walks off them (7 H and 8 BB, respectfully), against only 4 Ks, showing better plate discipline than we had against the Phillies in the NLCS.
But today's Game 2 features an actual starting pitcher for the Brewers, Freddy Peralta, and he's a pretty good one at that. Peralta's 5.5 WAR and 2.70 ERA this year ranked him seventh in the majors. Peralta also shut us down in the first of two starts against the Dodgers this year (July 7: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB and 7 Ks), and he earned the win (but was less effective) in his second start against us (July 19: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 3 BB and 4 Ks). Perhaps that bodes well for the Dodgers, as he's at least trending in a favorable direction.
(Peralta also started twice in the 2025 NLDS against the Cubs: winning NLDS G1 (5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB and 9 Ks), but losing NLDS G4 (4.0 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB and 6 Ks). Again, trending in a favorable direction.)
But let's not get distracted from some glaring issues with our own lineup. Shohei Ohtani, 0-for-2 (albeit with 3 BBs) yesterday, is now batting .138 in the leadoff spot. Mookie Betts was 0-for-4 and Teoscar Hernadez 0-for-3 yesterday.
Without those three hitting, we barely eked out the two runs we needed to win Game 1--but let's remember, we've scored two runs or fewer against the Brewers in five of seven games this season, and last night's game was the only time we came out with a win.
And Andy Pages, 0-for-3 yesterday, is now batting .037 in the postseason. I mean, I don't hope for Michael Conforto (who thankfully is not on the NLCS roster). But even he can hit better than .037.
Not to mention, Teoscar fricking' TOOTBLANned yesterday, as well.
If the best highlight the Brewers get from the 2025 NLCS is this absurd double play, I'd be thrilled. Unfortunately, I think they'll have many more highlights in this series. Hopefully, just not any Brewers highlights tonight.
DODGERS 2, PHILLIES 1 (11) DODGERS WIN NLDS, 3-1
In a tense affair that only took 3:30 to complete but felt like an eternity, the Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies on an improbable error, with Orion Kerkering panicking after a botched comebacker, ultimately throwing the ball to the wrong base and wide of catcher J.T. Realmuto, allowing Dodgers pinchrunner Hyeseong Kim to score the game-winning run.
I was at the game and would not have believed this ending despite seeing it with my own eyes.
I guess you can now spell "Phillies" with three Ls.
The truth is, either team could have easily won this series. The Dodgers stole Game 1 in Philadelphia, and then barely survived Game 2, to put Los Angeles in a pretty comfortable position. But after squandering Game 3, it seemed like this Game 4, which rested on a razor's edge, could have gone either way.
Had the Dodgers lost NLDS Game 4, I have to think we would not have been favored to win the series in a winner-take-all Game 5, given the hostility of Citizens Bank Park, not to mention our recent performance where we just squeaked to victories by our fingernails.
But key Dodgers stepped up here in Game 4 to deliver us the win, and we have to give them their rightful commendations:
I wasn't sure why we took Glasnow out after only 83 pitches and six innings, because he was dealing, but I've since read that he was cramping. But his performance kept us in the game, for sure.
But Game 4's performance, asking the rookie to go three innings of work and watching him face nine batters and sit all nine down--one would have never expected this. Sasaki just hit another level, in a role that he wasn't even expected to play. I can't think of a comparable example. It's amazing.
And that set up the dramatics for Andy Pages--batting a microscopic .042 with a .122 OPS this postseason--to hit the comebacker that quickly unfolded into an error, with Kim crossing the plate and the Dodgers winning the game. But all four of those players were our 6-7-8-9 in the lineup on Thursday; the heroics were all theirs.
But Roberts' bullpen choices, even going back to how he (ab)used Kershaw in Game 4 (see above), proved to be key. Pushing Sasaki for three frames in Game 3 was ballsy, and it worked out (and so did using Alex Vesia in the 11th, and Vesia might be gaining some girth on his trust tree branch of late). It seems like Doc has gotten a lot better over time about reading the moment and trusting his players in key situations; it may not always work out, but it seems to be successful more often than not. Now, why we are sticking with starting Pages is another issue.
And look, I hated to see it end on Orion Kerkering's shoulders like that. He just freaked out, with 50,000 fans screaming and a bobbled ball that shifted things from routine to chaos in an instant. Yeah, maybe he should have thrown to first base to get Pages. And the play at the plate might have been close. But you don't like to see a walk-off error. I feel for the guy.
But hey, let's watch that play again anyway :)
Needless to say, it wasn't his fault that the Phillies are going home. Look at their big three: Trea Turner, 0-for-5 on Thursday with 2 Ks, finishing with a .235 average and .551 OPS (Turner did make a sweet defensive play in Game 4 on a grounder). Kyle Schwarber, who erupted for two home runs in Game 3, was a sad 1-for-5 in Game 4, also with 2 Ks, finishing the postseason with a .188 average (and .903 OPS). Bryce Harper, who has not fared well in Dodger Stadium in his career, went 0-for-4 and finished with a .200 average and .600 OPS.
So in NLDS Game 4, combined, Philly's big three went 1-for-14 with 4 Ks.
Now look, our big three didn't do much better: 2-for-13 with 5 Ks across Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman (Roberts wedged Teoscar Hernandez in there for Game 4, batting third but he was worse: 1-for-5 with 3 Ks on his own). Ohtani and Freeman look pretty bad right now, which some speculate is because Philadelphia's lefties are so strong. You know who else has strong lefty pitching? The Cubs (who play a winner-take-all game in Milwaukee Saturday). Gulp.
But I'll think about our adjustments that we'll need to make for the NLCS later. For now, I'm going to revel in the fact that the Dodgers are moving on, having vanquished the team that many believe would be our biggest obstacle this 2025 postseason.
After sitting through 11 innings of totally clenched ball last night, I'm still pretty nervous.
One year ago, the Dodgers' bullpen put the team on its shoulders and carried the team to a World Series Championship. This year, the Dodgers bullpen--with some of the very same arms that were incredible last year--threaten to corrode the Dodgers' 2025 chances from the inside.
Blake Treinen was almost the goat tonight, entering the game in the ninth inning with a 4-1 lead, following six scoreless innings from starter Blake Snell and two solid one-run innings from converted starter Emmet Sheehan. Treinen proceeded to shit the bed, yielding a leadoff single to Alec Bohm, then a double to JT Realmuto, and then a two-RBI double from Nick Castellanos, who wasn't even supposed to be in the lineup except Harrison Bader pulled a groin muscle. Treinen left having given up two runs and left one RISP, and not having gotten even one out.
Credit Alex Vesia--the only Dodgers bullpen arm to have recorded an out in two games of the 2025 NLDS--as well as Max Muncy and Mookie Betts for turning a Bryson Stott bunt into an out on the lead runner, Castellanos. Vesia then yielded a single and then got a force out to make it two outs, Phils at the corners.
And then Dave Roberts did the thing that he should have done earlier, and brought in Roki Sasaki (in post-game interviews, Roberts explained that he was worried about leaning on Sasaki as he had never pitched twice in three days before last night--but hey, man, it's the playoffs! Time to sack the hell up!). Sasaki barely got the third out and earned his second save of the NLDS.
(Tommy Edman almost threw the ball away, but Freddie Freeman saved Edman's bacon to close out the game. Said the TBS announcer, "Oh, my. Tommy Edman owes Freddie Freeman the fattest steak dinner he's ever had." Book Maestro's on Tuesday night, stat.)
The post-game banter on the SoSG Whats App channel went like this:
Nomo: Any discussion of using Treinen again is also a non-starter.Sax: Alex Vesia is the only non-starter that has gotten outs this NLDS
We didn't need that heart attack Monday night, but we got it. And we also got a 2-0 NLDS lead on the road (fangraphs just jumped our odds from ~75% to >90%). I never would have expected this, not after watching Game 2 play out today. Consider ourselves very lucky.
But let's all agree, we won't use Blake Treinen again in 2025, at least not without a 15-run lead.
And I'm not even going to talk about Andy Pages, now 1-for-17 in the postseason, and swinging recklessly and early every AB.
Blake Snell (5-4, 2.35) vs. Jesus Luzardo (15-7, 3.92).
Fellow SoSGers, I confess that I missed NLDS Game 1.
Car trouble and an overly-ambitious schedule during the day thwarted my efforts to actually watch Game 1. I was stuck on the side of a road waiting for a tow truck to come. And it was difficult, because all I had was radio. Though to be honest, I don't think I could have had the emotional strength to make it through a live viewing of that game.
I would have fallen into despair when Shohei Ohtani got rattled in the second inning, understandbly so while watching Teoscar Hernandez run practice jog routes out in right field rather than bend down and try and stop a ball.
I would have screamed at the television watching Andy Pages flail at the plate for another game, looking totally overmatched.
I would have chewed through t-shirt watching Max Muncy make another fielding error at third base.
And I would have had nothing left in the tank to cheer when the Dodgers showed a level of mettle I did not know or even believe that they had, ultimately prevailing in Game 1, 5-3.
Ohtani not only settled down after that second inning, he didn't allow another run in four more innings of work, shutting the Phillies down (especially their top three formidable bats). And that wasn't easy, given how Philadelphia fans were jeering him all game. Teoscar Hernandez hit a go-ahead three-run home run in the seventh that was totally unlikely given his play this year, but maybe not so given his postseason resume.
Speaking of postseason resumes, Kiké Hernandez, a woeful .203 batter in the 2025 season, is up to his same clutch self: batting .417 with a 1.000 OPS this postseason. His two-RBI double in the sixth put us on the board and created some tension in a game where the Phillies seemed to be rolling. It makes no sense that Kiké is so clutch in October, but so it happens every year.
And even Andy Pages scored a run and had a hit in this one (he's now 1-for-13 in this postseason).
During yesterday's off-day, I watched the condensed game highlights of Game 1, and Rick Monday (on his radio call) was spot-on--Citizens Bank Park turned as silent as a library after Teo's HR. It was amazing.
From the LA Times, "When you can hear a pin drop in the stadium, that’s the ultimate feeling in baseball,” Max Muncy said of the home run. “I felt like the people in the upper deck could hear us cheering in the dugout.”
And so today, we try to steal another game from the Phillies in NLDS Game 2, a game I do plan to watch. Blake Snell was great in 2025 NLWC Game 1 for us, and given Dave Roberts' new "all-starters, all the time" strategic approach and/or necessity (Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, and Roki Sasaki got 26 of the 27 outs in Game 1), we again will need Snell to go long.
I've mocked Snellzilla for most of this year. It would be great to see him breathe fire in Game 2.
2025 NLWC GAME 1: DODGERS 10, REDS 5
For the second straight outing, Blake Snell's seven solid innings (7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 Ks) should be the story. But it's not, because our bullpen is a disaster--and actually let the Reds back into this game because of their absolute ineptitude.
Alex Vesia entered the game in the eighth. 22 pitches, 13 strikes. He saw three batters and got one out. Both of his runners scored.
Edgardo Henriquez came into the game, and was even worse. He saw three batters and got no outs, walking in two runs.
Jack Dreyer came into the game, and barely escaped. He saw three batters, walking in a run on his own, and got a strikeout and then a pop out to first, to escape the jam.
That's three pitchers, 59 pitches, and three runs yielded--all in one inning. This bullpen is pathetic.
During that eighth inning, we had to rush Emmet Sheehan to get warm in the bullpen, given the implosion that was happening on the field. Thankfully, we had scored 10 runs by then: three RBI from two Shohei Ohtani HRs; four RBI from two Teoscar Hernandez HR; a solo shot from Tommy Edman; and an RBI from Ben Rortvedt. (An Alex Call single with a two-run error from Noelvi Marte led to the other run, but no RBI was awarded.)
So we went to the ninth inning up 10-5, with Blake Treinen in for the ninth. He got two Ks, then gave up a single to Gavin Lux, but got Miguel Andujar for the final out. Whew.
If our starters can't go eight innings, we don't stand a chance, not with this leaky pen. We should be happy with a series-opening 10-5 win. But this isn't good.
I'm not even going to dwell on Andy Pages' 0-for-5.
The Dodgers earned their 12th National League West Division title and their 13th National League Postseason berth in 13 years. That's only one appearance short of the record, held by the Atlanta Braves from 1991 to 2005 (with 1994 having no postseason). The New York Yankees also have 13 consecutive playoff seasons, frm 1995-2007.
The Dodgers last missed the postseason in 2012. In 2013, the Dodgers beat the Braves in the NLDS before losing to the Cardinals (who lost to the Red Sox in the World Series). And the playoff run started from there:
Yoshinobu Yamamoto had six scoreless innings (4 H, 2 BB and 7 Ks); Tanner Scott had an inning where he did not implode; Anthony Banda cleaned up the ninth.
Shohei Ohtani had his 54th home run in the fourth inning; Freddie Freeman had two HR, and Andy Pages added a homer to boot. Even Kiké Hernandez had two hits.
And now, we wait to see who our Wild Card round opponent will be.
Here's to a happy flight to Seattle for the final series of the season! Congratulations, 2025 Dodgers!
