The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3, in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. The Dodgers now have a 1-0 lead in the NLDS.
NLDS Game 1 Recap
Shohei Ohtani and Cristopher Sanchez were set for a pitchers’ duel on Saturday night.
Things got a little chippy for Ohtani in the second inning after a J.T. Realmuto triple brought in two runs, and a Harrison Bader sacrifice fly later brought him home.
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The Dodgers offense was silent through five innings, even when All-Star backstop Will Smith came in to pinch hit in the top of the fifth — his first at-bat in close to a month — and stayed in the game as the catcher.
The Dodgers started to heat up in the sixth inning as October hero Kiké Hernández came alive once again, hitting a two-run double to bring Freddie Freeman and Tommy Edman home to make the score 3-2.
Ohtani came back out in the sixth inning to mow down superstar Bryce Harper and end the inning with a Brandon Marsh punchout which would end his night. Ohtani left the game with six innings of work, nine strikeouts, just one walk and three earned runs off three hits.
In the top half of that frame, Andy Pages led the charge with a single, Smith was hit by a pitch, and Teoscar Hernández did what he has proven to do best in October: rake.
Hernández launched a 394-foot dinger to put his team up, 5-3. This is now his third home run in as many postseason games in 2025.
In his first relief appearance since 2018, right-hander Tyler Glasnow tossed a hitless seventh inning, but got into a bases-loaded jam in the eighth. Alex Vesia took over and got out of the inning, and the 23-year-old phenom Roki Sasaki took the ball to close out the game in the ninth.
Sasaki earned his first career save and gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the NLDS.
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Photo Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
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