The Dodgers and Phillies meet in a heavyweight NLDS showdown
USA Today Sports ‘Bob Nightengale categorizes the NLDS series between Red-Hot Dodgers and NL East Champion Philadelphia Phillies.
Sports Pulse
- Teoscar Hernández’s three-run home run helped the Dodgers win Game 1 with the Phillies.
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. helped the Blue Jays hit the Yankees in Game 1.
- The Brewers scored six runs in the first innings, passing Milwaukee’s rival Cubs.
You won’t be able to win the top five division series in Game 1, but you could lose it.
The NL and AL Division series all jumped in the van on October 4th, and while the momentum may be real, you can’t underestimate the joy of gaining 33% of the way to go ahead.
And while there are times of redemption and essential downfall, it is very important to go 1-0 on this day.
So, USA Today Sports breaks down winners and losers from all game ones in the division series.
winner
Teoscar Hernández
TEO’s Life is simply a never-ending roller coaster ride. And thankfully, I climbed the Los Angeles Dodgers at the right time to steal Game 1 of the NL Division Series in Philadelphia.
Hernández’s three-run go-ahead home run in seven innings turned the game over in favor of LA, turning the one-run deficit into a 5-3 lead and a final victory margin.
And it continued a season in which beloved Hernandez was far more mysterious than the Dodgers wanted.
Consider last week:
➤Game 1, NL Wildcard Series: 2 Homer Games where you knock Red on the canvas before joining the battle.
➤ Game 2, NL Wildcard Series: A dropped fly ball that led to two runs scored, made it much more difficult due to the elimination of Cincinnati.
➤3 innings, NLDS Game 1: Hernández stopped his most intense running as the liner of JT Realmuto rolled up the gap in the middle right.
Ah, two runs would probably have scored in the end anyway, but Hernandez’s silent silence to cut the ball was almost certainly true, with Realmuto reaching third place and ultimately scoring. And then suddenly, the Phillies took a 3-0 lead.
The opposite field then blows up Matt Stram and brings the Dodgers back all the way back. can’t believe it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym-ouf_5vc0
All of this was when Hernandez fell into 81 games of funk from late May to early September, where he posted a .207/.250/.361 line, launching nearly 30%. In the Wild Card Series, he hit four hits with 10 hits, including .916 OPS and two Homer in his final 16 games.
What’s next? Hold it firmly.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
If you can’t remember seeing Guerrero play in the postseason, you’re forgiven.
They went 0-6 in the Wild Card Series in 2020, 2022 and ’23. That wasn’t a small thing when Guerrero’s first at-bat in the AL division series against the Yankees ended with a moonshot surrounded by the gorgeous open-roofed sky at Rogers Center before landing on the field seat on the left.
The Blue Jays took a 1-0 lead and won 10-1. Guerrero had three hits and a sack fly.
John Schneider
He was the skipper for the latter two Blue Jays playoff platforms and endured both types of management nightmares.
Toronto took an 8-1 lead in Seattle in the sixth in Game 2 in 2022, but starter Kevin Gaussman was allowed to win back the Mariners by surprise by three runs in the innings. The momentum never left – and Seattle eliminated Toronto with a 10-9 victory.
A year later, in another Game 2 Elimination Battle, Jose Bellios gave up just three hits in three innings and hit the flank against Minnesota. However, after the fourth leadoff walk, he was pulled out after just 32 pitches.
Yusei kikuchi gave up another run of his own for a good measure, with the heir runner allowed scores and Toronto was eliminated 2-0.
Imagine Schneider’s sentiment as Gausman nursed the 2-0 lead in the sixth and loaded the base – Judge Aaron is coming to the plate.
Schneider stuck to his ace – and Gaussmann hit the judge. Even if he was running, Schneider didn’t shake – and Gaussmann made Ben Rice pop up for his second out.
Finally, he lifted up Gaussman. And the bailer Louis Varland hit Giancarlo Stanton and loaded the base.
Almost every button pushed was perfect. And Schneider finally won his first postseason victory, the Jays’ first victory since 2016.
Additional innings without Manfred Runner
For those who avoid the eyes or turn off TV, computer, or radio during the regular season when the game goes to 10th The innings and Elsatts baseball will be performed, and the playoffs are safe spaces.
And the Tigers and Mariners incorporated a 2-2 tie into additional innings in the playoff game.
The fake runners are not placed in the second place. There’s no awkwardness of three true outcomes trying to defeat Bunt to make the fake guy third. A clash of will and thrills concluded with 11th Tarik Skuval was hiding on Sunday, October 5th, when Inningsack McIntley smashed his tie by adopting a single through the Mariners infield and sent the upset Tigers 1-0.
The viability of the brewer
While you’re obsessed with the fact that Pandit will be making a tail, it’s not easy to cruising the final weeks of the season in the final weeks of the season.
But Milwaukee brewers cried out from the gates of the postseason, as if they were fueled by the opposition.
Chicago Cubs’ 9-1 destruction – the six runs in the first innings tend to rise up – certainly erased memories of two outshows against the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2023 and Chalk’s work against the New York Mets a year later.
They won their second Game 1 in the final six playoff series. This can take away many stab wounds from hearing that the home ballpark is “Wrigley North.”
shohei ohtani
The Ohatani legend appeared to hit when he scored three two runs for Philadelphia. However, Otani simply climbed the mound and continued to dominate the Phillies in his first career postseason pitching appearance.
The screams and pumps of fist were to say the least after he hit Kyle Schwarber with a bit of extra vibrancy flashing while he was on the mound, giving up three hits in the nine innings and six innings. )
Ah, he couldn’t completely separate Dominant’s daily double. His hit version attacked Phillies leftists Christopher Sanchez and Matt Stram four times. But this playoff pitching was new to players who seemingly did it all. Ohtani then passed that test and managed to steal the Dodgers into Game 1.
A safe starter
If you spend $72 million on Tanner Scott and $13 million on Kirby Yates for a season, what should the manager do if they both turn out to be infeasible in the playoffs?
Just turn two of your nine guys rotations into firefighters.
Certainly, all bets have been turned off in the postseason, with Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora taking a full guide to the era of this starting pitcher who became a relief in 2018.
Glasnow did not pitch during the Dodgers’ World Series run a year ago due to his injury. However, he was upright this postseason, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto conccons as Otani, who has Ace and Blake’s Snell in good health, and can go to six or seven.
Throw him into the bullpen – even if he hasn’t pitched the pitch in peace with two teams since 2018 in Pittsburgh for the rest of his lifetime.
And Glasnow pulled it apart and scored five outs to almost fill the gap from Otani to new closers. Hey, he gave up hits and two walks, and LA had to close the group’s eyes when the sketchy Alex Vescia was needed recently.
However, Glasnow accomplished it, leaving the ninth in Sasaki.
The Dodgers had little time to workshop Sasaki in the bullpen at the end of the year, when they returned from countless health.
Instead, he went to “Penn” and appeared on Citizens Bank Park Mound for nine innings, recording his first career save to finish off his epic postseason tilt.
This is the third of the 13 wins the Dodgers need to defend the championship. If they get a chance at 13th W Those who know that front office Roberts and Brainac could coct this year.
loser
“Resting vs. Rust”
Remember when the wildcard team ran a lovely postseason with the first two iterations of this modern playoff format, triggering a discourse that it was probably better to play extra rounds than enjoying a few days off?
Yes, about that.
The team that won the Byes in Game 1 in 2025, drilled holes in the concepts raised by the arrival of the 2022 Phillies and the 2023 Diamondbacks World Series, and the notion that it’s better to jump on the fire than to make it cold on the couch.
No, it was a very small sample (who could have imagined it?). And the benefits of avoiding wildcards were abundant in Game 1.
Look at the Yankees. The Yankees are the Starters No. We saw a significant drop from 1-2-3 (Maxfried, Carlos Rodon, Cam Schlittler) to the fourth Lewis Gill, who failed to get out of three innings in Toronto. Or the Cubs telling the fact that the stupid decision to start Matthew Boyd with a three-day break isn’t enough to cover the three wildcard games and the NLDS opener.
The Phillies did that in three in a row…
Rob Thomson
He was in a gentle, hot seat after becoming an NLCS loser in 2024 after the Phillies regression from a surprise World Series participant in 2022 to an NLCS loser in 2023.
Sitting on a 3-0 lead thanks to Christopher Sanchez’s brilliance, Thomson warmed up David Robertson in the sixth as two guys reached base and Sanchez’s pitch count reached the 90s. But rather than putting out a hook, Thomson sent pitching coach Caleb Cosham on the mound.
Certainly, the Dodgers were ready to pinch a Kique Hernandez hit on Max Muncie, and it was clearly a tough call: tiring Sanchez vs Kique or Robertson vs Muncie?
Well, he stuck with Sanchez, and the Dodgers’ Cratches postseason player has once torn the lead to 3-2. Finally, Sanchez was lifted. And Robertson faced Muncie anyway.
Robertson was signed off from the couch in August and he either didn’t have “two” or sat down and never stood up to start another inning. However, Thomson was thrust into the seventh with Robertson, and the 40-year-old gave up on one and hit the batter.
It forced left-handed Matt Stram, who fulfilled his main duties by hitting Otani – against Tescar Hernandez. And then we saw how it worked.
Now the Phillies have to win three out of four against the defending champion. Or, Thomson is facing a very uncertain future.
Luke Weaver
He was an eccentric answer to the Yankees bullpen prayer a year ago, posting a whip of 0.65 and not dressed up in his first five and final five playoff outings when New York reached the World Series.
this year? He has not yet recorded an out while allowing all six batters he faces to reach base.
The latest blunder came against the Blue Jays. When he entered the seven innings of a 2-1 game, he quickly became a walk single RBI single and was a yanking.
Weaver also stained Max Fried’s gem in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, allowing the Red Sox to steal a second-half lead for the seventh and force New York to burn a top-3 starter.
Now, Weaver slides manager Aaron Boone’s circle of trust further down. And there’s a very good chance that if you get a chance in Game 2, you’ll try to complete seven innings.
