Analysis of MLB Wildcard Postseason Matchups
Bob Nightengale will classify each of the four wildcard matchups to begin the 2025 MLB postseason.
- Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernandez hit two Homer in the Dodgers game 1 romp.
- Blake Snell was captivated by the Dodgers’ postseason debut.
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a chance to start and clinch Game 2 of Dodgers.
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Dodgers players couldn’t even praise the biggest postseason power show they’ve ever witnessed, not distrustful of Tuesday night and laughing at occasional laughs.
If Shohei ohtani wasn’t hitting a 100 mph fastball and left a bat at a record 117.7 mph, Otani slammed Homer at night, the longest in Dodgers’ postseason history.
If Tecker Hernandez hit a home run on the left field and didn’t spin the bat like a bat before an epic flip, it would only praise Hernandez as he hit a home run on the right field and he took a leisurely walk.
By the end of the night, the Dodgers’ 10-5 loss through the Cincinnati Reds had been completed, and the Dodgers tied their franchise postseason record with five home runs, totaling 1,997 feet, making it the fifth set for Otani and Hernandez to hit a postseason game twice or homemer.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Tommy Edman, the Dodgers’ second baseman. “There are a lot of home runs, and that’s the explosive nature of our offense.”
And, well, the power of their stars.
“I think it’s a clutch gene,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I don’t think they’re afraid to fail. They like the spotlight, and that’s a really good heartbeat for them in those big moments.”
The Dodgers were the team everyone feared when they opened the season with all stars and a $416 million salary, and are back to the most frightening team that enters October.
They’ve finished the season and won 15 of their last 20 games, showing everyone that the World Series is still running through Los Angeles.
They crushed the Reds and Ace’s Hunter Green and produced 15 hits, including six that appeared on the extra base. If the Dodgers continue to play something like this, even in the bullpen that their fans booed, they might want to start planning another parade.
“We’ve been playing really good baseball for the last few weeks,” Hernandez said. “We knew we could do, especially at such a big moment. The focus is always there, but as players, I think we’ll get more when the playoffs start.”
Otani set the tone when he made the Reds’ Ace Hunter Green deep deep on the first fourth pitch.
“That’s the organization that’s why he signed with this ball club,” Roberts said. “To play in a game like this.
If this is just the beginning, wait until your stakes grow even larger, as it suggests that this attack may not be stopped.
“Overall, we were able to move the guys, seeing the lineup,” Otani said.
Yes, when it gets 5-0 in three innings and 8-0 in six innings, that qualifies as a flow.
“I think Shohei’s leadoff homer was big,” Roberts said. “I think the shutdown innings from the break was a big one, and I thought there was a really good game plan with Hunter from the start, and when he made a mistake, he didn’t miss the pitch.
“Hunter (Green) is one of the really, really talented pitchers in the game and I think it’s pretty impressive to get to him like we did.”
The Dodgers tell us that it started with Otani, and once he was home, they never stopped. Hernandez, who hit a .429 during a seven-game postseason batting, hit two home runs over a span of three pitches. Freddie Freeman has arrived at bass three times. Enrique Hernandez has produced several singles.
“I mean, I don’t have any more Shohei words,” said Dodgers’ shortstop Mookie Betts.
It was the 15th time the Dodgers have scored more than 10 runs in a postseason game, and it was their 11th victory in the last 14 postseason games, dating back to last year’s Division Series against the San Diego Padres.
“We’re playing,” Betts said, “Dodger baseball.”
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