The Los Angeles Dodgers turned the script on the Philadelphia Phillies with a dramatic 5-3 comeback victory in Game 1 on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park. Teoscar Hernández’s towering three-run homer in the seventh inning proved to be the dagger, propelling the reigning World Series champions to a 1-0 series lead and stealing home-field advantage from the raucous Philly crowd.
The Phillies struck first in the third inning, capitalizing on a shaky start from Dodgers ace Shohei Ohtani. Catcher J.T. Realmuto laced a two-run triple to right-center, scoring Alec Bohm and Brandon Marsh, before Harrison Bader’s sacrifice fly plated Realmuto for a quick 3-0 advantage. It was a costly sequence for Hernández, who misplayed Realmuto’s hit into a triple with a defensive lapse, allowing the ball to trickle to the wall. Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez, filling in admirably for the injured Zack Wheeler, set the tone by fanning Ohtani on three pitches to open the game—his third strikeout of the two-way superstar on the night.
Ohtani steadied the ship after the early barrage, delivering a vintage performance in his playoff pitching debut: six innings, three runs allowed, one walk, and a career-high nine strikeouts. Yet, irony struck at the plate, where Ohtani whiffed four times, including a called third strike in the fifth that ignited the sellout crowd of 45,000. As Ohtani noted through a translator after the game, “It was a great moment. It’s definitely a highlight for us and for the team,” referring to the eventual rally that overshadowed his personal struggles.
The Dodgers clawed back in the sixth, with Kiké Hernández’s two-out, two-run double off Sánchez chasing the lefty and trimming the deficit to 3-2. Sánchez had otherwise dominated, tossing five scoreless frames before the bullpen faltered. Enter Matt Strahm in the seventh, who walked Andy Pages and Will Smith before grooving a fastball to Teoscar Hernández. The outfielder crushed it 394 feet to right-center for his third homer of the postseason, flipping a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 Dodgers lead.
“I was thinking maybe a hit, try to bring in one run to tie the game,” Hernández said of his mindset. “But he left it over the strike zone.” The blast silenced the “four hours of hell” atmosphere the Phillies faithful promised, with Hernández pumping his fist emphatically on his trot around the bases.
Philadelphia threatened in the eighth, loading the bases against Dodgers reliever Tyler Glasnow, but Alex Vesia escaped the jam by retiring pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa on a groundout. Roki Sasaki, making his MLB relief debut, slammed the door in the ninth for the save—marking the first time two Japanese-born pitchers earned a win and save in the same postseason game.
Phillies sluggers Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, and Bohm combined for just 1-for-13 at the dish, mustering one run and no RBIs. Harper lamented postgame, “We jumped on ‘em and kind of laid low there for a little bit. They took some good swings and got ahead and we weren’t able to do any more than that.” Manager Rob Thomson urged resilience: “We’ve got to put it behind us. These guys are pretty good at that.”
Game 2 looms Monday night in Philadelphia, pitting Dodgers lefty Blake Snell against Phillies newcomer Jesús Luzardo. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto queued for Game 3 back in L.A., the Dodgers’ star-studded rotation keeps the pressure on a Phillies squad hungry for redemption. This series is just getting started, but the Dodgers’ resilience has them one step ahead.
