The Dodgers will try to complete their second sweep of the 2025 postseason when their National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies shifts to Dodger Stadium Wednesday.
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The Dodgers took a two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-five series Monday with a 4-3 victory in Philadelphia, scoring all their runs in the seventh inning, then withstanding the Phillies' ninth-inning comeback attempt.
"That was a heck of a ball game," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "Lots to unpack in that one. To come away with a win right there, huge, huge momentum maintainer."
In postseason history, teams taking a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five series have gone on to win the series 80 of 90 times, 88.9%, according to Major League Baseball.
Blake Snell shut out the Phillies over the first six innings, limiting them to Edmundo Sosa's fourth-inning single. Snell struck out nine, the record fourth time he had at least nine strikeouts and no more than two hits allowed in a postseason game, according to the sports analytics website OptaSTATS.
Snell issued back-to-back walks to Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber to give Philadelphia runners on first and second with one out in the sixth but struck out Bryce Harper and induced Alec Bohm to hit a grounder to third baseman Miguel Rojas, who dove to touch third base ahead of the sliding Turner for the inning-ending force out, keeping the game scoreless.
Teoscar Hernández singled leading off the top of the seventh and moved to third on Freddie Freeman's double, prompting Phillies manager Rob Thomson to replace left-handed starter Jesús Luzardo with right-hander Orion Kerkering.
Kerkering struck out the first batter he faced, Tommy Edman, on four pitches. The next batter, Kiké Hernández, hit a slow roller to Turner, the Philadelphia shortstop, Teoscar Hernández slid under catcher J.T. Realmuto's attempted tag for the game's first run.
Max Muncy, pinch hitting for Rojas, whose "hamstring tightened up a little bit on him," Roberts said, walked to load the bases. Andy Pages popped out to Harper, the Philadelphia first baseman, for the second out. Will Smith singled in Freeman and Kiké Hernández for the Dodgers' second and third runs.
Shohei Ohtani hit the second pitch from reliever Matt Strahm for a single, driving in Muncy.
The Phillies scored their first run in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Max Kepler tripled with one out off Emmet Sheehan, who had replaced Snell to begin the bottom of the seventh inning. Trea Turner, who played for the Dodgers in 2021 and 2022, followed with a single, driving in Kepler.
Blake Treinen replaced Sheehan to start the bottom of the ninth and allowed a single by Bohm, a double to Realmuto and a double by Nick Castellanos, which drove in Bohm and Realmuto.
With Treinen satisfying the three-batter minimum (a pitcher has to pitch to at least three batters before being relieved, except if the inning is over, per MLB rule), Roberts brought in Alex Vesia to pitch. Bryson Stott, the first batter to face Vesia, bunted. Muncy, who had replaced Rojas as the Dodgers' third baseman, threw to shortstop Mookie Betts, who was covering third on the "wheel" play, tagged Castellanos for the inning's first out.
"It was an impromptu play," Roberts said. "I just told Mookie, you know Stott's going to bunt. He's a good bunter. Let's just run a wheel play. And, Max, be aggressive, field it. And, Mookie, get over there and beat Castellanos there and those guys executed it to perfection.
"They made it look a lot easier than it was. And for me, that was our only chance, really, to win that game in that moment."
Roberts later said the Dodgers do not practice that play, contradicting Snell's earlier comment that Betts "practices that play all the time."
Harrison Bader, Philadelphia's regular center fielder but held out of Monday's lineup because of a groin injury, hit a pinch-hit single, advancing Stott to second. Kepler grounded to Freeman, the Dodgers' first baseman, who threw to Betts, who was covering second, to get the force out on Weston Wilson, the pinch runner for Bader.
With Vesia fulfilling his three-batter minimum, Roki Sasaki was brought in to pitch, and needed just two pitches to get Turner to hit into a game-ending ground out for his second save of the series.
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