PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Teoscar Hernández tries to stuff any mistakes — like an earlier defensive lapse that led to a two-run triple — “in the trash” before the Dodgers right fielder faces any clutch playoff moment at the plate.
He felt euphoric once he put one in the seats.
Hernández rallied the Dodgers with a three-run homer in the seventh inning that bailed out Shohei Ohtani, both on the mound and at the plate, and led Los Angeles to a 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of their NL Division Series on Saturday night.
“It was a great moment. It’s definitely a highlight for us and for the team,” Ohtani said through a translator.
Ohtani needed a pick-me-up after he struck out four straight times at the plate, the final time in the seventh with no outs and two runners on against Matt Strahm.
No worries, at least for the reigning World Series champions.
Following a Mookie Betts popout, Hernández silenced a roaring Phillies crowd with an opposite-field drive to right off Strahm for a 5-3 lead. The veteran slugger gestured in wild celebration during his trot around the bases.
His hat off, Ohtani rose from his dugout seat to join in the fun, and exhale once he was on track for the win.
Hernández went up with modest expectations with the game in the balance.
“Maybe a hit. Try to bring in one run to tie the game,” he said. “But he left it over the strike zone.”
A three-time MVP, Ohtani recovered from a three-run second in his first career playoff pitching start to shut down the Phillies the rest of the way and finish with nine strikeouts over six innings.
Alex Vesia retired pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa with the bases loaded in the eighth to preserve the lead. Roki Sasaki worked the ninth for his first career save.
Ohtani and Sasaki are the first Japanese-born starter and reliever to earn a win and a save in the same postseason game.
Ohtani had admitted to nerves about playing in front of a crowd that voraciously tried to live up to its four hours of hell moniker — he was jeered as he stepped on the field during warmups — and he never found his footing at the plate.
Ohtani walked in the ninth.
Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez struck out Ohtani three times, including a called strike three in the fifth inning that sent a towel-waving crowd into delirium.
Sánchez was even fired up on that one, and punched his fist in the air as he left the mound.
The Oh-4 became but a mere footnote — though Ohtani is the first player to strike out four times as a batter and strike out nine batters as a pitcher in the same postseason game — in an exhilarating comeback for a Dodgers team riding high after thumping the Reds for a two-game sweep in their Wild Card Series.
Game 2 in the best-of-five playoff is Monday in Philadelphia.
“We’ve got to put it behind us. These guys are pretty good at that,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
Sánchez was thrust into the ace role when Zack Wheeler was ruled out for the season in August with complications from a blood clot. Wheeler was in full uniform and received a roaring ovation during pregame introductions.
Sánchez pitched early like a No. 1 starter.
He fanned Ohtani on three pitches to start the game and breezed through five scoreless innings.
Kiké Hernández chased Sánchez in the sixth when he ripped a two-out, two-run double down the left-field line that made it 3-2. David Robertson retired pinch-hitter Max Muncy to end the threat.
Robertson, the 40-year-old late-season pickup, allowed a single and hit Will Smith with a pitch to open the seventh before yielding to Strahm.
While the Phillies' bullpen couldn't hang on, Vesia saved Tyler Glasnow in the eighth. Glasnow, pitching out of the bullpen in a short series, loaded the bases before he got the hook. Vesia got Sosa, who hit three home runs in a game last month, to fly out to center field.
The Phillies had only two hits after they scored three times in the third on J.T. Realmuto's two-run triple — Hernández lollygagged after the ball and let it roll to the wall — and Harrison Bader's sacrifice fly.
Trea Turner, NL home run and RBI champion Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper and cleanup hitter Alec Bohm went a combined 1 for 13 with one run scored and no RBIs.
“We jumped on ‘em and kind of laid low there for a little bit," Harper said. “They took some good swings and got ahead and we weren’t able to do any more than that. I thought we missed some pitches over the plate and were chasing a little bit.”
Up next
Jesús Luzardo will start for the Phillies on Monday in Game 2. Luzardo went 15-7 with a 3.92 ERA and a career-high 216 strikeouts in his first season with the Phillies after he was acquired from Miami in an offseason trade. The Dodgers already had announced that two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell was expected to start Game 2, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the bump in Game 3.
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