PHILADELPHIA — In a pulse-pounding opener to the National League Division Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers pulled off a stunning road heist, rallying past the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 on Saturday night at a raucous Citizens Bank Park. Teoscar Hernández delivered the knockout punch with a seventh-inning three-run homer that turned the tide, silencing a crowd of 45,777 Phillies faithful and bailing out a struggling Shohei Ohtani, who whiffed four times at the plate in a rare off-night for the two-way superstar. What began as a masterclass from Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez unraveled dramatically, paving the way for LA’s comeback and igniting whispers of pitch-tipping controversy involving reliever Matt Strahm.
The drama ignited early when Ohtani, making his long-awaited postseason pitching debut, faltered in the second inning. After walking Alec Bohm and allowing a single to Brandon Marsh, J.T. Realmuto laced a liner into right-center that got past Hernández, who appeared to slow up on the play, letting it roll to the wall for a triple that scored two runs. Harrison Bader followed with a sacrifice fly to plate Realmuto, handing Philadelphia a 3-0 lead and exposing a defensive lapse that Dodgers fans decried as unacceptable in October. Ohtani, the three-time MVP, steadied himself after that hiccup, retiring 15 of the final 17 batters he faced and fanning nine over six innings to keep the game within reach despite his personal batting woes.
At the plate, Ohtani endured a nightmare. Sánchez, the lanky lefty and Cy Young contender, owned him from the jump, striking him out on three pitches to open the game and adding two more whiffs through five innings, including a called third strike that had the Philly crowd in delirium. Strahm piled on in the seventh, freezing Ohtani looking for his fourth straight strikeout—a feat the Dodgers star had managed only once before in his career. Yet Ohtani’s mound mastery earned him the win, a testament to his resilience even as his bat went cold.
Sánchez, meanwhile, dazzled initially, mowing down the Dodgers with a wicked changeup that induced six swing-and-misses from Hernández alone in his first three at-bats. The Phillies ace breezed through five scoreless frames, allowing just two hits and fanning seven. But the Dodgers chipped away in the sixth, loading the bases with two outs before Kiké Hernández ripped a two-run double down the left-field line to chase Sánchez and trim the deficit to 3-2. David Robertson inherited the mess, retiring Max Muncy to escape, but the damage was done—Sánchez’s gem had cracked under pressure.
The seventh inning exploded into chaos. Andy Pages singled and Will Smith was plunked by Robertson, prompting Phillies skipper Rob Thomson to summon Strahm, Philadelphia’s reliable lefty setup man. Strahm fanned Ohtani and got Mookie Betts on a pop-out, but then unleashed a fastball that caught too much of the plate. Hernández, atoning for his earlier fielding gaffe, crushed it to right-center for a 411-foot blast, flipping the score to 5-3 and leaving the stadium in stunned silence. “He left it over the strike zone,” Hernández said postgame, explaining how he adjusted after chasing low pitches earlier.
Postgame buzz quickly turned to accusations that Strahm might have been tipping his pitches. Some speculated that Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages, stationed on second base, was signaling grip changes or catcher positioning to Hernández. Strahm dismissed it, insisting his grip variations were subtle and likely misread, but the damage fueled debates: “I got gut punched on missing two pitches,” he admitted. Phillies manager Thomson faced questions on the bullpen’s unraveling, with Robertson’s struggles setting the stage for Strahm’s fateful at-bat.
The Dodgers’ bullpen, often a postseason Achilles’ heel, slammed the door. Tyler Glasnow, Alex Vesia, and rookie Roki Sasaki combined for three scoreless innings, striking out key threats like Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper, who went 0-for-6 with four K’s against Ohtani alone. Sasaki’s ninth-inning shutdown preserved the victory, giving LA a 1-0 series lead and home-field edge heading into Game 2 on Monday.
This thriller showcased the Dodgers’ depth and grit, overcoming Ohtani’s bat slump and Hernández’s early error to expose Philly’s vulnerabilities. The Phillies’ top lineup—Trea Turner, Schwarber, and Harper—managed just 1-for-11 with six strikeouts, a stark reminder that no lead is safe against LA’s firepower. As the series shifts, Philadelphia must regroup, but the Dodgers’ late surge signals they’re primed for another deep run. In the City of Brotherly Love, brotherly silence reigned supreme—thanks to one massive swing that flipped the script.
