Shohei Ohtani turned in a strong start for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2025 National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
Ohtani tossed six innings while allowing three runs on three hits with nine strikeouts to one walk. The right-hander also could have escaped with just one or two runs allowed, if not for a defensive mistake by Teoscar Hernández.
But perhaps most importantly for the Dodgers, their pitching held Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper to a combined 1-for-11 with a single and walk. Against Ohtani specifically, the Phillies’ big three stars were 0-for-9.
“I thought Shohei did a fantastic job of moving the ball around,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You’ve got to kind of change locations, you’ve got to use the front to back. I thought his curveball was as good as I’ve seen it. But you have to have these guys honor the fastball. They hunt locations, they hunt velocities. And you’ve got to keep them guessing. You just can’t be predictable.
“I thought we did a fantastic job of not being predictable. And I thought Tyler did the same thing.”
With Blake Snell set to take the mound in Game 2, followed by Yoshinobu Yamamoto at Dodger Stadium in Game 3, Roberts wants to continue seeing his pitchers being aggressive in the zone against the Phillies, rather than being too cautious and ultimately allowing walks.
“I think that like we’ve talked about, our two teams are very similar,” Roberts began. “We mirror one another. Speaking on the offensive side, I think that when teams, pitchers nibble and get behind, try to be too fine, that’s where offenses like ours and theirs feast.
“You’ve got to go at these guys and attack them in the strike zone. Once they get count leverage, they get better, even better than most hitters do. So, yeah, I think if you look at last night, first-pitch strike, whether it’s the breaking ball, fastball, going after these guys certainly is beneficial, yes.”
Although pitching too fine hasn’t been an issue for the starting pitchers, it is something that has troubled the Dodgers’ bullpen over the last month-plus. That was recently seen in the Wild Card Series, when Edgardo Henriquez couldn’t throw strikes with an eight-run lead, and it ultimately cost him his spot on the NLDS roster.
But the Dodgers have seen better production as of late from some of their relievers, including Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen. Roki Sasaki has also looked like an elite closer during his small sample out of the bullpen, providing the bullpen and Roberts with hope for the rest of the postseason.
Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki made postseason history
Following Ohtani, the Dodgers bullpen handled the final three innings, culminating with Sasaki notching his first career Major League save. The right-hander worked around a double to get through a scoreless ninth.
That amounted to Ohtani and Sasaki combining to make MLB history as they became the first Japanese-born starter and reliever combo to earn both the win and save in the same MLB postseason game.
Overall, the Dodgers are just the second team in MLB postseason history with a win and save from Japanese-born pitchers in the same game.
They joined the Boston Red Sox, who had Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara do so in Game 6 of the 2013 American League Championship Series. Tazawa, a reliever, got the win after retiring his only batter faced in the seventh inning.
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