5 home runs back Blake Snell’s 7 strong innings, LA leads best-of-3 series 1-0
LOS ANGELES — On a first day of the MLB postseason in which scoring was at a premium, the Dodgers picked up the slack on offense. Teoscar Hernández and Shohei Ohtani each hit two of the Dodgers’ five home runs in a 10-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of the wild card series on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium that somehow felt too close for comfort.
It’s just the second time in Dodgers postseason history they had two players with multiple home runs in the same game, along with Game 5 of the 2021 NLCS when Chris Taylor hit three and AJ Pollock hit two. Five total home runs on Tuesday also matched a Dodgers postseason record, done in that 2021 game as well as Game 3 of the 2020 NLCS.
This season was a rough ride for Hernández, who was sidelined in May by a groin injury that hampered his play both in the field and at the plate. One area he was affected was driving the ball for extra bases.
Through his first 33 games of the season, Hernández had a .285 isolated power (ISO, which is slugging percentage minus batting average), thanks to nine home runs and 10 doubles in the early going before landing on the injured list. In his first 55 games after returning, through July, Hernández had a .151 ISO. Over the final two months of the regular season, his ISO was .216, right in line with his .213 ISO from 2021-24.
Hernández’s three-run home run off Reds starter Hunter Greene in the third inning broke the game open.
Greene also allowed solo home runs to Ohtani and Tommy Edman, which knocked Greene out of the game after only three innings, matching his second-shortest outing this season. Three home runs allowed by Greene tied a season high, done also on April 19 in Baltimore. Greene during the regular season also allowed two home runs three times, including in a loss at Dodger Stadium on August 25.
Hernández hit a solo shot off reliever Connor Phillips in the fifth inning, then Ohtani hit a two-run shot off Phillips in the sixth.
That was more than enough for Blake Snell, who only allowed one hit through the first six innings, and didn’t permit a run until the seventh inning when the Reds scored twice to pull to within 8-2.
Snell only walked one and struck out nine, finishing all of his strikeouts off with either his changeup or curveball. He got 15 swinging strikes on the changeup alone and 19 total on the night in his seven innings. Not only was Snell’s outing the longest postseason start of his career; it marked the first time in 11 postseason starts that he was allowed to even finish the sixth.
The Dodgers bullpen struck again, even with a six-run lead and only six outs to go. Alex Vesia, Edgardo Henriquez, and Jack Dreyer each faced three batters in the eighth inning and combined for 59 pitches, 32 for strikes. The trio allowed four walks, two singles, and three runs in the inning to trim the lead to 10-5.
Amazingly, the Reds had the tying run on deck with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth, but Dreyer got the final two outs of the frame to escape further embarrassing damage from the Dodgers’ weakest unit at the moment.
Of note
Edman homered in the third inning, and was out of the game on defense after five innings, replaced by Miguel Rojas at second base. Edman has been dealing with a right ankle sprain all season, and aggravated the injury last week. This was his first game in the field since last Wednesday. We’ll find out soon whether his removal was ankle-related, score-related (the Dodgers were up 6-0 at the time), or maybe a mixture of both.
Game 1 particulars
Home runs: Shohei Ohtani 2 (2), Teoscar Hernández 2 (2), Tommy Edman (1)
WP — Blake Snell (1-0): 7 IP, 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts
LP — Hunter Greene (0-1): 3 IP, 6 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts
Up next
September National League pitcher of the month Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts October on the mound for the Dodgers with a chance to close out the series in Game 2 on Wednesday night (6:08 p.m., ESPN). Right-hander Zack Littell, who was part of the three-way Ben Rortvedt trade on July 31, will be on the mound for Cincinnati.
Category: General Sports
