{"id":190641,"date":"2025-10-05T03:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T03:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/190641\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T03:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T03:09:08","slug":"teoscar-hernandez-hr-fuels-rally-as-dodgers-outlast-phillies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/190641\/","title":{"rendered":"Teoscar Hernandez HR fuels rally as Dodgers outlast Phillies"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA — Teoscar Hernandez<\/a> rallied the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> with a three-run homer in the seventh inning that bailed out Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, both on the mound and at the plate, and led his club to a 5-3 victory<\/a> over the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> in Game 1 of their National League Division Series on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Ohtani struck out four straight times at the plate, the final time in the seventh with no outs and two runners on against Matt Strahm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No worries, at least for the reigning World Series champions.<\/p>\n

Following a Mookie Betts<\/a> popout, Hernandez, who hit two homers in the wild card round, 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 in his trot around the bases.<\/p>\n

His hat off, Ohtani rose from his dugout seat to join in the fun, and exhale once he was on track for the win.<\/p>\n

A three-time MVP, Ohtani recovered from a three-run second in his first career playoff pitching start to shut down the Phillies and finish with nine strikeouts over six innings.<\/p>\n

Alex Vesia<\/a> retired pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa<\/a> with the bases loaded in the eighth to preserve the lead. Roki Sasaki<\/a> worked the ninth for his first career save.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Ohtani walked in the ninth.<\/p>\n

Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez<\/a> struck out Ohtani three times, included a called strike three in the fifth inning that sent a towel-waving crowd into delirium.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

Sanchez was even fired up on that one, and punched his fist in the air as he left the mound.<\/p>\n

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 in two games in the Wild Card Series.<\/p>\n

Game 2 is Monday in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Sanchez was thrust into the ace role when Zack Wheeler<\/a> was ruled out for the season in August with complications from a blood clot. Wheeler was in full uniform and received a roaring ovation in the pregame introductions.<\/p>\n

Sanchez pitched early like a No. 1 starter. He fanned Ohtani on three pitches to start the game and breezed through five scoreless innings.<\/p>\n

Kike Hernandez<\/a> chased Sanchez in the sixth when he ripped a two-out, two-run double down the left-field line that made it 3-2. David Robertson<\/a> retired pinch-hitter Max Muncy<\/a> to end the threat.<\/p>\n

Robertson, the 40-year-old late-season pickup, allowed a single and hit Will Smith<\/a> with a pitch to open the seventh before yielding to Strahm.<\/p>\n

While disaster struck late for the Phillies bullpen, Vesia saved Tyler Glasnow<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The Phillies had only two hits after they scored three times in the third on J.T. Realmuto<\/a>‘s two-run triple and Harrison Bader<\/a>‘s sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n

Jesus Luzardo<\/a> will start for the Phillies on Monday in Game 2. Luzardo went 15-7 with a 3.92 ERA with a career-high 216 strikeouts in his first season with the Phillies after he was acquired from the Miami Marlins<\/a> in an offseason trade. The Dodgers already had announced that two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell<\/a> was expected to start Game 2, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> on the bump in Game 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA — Teoscar Hernandez rallied the Los Angeles Dodgers with a three-run homer in the seventh inning that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-190641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}