Shohei Ohtani hit a pair of home runs on Tuesday, as the Dodgers’ offense erupted in a 10-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of their Wild Card Series at Dodger Stadium.
Ohtani, Hernández each hit a pair of home runs as Dodgers jump out to a Wild Card lead.
By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
RAFU SPORTS EDITOR
The Dodgers came out swinging in Game 1 of their National League Wild Card series on Tuesday, with Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández each slugging a pair of home runs.
Tommy Edman added a home run, and left-hander Blake Snell turned in a stellar outing, allowing two runs and four hits over seven innings striking out nine and walking one, as L.A. took the first in the best-of-three series, 10-5 over the visiting Cincinnati Reds.
It wasn’t all wine and roses, however, as the Dodger bullpen continued to falter, giving up three runs in the eighth inning – two on bases-loaded walks – to give the near-sellout crowd of 50,555 something to squirm in their seats about.
Ohtani got the scoring barrage going in the bottom of the first with a scorched line drive to right field. His homer in the sixth was a majestic, 454-foot shot that Statcast said is the longest in Dodger Stadium since 2015.
With two home runs of his own – a three-run shot in the third and a solo shot in the fifth – Hernández and Ohtani become only the second pair of teammates to hit two homers in a postseason game. The first duo to achieve the feat were Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series.
After the win, Ohtani said giving the team an early spark set the offensive.
“It was a really hard pitch to hit, but I felt like I reacted pretty well, so I was happy I was able to help the team score early,” he said.
“Overall, looking at our lineup, we’ve been able to move guys over, score early and score with runners in scoring position. I think we had a pretty good flow to the game today.”
Manager Dave Roberts said he was impressed with his team’s scoring output, but the fact that his relief corps needed 59 pitches to record three outs in the eighth inning was troubling.
“Well, Alex [Vesia] wasn’t sharp tonight, and obviously, [Edgardo] Henriquez wasn’t, didn’t have any command,” Roberts said.
“At that point in time, you’ve got to get somebody else to stop the momentum. So I felt having [Jack] Dreyer on Elly [De La Cruz] was a good spot for him, and fortunately he made pitches when he needed to.”
As The Rafu went to press on Wednesday, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was getting ready to face the Reds in Game 2. Prior to Tuesday’s series opener, Yamamoto said he was enouraged by his start against the Reds in July, when he struck out nine batters and allowed them only a single run in seven innings en route to a victory.
“I had good result from my last outing against them, but their lineup is good,” he said. “They’re fast and they’ve got the great contact hitters, so I’d like to focus on preparation into my next game.”
Yamamoto has certainly been the ace of the Dodger pitching staff this season, with a regular-season record of 12-8 and a 2.49 earned run average. He said the lessons of postseason play last season are helping to steady himself going into this year’s championship run.
“In terms of experience from last year, I think that’s helping me to maintain composure, calmness. And I think I’m more comfortable getting into this postseason.”
Ohtani was expected as the starting pitcher for Game 3, if the series should go to the full three games. The winner of the Wild Card series moves on to face the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Division Series. Ohtani was believed to be in line to open that series if the Dodgers won on Wednesday.