Week of Oct. 8 to 14
Wednesday, Oct. 8
Game 3 of the National League Division Series vs. the Phillies
The Dodgers were unable to complete the sweep over Philadelphia in Game 3 of the NLDS, falling 8-2 on a night where the Phillies’ bats provided the fireworks. The Dodgers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on Tommy Edman’s solo homer in the third inning off the newly installed Phillies pitcher Ranger Suarez. Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto started strong, retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced before things unraveled for him in the top of the fourth inning.
Kyle Schwarber, who had been quiet through the first two games of the series, going 0 for 7 with a walk, led off the inning and blasted a Yamamoto fastball 455 feet onto the roof of the right field pavilion. Willie Stargell is the only other player to hit a home run over the pavilion, doing it twice in 1969 and again in 1973. The blast seemed to instantly energize the Phillies, who followed Schwarber’s shot with singles by Bryce Harper and Alec Bohm.
A throwing error by Andy Pages scored Harper and sent Bohn to third, and a sacrifice fly by Brandon Marsh gave the Phillies a 3-1 lead. After the Dodgers came up empty in the bottom of the fourth, the Phillies opened the fifth with back-to-back singles and ended Yamamoto’s evening early.
Anthony Banda came on in relief and, despite walking Bohm to load the bases, was able to get out of the inning unscathed. Suarez kept the Dodgers at bay aside from the Edman home run through the seventh inning. Meanwhile, the Dodgers opted to put Clayton Kershaw into the game as a reliever, his first appearance in that role since 2019, in the seventh inning and from the onset, he struggled. Trea Turner greeted Kershaw with a leadoff single, then Schwarber drew a walk, Harper flew out to right, Schwarber got doubled off of first on a throw behind him, and Marsh flew out to right to end the threat.
However, the eighth inning didn’t go as well for Kershaw and the Dodgers. J.T. Realmuto led off the inning with a homer, Max Kepler walked, Nick Castellanos was safe at first on an error, Turner singled in two runs, and Schwarber hit his second home run of the evening, leaving the Dodgers in an 8-1 hole.
The Dodgers got one back in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough to make a dent in the Phillies’ lead. Ohtani’s struggles continued at the plate, going 0 for 5 with a strikeout, dropping his postseason average to .174.
Thursday, Oct. 9
Game 4 of the National League Division Series vs. the Phillies
The Dodgers were able to squeak out a crazy victory to advance to the National League Conference Series with an 11th-inning walk-off win against the Phillies, 2-1. Tyler Glasnow took the mound for the Dodgers and pitched six innings of two-hit shutout baseball, striking out eight. Chris Sanchez was on the bump for the Phillies and also had his best stuff working as he held the Dodgers scoreless through six.
Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts pulled Glasnow to open the seventh, even though he had only thrown 83 pitches, and replaced him with Emmet Sheehan, who had given up runs in each of his last three relief appearances. True to form, the Phillies got to Sheehan for a run on Nick Castellanos’ double, scoring Max Kepler and giving Philadelphia a 1-0 lead. The Dodgers returned the favor in the bottom of the seventh when reliever Jhoan Duran replaced Sanchez with runners on first and second and eventually walked Mookie Betts with bases loaded to even up the score at 1-1.
The score stayed tied into the 11th, with new bullpen ace Roki Sasaki pitching three innings of no-hit, scoreless relief, before yielding to Alex Vesia, who pitched a scoreless 11th. Jesus Luzardo, who came in to pitch the 10th inning, returned to the mound in the 11th and, after striking out Freddie Freeman, he gave up a single to Tommy Edman, who was subsequently replaced by pinch runner Hyeseong Kim.
Smith lined out before Max Muncy singled to center, moving the speedy Kim to third. Orion Kerkering came in and walked Kike Hernandez to load the bases. Pages hit a broken-bat comebacker to Kerkering, Kerkering fumbled the ball, but still had plenty of time to throw Pages out at first. Instead he inexplicably decided to make the throw to home.
His throw was late and off target, going to the back screen and catapulting the Dodgers into the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers, who would go on to beat the Chicago Cubs in five games. Shohei Ohtani’s slump continued with a 0-4 outing, with a walk.
Monday, Oct. 13
Game 1 of the National League Conference Series vs. the Brewers
Blake Snell took the mound for the Dodgers to open the NLCS and almost singlehandedly willed the team to a 2-1 victory. Snell got the win with a near-perfect eight-inning performance during which he gave up just one hit while striking out 10 batters. In this postseason, Snell has been virtually unhittable, earning a victory in each of the three series that the Dodgers have played in. He’s given up a total of two earned runs in 21 innings for a 0.86 ERA while striking out 28 batters.
The Brewers were locked in a 0-0 tie with the Dodgers until the sixth inning, when Freddie Freeman hit a solo home run to right field, giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. The Dodgers added another run in the top of the ninth when Betts walked in a run with bases loaded to put the Dodgers up 2-0.
Sasaki got the call to replace Snell in the bottom of the ninth. He struggled with his command, issuing Issac Collins a one-out walk followed by a ground rule double to pinch hitter Jake Bauers, moving Collins to third. Leadoff hitter Jackson Chourio followed that with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Collins and moving pinch runner Brandon Lockridge to third.
Sasaki then walked Christian Yelich to put men in the corners before Roberts went with the struggling righty Blake Treinen to close the game out. After Yelich stole second without a throw, Treinen walked William Contreras to load the bases. After nearly hitting Brice Turang in the leg with an errant pitch, which would’ve tied up the game, Treinen got Turang to swing at an elevated 2-2 fastball for the save.
While Ohtani didn’t get a hit, he was productive at the plate, going 0 for 2 with three walks.
Notes:
Ohtani struck out nine times in 18 at-bats in the NLDS against the Phillies, generating only one hit for a .056 batting average. The Phillies have a plethora of power-throwing left-handed pitching. 16 of Ohtani’s 20 plate appearances came against left-handed pitching.
Sasaki had pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings in relief before yielding a run in the opening game of the NLCS.
Kershaw is on the NLCS roster.
The Brewers swept the Dodgers in the regular season 6-0.