For seven innings, it was a rout. Then, it almost got too close for comfort.
Welcome to the Dodgers’ 2025 postseason, where the offense can be dynamic, the rotation is expected to be dominant, and the bullpen … well, will be a torturous adventure.
Starting another October campaign before the calendar had even flipped from September, thanks to their inability to earn a first-round bye in pursuit of a second-straight World Series title, the Dodgers took Game 1 of the best-of-three National League wild-card series on Tuesday night, powering past a seemingly outmatched Cincinnati Reds club with a 10-5 victory at Dodger Stadium.
For most of the night, things went according to script.
Shohei Ohtani hit the first of his two home runs to lead off the game. Blake Snell was superb in a seven-inning, two-run start. And a rollocking two-batter sequence in the bottom of the third inning broke the score wide open, with Teoscar Hernández launching a three-run bomb (also his first of two long balls) moments before Tommy Edman went back-to-back with a solo shot.
“It was a well-executed game plan,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Leading 10-2 in the top of the eighth, and needing only six simple outs from their troublesome relief corps, the Dodgers let things get uncomfortably tense. They gave up three runs in an inning that included four walks (two of them with the bases loaded) from three different relievers. They let a game that had been a blowout, suddenly turn into one in which the tying run was on deck.
Ultimately, the Dodgers did hold on. And now, with Game 2 on Wednesday at 6:08 p.m., just one more win will get them through this opening round.
Still, Tuesday had the feeling of both a promise and a warning.
The Dodgers looked like a team capable of being MLB’s first repeat champion in a quarter-century — just as long as the bullpen doesn’t blow it.
“Those are things that are gonna happen. Those moments in the game are going to come,” Hernández said. “You just have to keep moving forward. … Every victory counts.”
The start of the game was everything the Dodgers hoped it would be, extending the momentum from their 15-5 finish to the regular season with star-studded offense (they matched a franchise postseason record with five home runs) and excellent starting pitching (Snell’s seven innings were a new personal postseason high).
Ohtani delivered the first blow by taking Reds starter and Los Angeles native Hunter Greene deep on the right-hander’s fourth pitch, turning one of his trademark 100 mph fastballs into a 117.7 mph line drive that rocketed into the right field pavilion.
A crowd of 50,555 had barely settled back into its seats before the Dodgers went yard again, this time on a hooking fly ball from Edman that wrapped around the right-field foul pole to give the team a 5-0 lead.
“We were talking about it pregame: We gotta establish our presence and really make our mark on this game early,” Edman said.
“I still think Hunter is one of the really, really talented pitchers in the game,” Roberts added. “And for us to get to him like we did, pretty impressive.”
That early scoring was plenty for Snell, who picked apart a Reds offense that ranked just 14th in scoring and 19th in batting average during the regular season. In a four-hit, nine-strikeout, 91-pitch start, he got quick outs with his fastball early in counts, and snapped off a wicked combination of curveballs and changeups to put them away when he got to two strikes.
The Reds — who were no-hit by Snell last year when he pitched for the San Francisco Giants — didn’t get their first hit until Matt McLain doubled with two outs in the third. And though TJ Friedl walked in the next at-bat, Snell responded with three swing-and-miss changeups to Noelvi Marte to retire the side.
That was the start of 11 consecutive batters Snell would set down in a row, not letting another Cincinnati hitter reach base until Austin Hays’ seventh-inning single sparked a two-run rally that got the Reds on the board.
By then, however, the Dodgers had continued adding to their insurmountable lead.
In the fifth, Hernández hit his second home run of the game off right-hander Connor Phillips (one of the Reds’ best relievers late in the season). Ohtani did the same in the sixth, belting his second long ball (also against Phillips) on a 454-foot blast that landed near the top of the right-field stands.
“Looking at our lineup, we’ve been able to move guys over, score early and score with runners in scoring position,” Ohtani said, through interpreter Will Ireton, of a Dodgers offense that led the NL in scoring over the season’s final three weeks. “I think we had a pretty good flow to the game today.”
Alas, there was still the matter of the Dodgers’ mess of a bullpen, which followed up its dismal regular-season performance (when it ranked 21st in the majors in ERA) by flirting with disaster in an eight-run game.
It started with Alex Vesia, one of the few season-long stalwarts in a relief group beset by injuries and underperformance this year.
But instead of slamming the door shut on the Reds, the left-hander allowed them to gradually crack it open, giving up a single and a walk while retiring just one batter.
Hard-throwing rookie Edgardo Henriquez entered next, but lacked any semblance of command on his 100-plus mph heater. He walked his first two batters — first loading the bases, then forcing in a run — before yielding an RBI single that prompted Roberts back to the mound.
“Those guys [were] on their heels,” Roberts said. “But when you start being too fine and getting behind, you start giving them free bases, that’s how you can build innings and get momentum. So that’s what I saw in that inning there for sure.”
With his third pitching change of the inning, Roberts called upon another rookie in Jack Dreyer. But, once again, he issued a walk that brought another run across the dish.
Just like that, a once-unthinkable comeback suddenly felt possible. And if it wasn’t for Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson striking out after swinging at three full-count pitches that could have been ball four, gifting a second out before Ke’Bryan popped up to retire the side, the Dodgers felt helpless to stop the inertia of a collapse.
Indeed, for the Dodgers to make a real run at another World Series this fall, they’ll have to find alternatives to their late-game problems.
Converted starter Emmet Sheehan figures to be one, and he was warming Tuesday night before the eighth inning finally ended. Rookie phenom Roki Sasaki might have to be another, even though he made just two relief appearances after returning from a season-long shoulder injury.
There are other, more familiar names too. Blake Treinen had a career-worst regular season, but came on in the ninth and worked around a two-out single.
For now, however, the fate of this October run looks relatively simple: Ride the rotation, get big performances from star hitters, and hope the bullpen doesn’t succumb to the calamity they nearly suffered Tuesday.