PHILADELPHIA — Even when he’s on the road, Shohei Ohtani tends to garner quite a bit of appreciation from opposing fans. Not at Citizens Bank Park. Not in the postseason.
Already known as a hostile crowd for visiting teams, the sea of red-clad fans in the stands let Ohtani have it well before he even took the mound, booing lustily as he went to the bullpen to warm up and erupting when he struck out to lead off the game, swinging through three straight offerings from Cristopher Sánchez.
“I use the word compartmentalize a lot,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But this epitomizes compartmentalizing.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Ohtani, who went 0-for-4 with a walk and four strikeouts as a hitter and gave up a three-spot in the second inning, but the two-way superstar settled down to pick up the win and record a quality start. Teoscar Hernández, who made a lackadaisical effort on defense that helped the Phillies stack those runs on Ohtani, atoned for the miscue by giving the Dodgers their first lead with a three-run homer off Phillies reliever Matt Strahm in the seventh.
From the position-player side, one of the messages in a meeting with hitting coach Aaron Bates seemed to resonate: Even when you’re down in a hostile environment, it doesn’t mean you’re out.
“Something’s going to happen in this game that the crowd’s gonna go wild, but that doesn’t matter,” Max Muncy said. “What matters is what happens at the end, and when we silence the crowd, it’s gonna be an amazing feeling.”
Historically speaking, the Dodgers’ comeback victory in Game 1 of the NL Division Series puts them in good company. In postseason history, teams to win Game 1 in any best-of-five series have gone on to win the series 113 of 156 times (72.4%). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams to win Game 1 on the road have advanced 34 of 46 times (73.9%).
Across six innings, Ohtani allowed three hits, walked one batter and hit another. He struck out nine, the third most by a Dodger in a first career postseason outing, behind only Don Newcombe (11 in 1949 World Series Game 1) and Tim Belcher (10 in 1988 NLCS Game 2).
The nerves were there, indeed. But just as Roberts expected, Ohtani was able to put them aside.
“I was a little nervous imagining myself out there on the mound,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “But once I was on the mound and on the field, that went away, and it was really me focusing.”
Not only is Ohtani the only player in Major League history to start one game as a pitcher and one as a non-pitcher in a single postseason, but he’s also only the second starting pitcher to bat higher than eighth. The other was Babe Ruth, who hit sixth for the Red Sox in Game 4 of the 1918 World Series.
All of the Phillies’ damage against Ohtani came in the second inning, when Alec Bohm drew a leadoff walk and Brandon Marsh followed with a single. Then J.T. Realmuto got a middle-middle fastball and punched it into the gap in right-center, where Hernández was unable to cut it off. Realmuto slid into third for a two-run triple, and he later scored on a Harrison Bader sacrifice fly.
But it was also thanks to Hernández that Ohtani exited in line for the win.
“At the end of the day, for me,” Hernández said, “anything that happened before a big moment like that, it’s in the past. I try to put it in the trash and just focus on the things that I need to do in that at-bat and especially in plays on defense and just trying to help my team.”
With two on and two outs in the seventh inning, Hernández took Strahm deep to the seats in right-center. It was the fifth go-ahead homer while trailing in the seventh inning or later in Dodgers postseason history — and the first since Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of last year’s World Series.
From there, Tyler Glasnow and Alex Vesia were the bridge to Roki Sasaki, who converted his first career save.
Similar to last year’s Division Series against the Padres, the Dodgers are aware that this round against the Phillies could be the toughest part of their postseason run. They feel that they set the right tone by grinding out a win to start the best-of-five series.
“It felt a little different than every other win in the postseason,” Miguel Rojas said, “because of how hard it is to play in this place and [overcoming] a lot of adversity of being down 3-0 and never out. Just credit to the guys. Never done, and fighting until the end.”
