Author: MLB Baseball News, Scores, Standings, Rumors, Fantasy Games

The savages in the box were no match for rookie Trey Yesavage, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. blasted the first grand slam in Toronto history and the Blue Jays hammered the Yankees, 13-7, Sunday in Game 2 of their American League Division Series. 

The Blue Jays, who bullied Yankee starter Max Fried, are in full control of the series and can eliminate the Yankees when the best-of-five affair resumes Tuesday for Game 3 at Yankee Stadium. 

Toronto has outscored the Yankees, who had the best offense in baseball this season, 23-8, so far in the series, though the Yanks made a late charge to make the final deficit Sunday a tad more tidy. Perhaps that gives them some oomph heading into Game 3.

Here are the main takeaways...

-- It was a nightmare outing for Fried, who has been the Yankee ace all season. He had been so good in starts following a Yankee loss – 11-1, 1.82 ERA in 16 such starts – but he was no stopper on Sunday. Fried was charged with seven runs over three-plus innings while giving up eight hits, walking two and striking out one.

He allowed a two-run homer to the Jays’ Ernie Clement. It was a far cry from Fried’s first outing of the postseason – 6.1 scoreless frames against the Red Sox in last week’s playoff opener. Should the Yankees rally to force a Game 5, Fried would get another chance in this series – with two off-days between now and then, Fried could start on regular rest. You know, if. 

-- Guerrero had struggled in his first six games of postseason play in his career, but the Toronto star has changed that narrative in a hurry. He’s on fire in this series. After homering and going 3-for-4 in the opening game, he smashed the first grand slam in Jays' postseason history Sunday. His blast, measured at 111 mph off the bat, traveled 415 feet to left field and upped the Jays’ absurd lead to 9-0. Guerrero victimized Will Warren on the blast, crushing a 95.8-mph fastball. 

-- Daulton Varsho had a huge day for the Blue Jays, too. He doubled twice off Fried and homered twice off Warren. He might have been on cycle watch early in the game save for a scorer’s call on his first double. He ripped the ball down the right-field line, a sure extra-base hit, and the ball caromed off the side wall and Aaron Judge missed it. Varsho got to third because of that and he was credited with a double, advancing to third only because of what was scored an error on Judge. Varsho finished 4-for-5 with four RBI and four runs scored.

-- Yesavage, who turned 22 in July, is a great story. He was drafted in 2024 out of East Carolina and began this season in Single-A before ascending through four different levels of the Toronto system to reach the majors in September. He was just the third pitcher ever to make a postseason start within his first four MLB appearances, including the playoffs. Shane Baz (2021) and Matt Moore (2011), both of the Rays, are the others. 

Jays manager John Schneider said earlier in the series that he decided to have Yesavage pitch at home instead of Shane Bieber. Bieber, a veteran, would be more likely to handle a hostile environment at Yankee Stadium, so he’ll start Game 3 there on Tuesday. 

-- The Yankees were perhaps at an extreme disadvantage in that they had not seen Yesavage before and he has a distinctive arm angle with a high release point over the top. He was 1-0 with a 3.21 ERA in three September starts for the Jays and his plunging splitter is a marvel. It certainly was on Sunday when he used it to great effect – eight of his strikeouts were finished by a diving split. He got 18 swings-and-misses, according to Statcast, 11 of them on splitters. 

-- The Rogers Centre has been the Horror Centre for the Yankees this year. They are 1-8 at the Blue Jays’ nest and played some of their sloppiest baseball of the season there over the summer. But it wasn’t as humiliating as this. And the Yankees were the second-best road team in the majors this season, a fact that was overwhelmed by the Blue Jays being the AL’s top home team, apparently. 

-- The Yankees trailed, 12-0, entering the sixth inning before they finally got their first hit and got on the scoreboard. Judge broke through with an infield single and then Cody Bellinger smacked a two-run homer. Both came off reliever Justin Bruihl. It was the 10th postseason home run of Bellinger’s career. 

-- The Yankees scored five times in the seventh inning to creep closer. With the bases loaded and one out, Judge blooped an RBI single to center. Bellinger hit a ball down the left-field line that could have been big trouble, but Myles Straw made a terrific sliding catch near the side wall. Still, the Yanks got a run on what was a sac fly. Then Ben Rice whacked an RBI double and Giancarlo Stanton, who had been 2-for-18 in the series, hit a two-run single to left, drawing the Yankees within 13-7. 

-- George Springer homered for the Jays in the fifth inning, his 20th career postseason homer. That ties him with Derek Jeter for fifth all-time. 

-- Warren allowed six runs, including four home runs, on seven hits over 4.2 innings of relief. At the very least, he provided some bulk innings to give the Yankee bullpen some rest. Luke Weaver, who had not retired any of the six batters he’d faced so far in the postseason, got the final out of the eighth inning, inducing a flyout to left by Varsho. 

-- Judge (2-for-3) was on base four times for the Yanks, including two walks. He is batting .444 this postseason. 

Game MVP: Trey Yesavage

Yesavage, a righty who threw 5.1 scoreless innings and allowed no hits. He had 11 strikeouts – a Toronto record for a postseason game – and walked only one. Not bad for a guy who started the season in Single-A.

Highlights

The Yankees turn 2️⃣ and Max Fried gets out of trouble! pic.twitter.com/6rJGEktBzz

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 5, 2025

Cody Bellinger hits a two-run shot and the Yankees are on the board pic.twitter.com/eJF66qjkW6

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 5, 2025

Aaron Judge gets an RBI single pic.twitter.com/PcVweRg4H8

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 5, 2025

Ben Rice brings home the third Yankee run of the inning pic.twitter.com/LmMWGFhRqF

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 5, 2025

Giancarlo Stanton makes it 13-7 👀 pic.twitter.com/2XnrPjBvat

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 5, 2025

What's next

The Yankees and Blue Jays head to New York for Game 3 of the ALDS on Tuesday at 8:08 p.m.

Carlos Rodon (18-9, 3.09 ERA) will face Shane Bieber (4-2, 3.57 ERA) in the elimination game.

With little room for error, Phillies need a bounce-back against Dodgers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

So many thoughts, second guesses and Monday morning quarterback analysis when it comes to the Phillies’ crushing 5-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLDS on Saturday.

This much we do know. The Phillies are in a must-win situation when the two teams reconvene on Monday for Game 2. Left-hander Jesús Luzardo will be looking to even the series when he faces Dodgers lefty Blake Snell. Since July 29, Luzardo has started 11 games and logged 69 2/3 innings and has posted a 2.84 ERA while giving up six home runs. He has struck out 80 during that time and the Phillies have gone 7-4 during those starts.

“It’s just another game, in reality,” said Luzardo, when asked if there’s any added pressure on him. “In the grand scheme of things, there’s been a lot of series this year where we ended up winning after losing game one, that we just bounce back and won two in a row. I think that’s the mentality that we have to take.

“Obviously, you want to get a win, it’s important to do that at home. I wouldn’t say there’s added pressure or anything. Just go out and play the game the way we know how to play it. We’ve been the best team in baseball at home so there’s a reason for that.”

Snell pitched the Wild Card Series opener against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday and went seven innings, struck out nine and allowed just four hits and two earned runs in a 10-5 Los Angeles win. In his last three regular season outings, the former Cy Young Award winner allowed one earned run over 19 innings, nine hits and struck out 28 and walked just four. To say he is hot right now would be a huge understatement.

 All the second guessing of using who and when out of the bullpen really doesn’t matter if the Phillies don’t come up with some timely hitting. The top three in their order – Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper – went 1-for-11 with a walk and six strikeouts in Saturday’s loss. In the fifth inning, with runners on first and second with one out and the Phillies leading 3-0, Turner softly lined out to shortstop and Schwarber struck out swinging on a 3-2 curveball from Shohei Ohtani.

In the seventh against reliever Tyler Glasnow, J.T. Realmuto reached base on an error by third baseman Max Muncy to lead off the inning, only to get stranded on a fly out by Max Kepler and a double play by pinch-hitter Nick Castellanos.

The Phillies loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth off Glasnow, but pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa flied out to deep center to end that threat. And after Kepler laced a one-out double to right in the ninth, Roki Sasaki was able to retire Castellanos and Bryson Stott to give the Dodgers the lead in the series.

“Yeah, especially the bottom part of the order I thought we really had pretty good at-bats all night long,” said Thomson. “The guys at the top, they pitched them tough, a lot of breaking balls. Ohtani was really tough on them. I thought that the guys at the bottom did a nice job.

“I don’t sense any extra pressure. I feel like they’re loose. We made a lot of good plays on defense last night. We pitched well. We just didn’t get the big hit when we needed. We had some chances. That’s the way it is. I think it’s just kind of the ebbs and flows of the game. We got to come out here tomorrow night and play well.”

There were chances, but the Phillies just never seemed to get that back-breaking hit after they scored three runs in the second inning, two on a triple by Realmuto on one more when Harrison Bader knocked him in with a sacrifice fly to left.

But that was it. Ohtani retired 12 of the next 14 Phillies and the momentum they had built in the second disappeared as quickly as a Kyle Schwarber line drive home run. And the Dodgers pounced, winning the game on a three-run home run by three-hole hitter Teoscar Hernandez in the seventh off Matt Strahm.

Up until Hernandez’ home run, the top three hitters in the Dodgers order – including Ohtani and Mookie Betts – were

And now Rob Thomson may have to manage his lineup a bit differently, as Bader left the game on Saturday with soreness in his groin after running to second on a single by Stott in the fifth.

“No major tear or strain,” Thomson said of his starting centerfielder. “He’s going to come in this afternoon and get treatment, and we’ll know more tomorrow. I think after the game they stretched him out; they got him moving around a little bit and I think he felt a lot better after that. We’ll know whether he’s available to start or at least to pinch-hit. We’ll know more tomorrow.”

While hitters have to hit for the Phillies, especially the ones at the top of the order, the focus, as it always does, will fall on the starting pitcher. Luzardo has the benefit of having faced the Dodgers on September (four runs in seven innings) and watching fellow lefty Cristopher Sánchez attack them last night.

“I’ve been going after him basically all season at this point and I think for the most part I would do a good job of (studying),” Luzardo said. “We’re different pitchers but at the same time lefthanded. They take certain swings or certain approaches against him. That might change a little bit with me. There’s something to that and understanding how their approach was with him, how they looked on certain pitches. I definitely study the way he pitched them and how they reacted to that.

“It works both ways. They get a little bit on you, understanding how you work and how they see you. But at the same time, you get a little familiarity with them, their swing paths and their approach. It might change a little here and there but for the most part it is what it is. There’s comfort knowing that you faced them a good amount, especially recently.”

Comfort wouldn’t seem to be a word floating around the Phillies’ situation right now, but we’ll see starting at 6:08 p.m.

“It is baseball and sometimes you lose games at home,” Thomson said. “You’ve got to play well. You’ve got to pitch, and you have to play defense and swing the bats, play small ball at times. It’s just the way it is. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to come in here tomorrow night and not play well. I know that we’ve played better at home. I feel like we’re more comfortable at home, that’s for sure. They’ll come out here, and they’ll be ready to go tomorrow night.”

Red October coverage on NBC Sports Philadelphia is sponsored by Toyota.

Phillies' bullpen decisions loom large in Game 1 loss to Dodgers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

After the MLB Trade Deadline late July, Phillies fans felt pretty good about their bullpen.

But that confidence took a hit Saturday night in Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Dodgers.

Entering August, it seemed like the ‘pen was the deepest it had been in years. President of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, added 17-year veteran David Robertson, who carried a 2.91 career ERA, and flamethrower Jhoan Duran, acquired in a deal that cost two of the organization’s top five prospects.

Robertson looked sharp early, posting a 1.17 ERA in his first nine outings with Philadelphia. But by September, the cracks began to show. Robertson allowed seven earned runs across his final 10 innings (6.30 ERA), and Orion Kerkering also stumbled down the stretch, giving up runs in four of his final six appearances.

The right-handers in middle-relief looked shaky, and on Saturday, those late-season concerns resurfaced.

After Cristopher Sánchez allowed a two-out, two-run double to Enrique Hernández in the sixth, Rob Thomson turned to Robertson to stop the bleeding. The veteran did just that — inducing a soft groundout from Max Muncy to end the frame.

The way that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts constructed his lineup to face Sánchez offered an opportunity for extreme length at the bottom of the order.

He batted Andy Pages (.272/27/86) in the eight hole and catcher Ben Rortvedt ninth. In the fifth inning, the Dodgers pinch hit Will Smith (.296/17/61) for Rortvedt setting up the trio of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández.

Thomson’s decision to bring Robertson back out for the seventh proved costly.

Robertson allowed a leadoff single to Pages, then plunked Smith three pitches later, putting two on with nobody out for Ohtani. That’s when Thomson went to Matt Strahm.

“I wanted to make sure we had a lefty on Ohtani,” Thomson said postgame. “If you bring in another righty, he’s got to face Ohtani. Robbie didn’t throw that many pitches and he was good to go.”

Strahm retired Ohtani and Betts, but with two outs, Hernández crushed a back-breaking three-run homer to right-center. It was all the Dodgers needed in a 5-3 win.

Strahm was blunt afterward: “I feel like I got gut-punched. Missed on two pitches, and one of them got damaged.”

Robertson, who shouldered the loss, echoed the frustration. “I had extra time to warm up tonight, and just didn’t make good pitches.”

The Dodgers’ bullpen, which had been shaky in the Wild Card round, looked far steadier in Game 1. After Ohtani’s six innings, the Dodgers skipper called on Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki to get eight of the final nine outs — both starters now repurposed as high-leverage arms.

It’s a contrast to how the Phillies approached their own bullpen. Before the game, Thomson mentioned Ranger Suárez would be available out of relief. And recently, Thomson discussed seasoned postseason veteran Walker Buehler as an option. With Robertson struggling at the end of the regular season, a clean inning from Suárez or even Buehler might’ve been the better move.

Obviously, a lot of this analysis is in hindsight. But when the manager himself admits he planned for Ohtani vs. Strahm, it raises the question of whether Strahm should’ve started the inning rather than inheriting runners.

Especially when Pages swatted 24 homers and Smith posted a .923 OPS against righties this season. While neither is no slouch against southpaws, Strahm beginning the seventh would have made sense too.

At the end of the day, the Phillies collected just five hits and went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Beating a lineup like Los Angeles requires more than one early blow.

Game 1 doesn’t decide a series, but it showed exactly what the Phillies will need to fix if they plan on moving on.

Red October coverage on NBC Sports Philadelphia is sponsored by Toyota.

Teoscar Hernández does not lack for emotion. He plays with joy, with exuberance, with delight.

The Dodgers know he can hit. We all do. If the emotion dissipates, so can the performance.

Hernández could have been the goat Saturday night, in what would have been the Dodgers’ first loss in this postseason. Instead, he hit the game-winning home run, nearly levitated around first base, and became an October hero yet again.

In the Dodgers’ 16 postseason games last year, he hit three home runs and drove in 12 runs. In the Dodgers’ three postseason games so far this year, he has hit three home runs and driven in nine.

You might fret about his uneven defense. You might second guess a defensive play that put the Dodgers deeper into an early hole.

Read more:Dodgers show their resiliency again in NLDS Game 1 comeback win over Phillies

All’s well that ends well, as evidenced by his three-run home run that powered the Dodgers to a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League division series opener.

“For me, anything that happened before a big moment like that, it's in the past,” Hernández said.

“I try to put it in the trash and just focus on the things that I need to do.”

In the second inning of what was then a scoreless tie, the Phillies put runners on first and second with none out. Catcher J.T. Realmuto pummeled a Shohei Ohtani fastball into right-center field, where Hernández approached the ball but did not appear to accelerate as the ball skipped past him.

If Hernández had cut the ball off, Realmuto would have had a single, and the Phillies would have scored two runs in the inning. Instead, Realmuto had a triple — matching his season total — and he later scored a third run in the inning.

“I would argue that he wasn’t not trying,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Hernández. “But, yeah, that's a ball that you don't want Realmuto to have a triple.”

On Twitter, former Dodgers pitcher Brett Anderson posted — and then deleted — this: “If I’m Shohei I’m going to need Teoscar Hernández to try a little harder.”

Hernández said he did not get a good angle toward the hard-hit ball. Roberts did credit Hernández with a defensive adjustment on a later ball, shading the line to keep Bryce Harper to a single rather than an extra-base hit that could have driven home a run for the Phillies.

The Dodgers minimized Hernández’s defensive exposure last year by playing him most often in left field, with Mookie Betts in right field. This year, with Betts at shortstop and the Dodgers declining to add a right fielder at the trade deadline, Hernández has played right field all season.

The only major leaguer to play more innings in right field this season and finish lower in defensive runs saved: the Phillies’ Nick Castellanos, who got into Saturday’s game only after Harrison Bader suffered a groin injury.

Make no mistake, though: Hernández is here to hit. The Dodgers awarded Hernández a three-year, $66-million contract last winter, well aware that designated hitter would not be an option because of that Ohtani guy.

As Dodgers catcher Will Smith explained Saturday to a reporter wondering whether he might spend more time as a DH in the future: “We've got a pretty good DH. I think we're pretty set on that.”

Hernández was neither hitting nor fielding well for much of the second half, causing Roberts to say at the start of September that he had urged his right fielder to “get in the fight.” In the last week of August, he even benched Hernández for one day.

Said Roberts then: “I think we’ve lost a little bit of that edge over the last couple months. For me, I want to see that edge, that fight, that fire, and I’ll bet on any result.”

In September, Hernández put up a .769 OPS, his best for any month since the first one. In the Dodgers’ first postseason game, he hit home runs in consecutive at-bats.

Read more:Hernández: Dodgers save Shohei Ohtani, not the other way around, in monumental Game 1 NLDS win

On Saturday, in their third postseason game, he stepped to bat in the eighth inning with two on, two out, and the Dodgers trailing by one run — and the Phillies had scored one extra run when he could not run down that Realmuto triple.

Hernández homered. He smiled. He skipped.

“It was a great moment,” Ohtani said.

In his face, we saw joy.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The Dodgers spent more than $125 million on their bullpen last winter. But when they needed relief late in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday, they turned to a couple of starters who spent much of the season on the injury list.

And it worked out — though just barely — with Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki combining for eight of the final nine outs in a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Alex Vesia got the other out, retiring pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa on a fly ball to center with the bases loaded to end the eighth. Sasaki then came on to close it out in the ninth, getting Bryson Stott, representing the tying run, to pop up in foul territory behind third base to end the game.

“What Glas did tonight, it's not easy to do. And so for him to give us the innings he gave us tonight was huge," third baseman Max Muncy said.

The four pitchers the Dodgers used all spent time away from the mound this season.

Starter Shohei Ohtani, who didn’t pitch at all last season, didn’t pitch until June and hadn't thrown past the fifth inning until his final regular-season start. He went six innings against the Phillies, giving up three runs and three hits and striking out nine.

Glasnow missed more than two months with shoulder inflammation and other issues. Sasaki went to the sideline in early May with a right shoulder impingement and wasn’t reactivated until the final week of the season — as a reliever. Even Vesia missed a couple of weeks with an oblique strain.

But they were all ready for the start of the NDLS. Well, kind of — Glasnow said he was in the bathroom when the call came down for him to start warming up.

“The phone rang and they yelled my name,” he said. “Here we go. It definitely felt weird, but fun. [With the] adrenaline, there’s not as much effort to get the same stuff and [get] warmed up.”

When Glasnow first began throwing the Dodgers trailed 3-2. But by the time he entered the game they were front 5-3 on Teoscar Hernández’s three-run homer. So his assignment changed from keeping his team close to protecting a lead.

“For them to trust me to go out there and throw some big innings, it was awesome,” Glasnow said.

His first inning, the seventh, went pretty well, with Glasnow setting down the side in order. The first batter, J.T. Realmuto, reached on an error, but he was erased on a double play.

Read more:Hernández: Dodgers save Shohei Ohtani, not the other way around, in monumental Game 1 NLDS win

The eighth didn’t go as well. Trea Turner walked with one out, and although manager Dave Roberts had Vesia, a left-hander, in the bullpen, the right-handed Glasnow was allowed to face lefty sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper.

He struck out Schwarber on three pitches, but Harper singled to right. So when Alec Bohm walked to load the bases, Roberts finally called in Vesia, who got Sosa to pop out, ending the threat.

“The coaches put the trust in him and he just kept telling me, ‘You're driving me. Just tell me what to do’,” catcher Will Smith said of guiding Glasnow through his first relief appearance since 2018. “He's put trust in me and I put trust in him. And it worked out tonight.”

It worked out because Sasaki came out of the bullpen throwing gas, topping 99 mph on seven of his 11 pitches, including the final one, which hit 100. Sasaki, who earned the save, also pitched the final inning of the wild-card series against the Cincinnati Reds and has thrown two scoreless innings, striking out three.

In fact, three pitchers who spent most of the season as starters — Emmet Sheehan, Glasnow and Sasaki — have combined to throw more innings out of the bullpen in the playoffs than the Dodgers’ regular relievers. That wasn’t the way the front office drew it up when they spent wildly on the bullpen over the winter. But it’s working.

“One real strength of this roster is our starting pitching,” Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, said before the game. “It speaks to that depth. Those guys are really talented.

“And I can see it factoring in and helping us.”

It already has.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

It wasn’t an impassioned speech. But it proved to be a prescient point.

In the hours before Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night, the Dodgers' offense was gathered for their typical pregame hitters meeting when Aaron Bates, one of the hitting coaches, spoke up and offered a reminder to the room. 

In this series, Bates knew there would be moments of adversity. And in this ballpark, where 45,000 crazed Philadelphia Phillies fans have created one of the best home-field advantages in all of baseball, the Dodgers needed to be ready to react and respond.

“The intensity and the fans were going to be there early in the game,” he told them, as infielder Miguel Rojas later recalled.

“If something happens early, if Schwarber hits one 800 feet and the roof blows off this place, don’t worry about it,” he added, according to third baseman Max Muncy, “Because when they’re dead silent in the seventh or eighth innings and we’re winning, that’s all that’s gonna matter.”

In the nine innings that followed, that’s exactly how the script played out.

The Phillies landed an early punch, ambushing Shohei Ohtani with a three-run second inning that had Citizens Bank Park shaking on the scale of a small earthquake.

Then the Dodgers answered back, rallying to a resilient 5-3 win that gave them an all-important leg up in this best-of-five series.

“It’s a message that, when you hear it, it sounds silly,” Muncy said of Bates’ pregame reminder. “But, there’s a lot of truth to it. When you come into places like this, it’s very hostile, it’s very loud.”

It certainly was in the second inning, when J.T. Realmuto hit a two-run triple that opened the scoring and knocked the defending champions to the mat.

But as they’ve shown so often over the last two Octobers, even when they’re down they never seem to be out.

“Get through the loud crowd and that sort of thing,” Bates said, modestly downplaying his hitters’ meeting speech. “Just make sure you stick to your plan, stick to the course. And we did a good job doing that.”

The Dodgers shrugged off the early adversity, with Ohtani allowing no further damage over a six-inning start; finishing his postseason pitching debut with nine strikeouts and four monumental scoreless frames after the second.

Read more:It must be October, because Super Kiké Hernández is here. 'Track record speaks for itself'

Their lineup, meanwhile, chipped away at the deficit, chasing Phillies ace and Cy Young Award candidate Cristopher Sánchez from the game on Kiké Hernández’s two-out double in the sixth.

In the seventh, the actual knockout blow arrived on a game-deciding swing from Teoscar Hernández. With two outs in the inning, and the Phillies on the verge of an escape, he blasted a go-ahead three-run home run.

Just like that, South Philadelphia fell silent.

“When you can hear a pin drop in the stadium, that’s the ultimate feeling in baseball,” Muncy said. “I felt like the people in the upper deck could hear us cheering in the dugout.”

Early on in Saturday’s game, the Phillies’ daunting home stadium was providing the opposite environment.

Sánchez was carving Dodgers hitters up with wicked sinkers and fall-off-the-table changeups. On the other side, Ohtani ran into trouble in the bottom of the second.

Read more:Hernández: Dodgers save Shohei Ohtani, not the other way around, in monumental Game 1 NLDS win

The inning started with a walk to Alec Bohm, when Ohtani missed with a full-count fastball. That was followed by a single from Brandon Marsh, who got a down-the-middle fastball in a 2-and-2 count and shot a base hit to center.

As Ohtani tried to settle down, a chorus of taunting chants — Sho-Hei! Sho-Hei! — came raining down around him.

Then, pandemonium was unleashed on one Realmuto swing. 

After missing with a first-pitch slider to Realmuto, Ohtani left a 100.2 mph heater in the heart of the zone. The location rendered the velocity irrelevant. Realmuto barreled it up, sent a line drive screaming into right-center, then chugged all the way to third after the ball got past Teoscar Hernández in the gap.

A fly ball two batters later — which served as a sacrifice fly thanks to Hernández’s inability to cut the ball off on Realmuto’s triple earlier — made it 3-0.

In the moment (and with the way Sánchez was pitching), it felt like an almost insurmountable lead.

In the dugout, however, the Dodgers thought back to Bates’ pregame message.

They were staggered, but didn’t submit. They were rattled, but not wrecked.

“Gotta give credit to Aaron Bates on that one. He made sure all the hitters knew about it,” Muncy said. “You just got to find a way to weather that storm and understand what the end goal is."

The turnaround began with Ohtani, who despite striking out four times as a batter followed Realmuto’s triple by retiring the next 10 he faced. His only other trouble came in the fifth, when the bottom two hitters in the Phillies’ order reached base with one out. But even then, Ohtani buckled down, getting Trea Turner to line out and Kyle Schwarber to swing through a curveball that ended the inning.

On the night, Ohtani and the Dodgers’ relievers limited the Phillies’ big three of Turner, Schwarber and Bryce Harper to just one hit in 11 at-bats.

“I use the word compartmentalize a lot, but this epitomizes compartmentalizing,” manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani. “To go out there and give us six innings, keep us in the ball game, I just don't know any human that can manage that, those emotions. How do you not take [the hitting struggles] to the mound?”

Eventually, the Dodgers’ offense found life too.

With two outs in the sixth, and Sánchez having given up only two hits all night, Freddie Freeman sparked a rally with a five-pitch walk. Tommy Edman took a sinker the other way to put two aboard.

That brought up Kiké Hernández, who continued his habit of October heroics by jumping on a slider from Sánchez that caught a little too much plate. Hernández roped a line drive down the left-field line. Freeman and Edman scored, with the latter running through a stop sign before sliding safely across the plate.

Just like that, Sánchez was knocked out of the game. What had been a raucous crowd earlier suddenly grew tense.

Then, in the seventh, Teoscar Hernández made the comeback complete.

After Andy Pages led with a single and Will Smith (who entered the game in the fifth inning after missing the wild-card round with a fractured hand) was hit by a pitch from David Robertson, the Phillies summoned top left-handed reliever Matt Strahm and watched him get Ohtani to strike out for the fourth consecutive time (something he had done in a game only once before in his career).

By getting Strahm on the mound, however, the Dodgers had favorable right-on-left matchups. Mookie Betts couldn’t take advantage, popping out to third for the second out. Hernández, on the other hand, didn’t miss, sending an elevated fastball sailing high into the autumn night.

“I watched videos [of him]. He likes to go up in the strike zone. I think that's when he's stronger,” Hernández said. “[I was] not trying to overswing or anything like that. Try to bring in one run to tie the game. But he left it over the strike zone.”

And as the ball landed in the right-field stands, the once rollicking ballpark fell into a stunned silence.

Back in the dugout, Muncy said, “a lot of people were yelling at Bates, like, ‘Hey, you were right!’”

Bates, once again, deflected when asked about the moment.

“We were really just excited that Teo got him eventually,” he said. “It was a great swing, using the whole field. That’s what Teo does. He stuck to his plan throughout the day. And then they make a mistake and he gets him.”

Still, the attitude he’d preached before the game had helped the Dodgers jump back in front. And from there, a new-look bullpen plan managed to collect the final nine outs.

Projected Game 4 starter Tyler Glasnow came on in relief of Ohtani in the seventh and pitched a scoreless inning that ended on a double-play ball. He left behind a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, but was bailed out when Alex Vesia got a fly ball to end the inning.

The ninth belonged to newly ascendant closer Roki Sasaki, who continued his late-season resurgence as a reliever by working around a one-out double to Max Kepler to collect his first career save.

And when the final out was recorded, somber Phillies fans filed out into a quiet night.

“We knew we were going to be winning in the seventh inning. He said it,” Rojas said, referring to Bates’ speech one more time. “He said that we were going to have an opportunity to come back in the game, and it happened. The guys stuck together. ... That’s why we’re a team.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

On the mound, he self-destructed in a second inning that nearly placed the game out of his team’s reach.

In the batter’s box, he struck out four times for only the seventh time in his career.

A two-way player for the first time in a postseason game, Shohei Ohtani didn’t save the Dodgers on Saturday night.

Instead, Ohtani was the one being saved in a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of their National League Division Series.

He was saved by Tyler Glasnow, Alex Vesia and Roki Sasaki, who combined to shut down the lethal Phillies lineup over the last three innings.

He was saved by a two-run double by Kike Hernández in the sixth inning that reduced their deficit to 3-2.

He was saved by a three-run blast by Teoscar Hernández in the seventh that moved them in front, 5-3.

Ohtani said in Japanese of Hernandez’s go-ahead homer: “It was a wonderful moment. I think it was the kind of moment that made you think, ‘This is the postseason.’”

The victory cleared a path for the Dodgers to defend a World Series title that once felt indefensible. By stealing the road win necessary to advance, the Dodgers have taken control of this best-of-five series against the Phillies, who could be the greatest obstacle in their World Series defense.

The Dodgers should have the edge in starting pitching over the next two games, as Blake Snell is scheduled to start Game 2 on Monday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto Game 3 on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.

If a fifth game is required to decide this NLDS, Ohtani will be able to pitch on six-days’ rest.

Who could have imagined the Dodgers would be in this position after a game in which Ohtani staggered through a three-run second inning that left him looking as if he was eaten alive by the notoriously hostile Citizens Bank Park crowd?

Read more:Dodgers show their resiliency again in NLDS Game 1 comeback win over Phillies

“He’s not always going to be perfect,” Roberts said.

That being said, Roberts was quick to point out Ohtani’s contributions.

How after that brutal second inning, Ohtani pitched four scoreless innings to keep the Dodgers within striking distance. How Ohtani showed bunt and stepped out of the batter’s box in his ninth-inning at-bat as part of a plan to buy more time for Sasaki to warm up to close the game.

Ohtani sounded particularly proud of how he struck out NL home run king Kyle Schwarber for the third out of the fifth inning. The Phillies stranded two runners.

“I think it might have been a scene that decided the direction of the game,” Ohtani said.

The Dodgers scored two runs in the next innings and three in the inning after that.

“To kind of look at the at-bats that he took tonight and how he struggled offensively, but to separate that and just be a pitcher and weather that [second] inning and to go out there and give us six innings and keep us in the ballgame, I just don’t know any human that can manage those emotions,” Roberts said.

The comeback was necessary because of a second inning that started with a walk by Alec Bohm. Midway through the at-bat of the next hitter, Brandon Marsh, the Citizens Bank Park crowd started to taunt Ohtani.

Sho-hei!

Sho-hei!

Marsh singled. Ohtani responded by reaching back and throwing a 100.2-mph fastball over the heart of the plate to J.T. Realmuto, who launched a rocket into right-center field.

Heavy-footed right fielder Teoscar Hernandez failed to cut off the ball, which skipped to the outfield wall. Bohm and Marsh scored.

Realmuto reached third and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Harrison Bader.

Just like that, the Dodgers were down, 3-0.

This was not the start envisioned by the Dodgers, who set up Ohtani to be the star of this series.

The Dodgers didn’t send Ohtani to the mound in either of their two games of the previous round against the Cincinnati Reds.

By starting Snell and Yamamoto in the wild-card series, the Dodgers were able to save Ohtani for Game 1 of their series against the more formidable Phillies.

The Dodgers entered the NLDS reveling in the history about to be made by Ohtani, the most valuable player as a designated hitter last season back in the October spotlight to pitch in the postseason for the first time.

“I think as he takes the mound for the bottom half [of the first inning], I’m going to take a moment just to appreciate him doing something unprecedented,” Roberts said before the game.

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman went as far to make the case that Ohtani was underrated.

“I just don’t think the human brain can comprehend what he does and how difficult it is and how he is elite at both,” Friedman said. “The passion he has for hitting and the passion he has for pitching, it doesn’t seem like there’s enough passion to go around, but there is with him.”

Read more:Teoscar Hernández home run powers Dodgers to NLDS Game 1 win over Phillies

Ohtani didn’t pitch last season as he was recovering from an elbow operation he underwent in 2023. Friedman recalled the diligence with which he rehabilitated.

“It wasn’t just about pitching for him,” Friedman said. “It was about pitching really well.”

Ohtani didn’t pitch really well on Saturday night, but he will have a chance to pitch really well in the days and weeks ahead.

His team gifted him the opportunity.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

TORONTO -- Luke Weaver said after the Yankees’ 10-1 ALDS Game 1 loss on Saturday that he has been trying to clean up tells in his delivery, and that the effort to do so has caused him to overthink.

Now, after two consecutive postseason outings in which he has faced three batters without recording an out, Weaver wants to stop worrying about tipping and return to his old form.

That old form, of course, has proven elusive for Weaver all season. Aaron Boone managed him nimbly through the season, quietly moving Weaver to softer lanes against the bottom of opposing orders in order to restore his results and confidence.

When a pitcher openly muses about tipping, his confidence is clearly not at its peak. The Yankees brought this to Weaver’s attention about a month ago.

The question now is how many opportunities the team will give Weaver to get his mind right. A running internal debate/discussion in the organization has been whether Boone should prioritize Weaver over Fernando Cruz in his pecking order, or vice versa.

On Saturday, Weaver and Cruz both struggled, while Camilo Doval pitched two perfect innings. Doval is a former All-Star closer for the San Francisco Giants.

After the Yankees’ pen struggled in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against Boston, I asked a high-up person in the organization what they could do to improve and adjust their pen on the fly. This is the aspect of their roster that stands most clearly between the Yanks and a championship. That person suggested using Doval in higher-leverage situations.

Boone said that he hoped Doval would be available in Game 2 despite pitching the two frames.

“That's kind of how he finished the season,” the manager added. “His last few were really good. I feel like he cleaned up some things within his setup and his delivery. Yeah, that was really efficient, really good, attacking the strike zone with, obviously, that stuff. Another encouraging one for Camilo."

What is Warren’s role?

The Yankees like Will Warren despite choosing Luis Gil over him to start Game 1. But what is Warren’s role in this postseason?

When Gil struggled in the second inning, Boone got the lefty Tim Hill up in the bullpen along with righty long man Paul Blackburn. Why not Warren behind Gil?

“If I was going to go early to the pen, I wanted to get a situation where I had Hill where he was going to get most of the lefties without pinch-hitting early in the game,” Boone explained. “And then at some point, depending on leverage of the game, Will comes into play.”

My understanding is that the Yankees would use Warren for high-leverage outs but more likely length -- just not in a spot like the one in which Boone called for Hill, where several lefties were due up.

Because of off days, Max Fried will be able to start Game 2 and a potential Game 5 on full rest.

On that Judge at-bat

Any time Aaron Judge bats in a big spot in the postseason, the referendum begins on what the result will mean for his October reputation and legacy. Given his numbers, those talking points are mostly fair.

But a closer look at Judge’s bases-loaded, no outs strikeout against Kevin Gausman in the sixth inning shows how that at-bat would have challenged just about anyone.

Asked if he was “overanxious,” Judge said, “I wouldn’t say overanxious, if you saw the whole at-bat. But in the end, I didn't get the job done.”

Here’s what he meant by seeing the whole at-bat: Gausman’s first pitch was a 97 mph fastball low and away for a strike. A pitcher’s pitch. Judge went on to take a few close ones and foul off a few tough ones.

The eighth pitch of the at-bat was a 3-2 splitter that appeared headed to the same area as the first-pitch fastball. That Pitching Ninja guy on Twitter shows this kind of tunneling. I’m trying to do it verbally here, which is not as illustrative. But stay with me.

After the ball left Gausman’s hand, Judge had the usual millisecond to decide if it was going to be in the zone, like the fastball. He considered the spin and path of the ball, then fired. But it was a nasty splitter, diving away for what would have been ball four.

Basically, when Gausman executes that pitch, as he did here, the batter has very little chance. If it looks like a strike to Aaron “Best Hitter on Earth” Judge, imagine how the rest of the league would have flailed at it.

Why Boone didn’t pinch-hit for Rice

Ben Rice struggled in Game 3 of the Wild Card series against lefty Connelly Early’s breaking ball, and did the same in his first two at-bats Saturday against Gausman’s splitter. Gausman is a righty, but that pitch kills lefties.

During the Yankees’ sixth-inning rally, Bellinger followed Judge’s strikeout with a bases-loaded walk, making it a 2-1 game. Then Rice stepped to the plate. Some in the industry wondered why Boone didn’t pinch-hit Paul Goldschmidt, who hits soft stuff well and is 10-for-22 lifetime versus Gausman.

The answer is simple and reasonable: righty reliever Louis Varland was ready in the bullpen. Swapping in Goldschmidt would have simply given Toronto manager John Schneider a matchup he wanted. Varland came in to strike out Giancarlo Stanton.

It’s fair to wonder why the Yankees did not start Goldschmidt, given that history.

It’s not just Aaron Judge’s fault, of course. There were Yankee failures Saturday across multiple departments in the opener of the AL Division Series, from starting pitching to the bullpen to a lineup that didn’t deliver in yet another loss in Toronto.

But the lingering moment, at least for Yankees fans smarting over an enormous chance missed in a game that would devolve into a laugher, might come from the stressful sixth inning with Judge at the plate. The bases were loaded, nobody out, in a still-taut game. The Yanks were down by two runs.

Kevin Gausman, the Blue Jays starter, was rolling, but Judge is a longtime nemesis – the Yankee star owned a 1.283 OPS against Gausman entering Saturday. His lifetime six homers off Gausman are the most he’s slugged off a single pitcher. It was, as Gausman would put it later, "Mano y mano.”

Mano Gausman won. He got Judge to swing at a low splitter – obviously a ball – on a 3-2 pitch, capping an eight-pitch battle with a crucial K. Gausman walked in a run, but the Jays ultimately escaped the inning, allowing just that one run. Reliever Louis Varland struck out Giancarlo Stanton to end the threat and Toronto went on to a 10-1 victory.

“In the end, you know, I didn’t get the job done,” Judge told reporters in Toronto. “That’s what it comes down to.”

And so the October scrutiny will continue for Judge. He’s clearly one of the greatest hitters of this, or any, era. In the postseason, it’s too much to ask for anyone to reproduce the outsized numbers he’s stacked up during the regular season. But he’s a career .217 hitter this time of year after going 2-for-4 Saturday. (He’s actually having a strong postseason so far, batting .400).

But, fair or unfair, he probably needs to wreck a series himself to get full credit from pinstriped fans. A World Series wouldn’t hurt, either, obviously.

But all that’s not just on him, just like the blame for the loss in the Division Series isn’t solely his to own. After Judge, the Yankees had Cody Bellinger, Ben Rice and Giancarlo Stanton coming to the plate. Plenty of thump there, too, but Gausman and Varland wriggled (mostly) free.

Overall, the Yankees were outhit, 14-6, and were just 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Let’s go back to the Yanks’ big chance. Gausman’s splitter was particularly dangerous against the aggressive Yankees and, as the at-bat against Judge went on, it was easy to think he’d use it as his out pitch. But he set it up beautifully by first throwing a 97 mile-per-hour four-seamer inside to Judge, which Judge fouled off. Then Gausman threw an 86-mph splitter outside that dipped below the strike zone. Judge swung and missed.

“I kind of threw some pitches that I got away with, to be honest, early in the at-bat,” Gausman said in the interview room. “But I thought the pitch before really set up the split down and away. In that moment, to be honest, I'm fine walking him. He can blow that game right open with one swing. So kind of knowing that, the whole at-bat I was trying to go down and away with the split, left a couple kind of too good.

“But that was a good pitch. I thought the pitch before definitely set it up.”

“That’s a huge, huge strikeout of a guy who’s going to be the MVP of the league, probably,” Toronto manager John Schneider added. “You’re kind of going to feed on the emotion a little bit, too, to be honest with you. But that’s the last thing you want to see (Judge at the plate in that situation).”

Judge lamented that he had swung at ball four. “You guys all saw it,” he told reporters.

There’s no question the game changes if the Yankees come away with more than one run there. Maybe their bullpen usage changes and Luke Weaver, who has let all six batters he’s faced reach base this postseason, does not get the ball. Yankees relievers allowed eight runs in 5.1 innings in total, though, so it wasn’t just Weaver. And starter Luis Gil was unimpressive, too.

Clearly, Judge and his teammates must forget Saturday’s dud. One way to do that is to start dreaming about how the pitching lines up for them going forward. Max Fried starts Game 2 on Sunday – he was 11-1 with a 1.82 ERA in 16 starts after a Yankee loss this year – and he’ll be followed by Carlos Rodón in Game 3 and then Cam Schlittler, the rookie sensation who overwhelmed the Red Sox in the clincher of the Wild Card series, in Game 4.

Judge will continue to get chances. It’s probably worth believing in him, regardless of Octobers past. Maybe it’s worth continuing to believe in the Yankees, too, despite the way Saturday sagged.

Judge does. “I like our chances,” he said. “We’ve got to keep getting those opportunities and we’re going to come through when we need to.”

Yankees reliever Luke Weaver is having a postseason to forget.

After allowing two runs without recording an out in Game 1 of the Wild Card series against the Red Sox, the right-hander had a repeat performance against Toronto on Saturday in the first game of the American League Division Series.

With the Blue Jays up just 2-1 in the seventh, Weaver was called upon to keep Toronto scoreless as he started the inning. Daulton Varsho worked a five-pitch walk before Anthony Santander lined a single to right field, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Andres Gimenez then singled through the right side of a drawn-in infield to score one. 

After three batters, that was it for Weaver. Fernando Cruz would allow two of Weaver's runners to score, closing the book on the 32-year-old's night. Weaver allowed three runs on two hits and one walk, without recording an out, again.

"Not a stuff issue," manager Aaron Boone said of Weaver after the loss. "Obviously, command is usually a strength for Weave. Losing the first guy in four pitches there and then looked like a couple of change-ups that just kind of were flat and up and over the plate that Santander got and Giménez with the drawn-in infield. It can click like that, because the stuff is there. We've just got to get him locked in with his delivery."

Weaver's delivery and mechanics became a point of discussion after Saturday's 10-1 loss, and all of it came from Weaver himself.

"The results haven’t been good. There’s been a lot of internal factors. I don’t want to get too crazy into it, but there’s been adjustments that I’ve had to make based on things people are seeing. It just hasn’t lined up," Weaver explained after the game. "It’s pretty late in the adjustment period. It’s just not lining up out there. I don’t feel like myself. I don’t feel like my mind is completely clear to go out there and attack. I do feel physically strong, I do feel mentally strong overall. There are just some factors that are building up and I’m just not executing at the clip I want to."

"There's been a lot of internal factors. I don't want to get too crazy into it, but there's been adjustments I've have to make based off of things that people are seeing. It just hasn't really lined up. It's been pretty late in the adjustment period and it's just not lining up… pic.twitter.com/zI8RhEeLv4

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) October 4, 2025

Weaver became the Yankees'  most reliable reliever last season, allowing him to overtake Clay Holmes as the team's closer through their playoff run a year ago. 

However, with the addition of Devin Williams in the offseason and then David Bednar at the trade deadline, Weaver's role has been more of a bridge to the ninth inning. This season, he's pitched to a 3.62 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP, up from last year, but a lot of that has come of late. He pitched to a 9.64 ERA in 12 appearances in September, buoyed by a couple of blowup outings earlier in the month, but was still solid heading into the postseason. 

In his final six appearances (5.2 IP), Weaver allowed just one hit and one walk. However, that hasn't translated to the playoffs as of yet.

Despite trying to combat pitch tipping, Weaver says he feels close and is competitive. He points to the soft contact teams have gotten off of him in his two postseason outings so far, but the adjustments he's making aren't taking, and his patented changeup is staying up in the zone. For Weaver, who is a free agent after this season, the adjustments have "become a lot," and he is going to go back to what he was doing before.

"Ultimately, I’m at a point where I’m just full send and none of that’s going to matter anymore," he said. "I’m going to be what I think is best for me and attack and what I need to do."

He later added, "Baseball seems overwhelming at the moment when the results aren’t on your side. I don’t walk away from these outings being too hard on myself. Ultimately, I’m really close. I’m not giving up balls out of the yard or hard contact. It comes down to pitch selection, execution and relying on our guys on the field to make plays."

Weaver was pressed with follow-ups about the perceived tipping but he didn't want to go too deep on it, but wanted to make his feelings known.

"I just got to be tidy, clean, go out there and give myself the best chance," he said. "Ultimately, too, at the same time, you have to keep your brain clean; the moments already big, you don’t need more things stacking on your plate."

Despite the tough outings, Weaver's teammates remain confident that the reliever can still get it done.

"Things haven't gone his way, but everybody in this room has confidence in him to go out there and do his job," Aaron Judge said of Weaver. "He's been a special piece of this team since he came over here."

And Weaver has a history the Yankees can lean on. In 12 appearances last October, Weaver was great, pitching to a 1.76 ERA and converting four saves along the way. 

But while it's unknown when his next postseason appearance will be this year, Weaver remains confident in his stuff. And that given an opportunity, he will continue to compete for his teammates.

"I’m not going to allow two outings to dictate my time here. You can certainly say what you like, but ultimately, I feel confident in our team, I feel confident in myself," he said. "It’s not like I’m throwing 93 [mph], I’m throwing 97, it’s coming out really good. I’ll make the adjustments, I’ll do it. I’ll leave everything out on the field. It won’t be a matter of trying, a matter of letting myself roll over. I’ll compete with anyone in this entire world or I’ll die trying."

The Yankees hope to avoid a 0-2 deficit when they play the Blue Jays in Game 2 of the ALDS on Sunday.

 

Luis Gil was terrific for the Yankees down the stretch. 

The right-hander threw well enough that he earned himself the ALDS Game 1 start. 

Things, however, did not quite go as planned on Saturday afternoon.

Gil was knocked out of the game by the high-powered Blue Jays over just 2.2 innings of work, allowing two runs on four hits (two homers) in what was his shortest outing of the season. 

He gave up a two-out solo shot to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the bottom of the first, and then Alejandro Kirk made him pay for another mistake with a no-doubt solo blast of his own leading off the second. 

The righty came back out for the bottom of the third, but was pulled after giving up a two-out single to Guerrero. 

“They were hunting the top of the zone and put some good swings on him,” Aaron Boone said. “You live with the two solo shots, we were still in the game there and he did enough, we felt like we could piece it together from there.”

As things played out, though, the Yanks were unable to piece this one together. 

The offense wasted a golden opportunity with Toronto’s Kevin Gausman on the ropes in the sixth, as Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton struck out with the bases loaded in a close ballgame.

The Jays' offense was sure to make them pay for that an inning later, as they jumped all over the struggling Luke Weaver to score four more times in the seventh, officially putting this one away and securing the series advantage. 

“Not the result we wanted,” Gil said through an interpreter. “You want to execute your pitches against this lineup, but at the same time they’re big-league hitters, they’re there to swing the bat and they were able to do that tonight -- but I have full confidence in my teammates and I know we’re going to come back strong tomorrow.”