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Hernández: Why has Shohei Ohtani gone missing at the plate for the Dodgers?
The familiar sound reverberated throughout Dodger Stadium.
Crack!
The baseball soared into the October sky, Shohei Ohtani gliding down the first-base line as he watched it travel back, back, back …
… only to be caught a few inches in front of the left-field wall by Max Kepler.
So close.
Read more:Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Dodgers quickly lose control in NLDS Game 3 loss to Phillies
So close to a seventh-inning home run that could have made Game 3 a game. So close to a home run that could have revitalized baseball’s best player in this National League Division Series.
Ohtani is now one for 14 with seven strikeouts in this best-of-five series, in which the Dodgers’ lead was reduced to two games to one after an 8-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
While Ohtani was hitless in five at-bats on Wednesday night, Phillies counterpart Kyle Schwarber launched two homers, including a 455-foot blast in the fourth inning that changed the complexion of the game and series.
The heart of the Phillies’ order awakened, the Dodgers’ didn’t, and that was more or less the difference in the game.
Ohtani is the Dodgers’ failsafe, and the failsafe is failing. The Dodgers remain in control of this NLDS, but considering the shortcomings of their present roster, they almost certainly can’t win a World Series with him being as ineffective at the plate as he was for extended stretches of the postseason last year.
The Dodgers did everything in their power to ensure Ohtani’s transformation into Oh-fer-tani wouldn’t become an annual event.
By not sending him to the mound in either of the first two games of their wild-card series, the Dodgers were able to delay his first start as a pitcher until Game 1 of this series. Because the schedule called for a day off between Games 1 and 2, Ohtani didn’t have to play the day after making a start, a situation in which he has difficulty hitting. In the regular season, Ohtani batted just .147 on the days following his starts.
If the Phillies can send this series back to Philadelphia for Game 5 on Saturday, Ohtani would be the Dodgers’ starting pitcher. Under that scenario, he also wouldn’t have to hit the next day. The NL Championship Series doesn’t start until Monday.
However, the team’s assistance hasn’t benefited the left-handed-hitting Ohtani in the batter’s box, as the Phillies have shut him down by deploying a series of hard-throwing left-handed pitchers against him.
Ohtani has taken 15 plate appearances in this series and 12 of them were against left-handed pitchers. Of his three plate appearances against right-handed pitches, two were against closer Jhoan Durán, who is armed with a 100-mph fastball.
Cristopher Sánchez, who will start for the Phillies on Thursday in Game 4, struck out Ohtani each of the three times he pitched to him in Game 1. Jesús Luzardo, a candidate to start a potential Game 5, didn’t allow a hit to Ohtani in any of the three at-bats in which they faced each other.
“I think the lefties are part of it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But I just think his decision making hasn’t been good.”
Phillies left-handers have attacked Ohtani with sinkers that come in on his hands.
“You can see it’s balls in, off the plate, and he’s not really giving himself a chance to hit a mistake,” Roberts said. “I just think he’s in between a little bit, but the swing decisions are just not where they need to be right now.”
Ohtani answered as many questions about his mini-slump as he had hits Wednesday. Approached in the clubhouse after the game, Ohtani offered nothing more than a blank stare.
The image-conscious two-way player doesn’t like to say to reporters directly that he won’t speak, as doing so after, say, a hitless game could make him look as if he is skirting accountability. Ohtani instead entrusts the team’s public relations staff to decline interviews on his behalf.
On this particular night, a Dodgers security guard ran interference for Ohtani, pointing to nonexistent rules against speaking to him without the public relations staff’s permission. (Baseball’s media access regulations are set by the collective-bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union, not any particular team. There are no restrictions on approaching players in the clubhouse, but players have the right to refuse to answer questions.)
In a nearby interview room, Phillies manager Rob Thomson was careful to not celebrate his team’s success against the NL’s likely most valuable player.
“I really don’t want to comment on that because, I mean, he can explode at any time,” Thomson said.
Read more:Plaschke: Dodgers blow surefire win in NLDS Game 3 vs. Phillies, and now they could blow the season
Ohtani’s only hit of the series was an important one, a single in Game 2 that drove in what turned out to be the winning run.
“He’s that great of a hitter,” Thomson said. “But we have pitched him well.”
There is no player who moves on from an abysmal performance as well as Ohtani. To that point, before the failed attempt to ask him about his offensive troubles, Ohtani shared a laugh with Justin Dean and bumped fists with the reserve outfielder.
Ohtani looked as if he had already placed the 0-for-five night behind him, which had to be a relief for the Dodgers. He will have to hit at some point this October, if not in this series, in the next, or the one after that.
Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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What to know for the ALCS, NLCS: Matchups, schedule, format and how to watch
What to know for the ALCS, NLCS: Matchups, schedule, format and how to watch originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
It’s time for the next round of the 2025 MLB playoffs.
The American League and National League pennants will be decided in the coming days, with the Championship Series set to begin once the Division Series wraps up.
In the AL, the No. 1 Toronto Blue Jays locked up the first spot in the ALCS with their four-game victory over the No. 4 New York Yankees. Their opponent is yet to be decided, as the No. 2 Seattle Mariners and No. 6 Detroit Tigers head to be winner-take-all Game 5 on Friday.
The NLCS spots are still completely up for grabs — with both NLDS matchups entering Game 4 on Thursday. The No. 3 Los Angeles Dodgers lead the No. 2 Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1, and the No. 1 Milwaukee Brewers lead the No. 4 Chicago Cubs, 2-1.
So, while there are still three teams left to clinch their Championship Series berth, we do know plenty of details about the upcoming pennant fights.
From the matchups to the schedule and how to watch, here’s what to know about the Championship Series:
What are the 2025 ALCS, NLCS matchups?
Given the matchups in the Division Series, we are guaranteed to have non-divisional matchups in the Championship Series.
The AL East champion Blue Jays will have home-field advantage over the AL West champion Mariners or AL wild card Tigers. In the NL, home-field will be determined based on who advances — the NL Central champion Brewers will claim it if they can beat their division rival Cubs. If Chicago comes back, the winner of the NL East champion Phillies and NL West champion Dodgers will get home-field.
Here’s a full look at the bracket:
American League
- No. 2 Seattle Mariners/No. 6 Detroit Tigers vs. No. 1 Toronto Blue Jays
National League
- No. 2 Philadelphia Phillies/No. 3 Los Angeles Dodgers vs. No. 1 Milwaukee Brewers/No. 4 Chicago Cubs
How many games are in the ALCS, NLCS?
Following best-of-three Wild Card Series and best-of-five Division Series, the postseason moves to a best-of-seven format in the Championship Series and World Series. The higher seed hosts Games 1, 2 and, if necessary, 6 and 7.
What is the 2025 ALCS, NLCS schedule?
Here’s a series-by-series look at the Championship Series schedule:
American League
Mariners/Tigers vs. Blue Jays
- Game 1: Sunday, Oct. 12, time TBA
- Game 2: Monday, Oct. 13, time TBA
- Game 3: Wednesday, Oct. 15, time TBA
- Game 4: Thursday, Oct. 16, time TBA
- Game 5 (if necessary): Friday, Oct. 17, time TBA
- Game 6 (if necessary): Sunday, Oct. 19, time TBA
- Game 7 (if necessary): Monday, Oct. 20, time TBA
National League
Phillies/Dodgers vs. Brewers/Cubs
- Game 1: Monday, Oct. 13, time TBA
- Game 2: Tuesday, Oct. 14, time TBA
- Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 16, time TBA
- Game 4: Friday, Oct. 17, time TBA
- Game 5 (if necessary): Saturday, Oct. 18, time TBA
- Game 6 (if necessary): Monday, Oct. 20, time TBA
- Game 7 (if necessary): Tuesday, Oct. 21, time TBA
What TV channels are the ALDS, NLDS on?
ALCS games will air on FOX and FS1.
TBS will broadcast the NLCS games.
How to stream the ALDS, NLDS live online
The ALCS action can be streamed on FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app.
NLCS games can be streamed on TBS.com, the TBS app and HBO Max.
What to know for the ALCS, NLCS: Matchups, schedule, format and how to watch
What to know for the ALCS, NLCS: Matchups, schedule, format and how to watch originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
It’s time for the next round of the 2025 MLB playoffs.
The American League and National League pennants will be decided in the coming days, with the Championship Series set to begin once the Division Series wraps up.
In the AL, the No. 1 Toronto Blue Jays locked up the first spot in the ALCS with their four-game victory over the No. 4 New York Yankees. Their opponent is yet to be decided, as the No. 2 Seattle Mariners and No. 6 Detroit Tigers head to be winner-take-all Game 5 on Friday.
The NLCS spots are still completely up for grabs — with both NLDS matchups entering Game 4 on Thursday. The No. 3 Los Angeles Dodgers lead the No. 2 Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1, and the No. 1 Milwaukee Brewers lead the No. 4 Chicago Cubs, 2-1.
So, while there are still three teams left to clinch their Championship Series berth, we do know plenty of details about the upcoming pennant fights.
From the matchups to the schedule and how to watch, here’s what to know about the Championship Series:
What are the 2025 ALCS, NLCS matchups?
Given the matchups in the Division Series, we are guaranteed to have non-divisional matchups in the Championship Series.
The AL East champion Blue Jays will have home-field advantage over the AL West champion Mariners or AL wild card Tigers. In the NL, home-field will be determined based on who advances — the NL Central champion Brewers will claim it if they can beat their division rival Cubs. If Chicago comes back, the winner of the NL East champion Phillies and NL West champion Dodgers will get home-field.
Here’s a full look at the bracket:
American League
- No. 2 Seattle Mariners/No. 6 Detroit Tigers vs. No. 1 Toronto Blue Jays
National League
- No. 2 Philadelphia Phillies/No. 3 Los Angeles Dodgers vs. No. 1 Milwaukee Brewers/No. 4 Chicago Cubs
How many games are in the ALCS, NLCS?
Following best-of-three Wild Card Series and best-of-five Division Series, the postseason moves to a best-of-seven format in the Championship Series and World Series. The higher seed hosts Games 1, 2 and, if necessary, 6 and 7.
What is the 2025 ALCS, NLCS schedule?
Here’s a series-by-series look at the Championship Series schedule:
American League
Mariners/Tigers vs. Blue Jays
- Game 1: Sunday, Oct. 12, time TBA
- Game 2: Monday, Oct. 13, time TBA
- Game 3: Wednesday, Oct. 15, time TBA
- Game 4: Thursday, Oct. 16, time TBA
- Game 5 (if necessary): Friday, Oct. 17, time TBA
- Game 6 (if necessary): Sunday, Oct. 19, time TBA
- Game 7 (if necessary): Monday, Oct. 20, time TBA
National League
Phillies/Dodgers vs. Brewers/Cubs
- Game 1: Monday, Oct. 13, time TBA
- Game 2: Tuesday, Oct. 14, time TBA
- Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 16, time TBA
- Game 4: Friday, Oct. 17, time TBA
- Game 5 (if necessary): Saturday, Oct. 18, time TBA
- Game 6 (if necessary): Monday, Oct. 20, time TBA
- Game 7 (if necessary): Tuesday, Oct. 21, time TBA
What TV channels are the ALDS, NLDS on?
ALCS games will air on FOX and FS1.
TBS will broadcast the NLCS games.
How to stream the ALDS, NLDS live online
The ALCS action can be streamed on FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app.
NLCS games can be streamed on TBS.com, the TBS app and HBO Max.
Brandin Podziemski hopes to one day lead Warriors after Steph, Draymond retire
Brandin Podziemski hopes to one day lead Warriors after Steph, Draymond retire originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Brandin Podziemski isn’t your average 22-year-old.
The Warriors guard, who was drafted by the team No. 19 overall in 2023 and has started multiple high-stakes games for Golden State over the past two seasons, already is thinking about the future and is ready to take that next step in his career.
While he’s had the luxury of learning from some of the best in the game, such as Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, his next goal is having those same players — plus the Warriors’ top decision-makers — trust him enough to leave him the keys to the franchise when they’re gone.
“When they leave this thing, they got to leave it with somebody,” Podziemski told The Athletic’s Nick Friedell in an exclusive interview. “How can I have their trust? And they can go to [owner] Joe [Lacob] and [general manager] Mike [Dunleavy] and be like, “Hey, we want to leave it with him. He’s going to continue what we’re leaving.
“So, I think about that all time, and I set myself up in that position to have that. And there’s a lot of other things than just skill that you need to be in that position.”
There has been much chatter about life after Steph, and what that could look like.
Would the franchise turn to Podziemski? Jonathan Kuminga? Whose team would it be?
Curry, 37, made it clear he still has plenty of gas in the tank as he aims for ring No. 5, but he’s also acknowledged that he’s approaching the tail end of his career.
Podziemski knows he has some growing up to do, emotionally, to gain that trust.
“There’s a next step in evolving emotionally, and as a leader,” Podziemski told Friedell. “Having confidence from your teammates is one thing, especially the vets, but them trusting you in big moments that could define their career. Could add another piece to their career. For them to have trust in you is a different thing, and you got to earn that over time, and I think that’s a goal of mine going into this season.”
Over the last two-plus years, Podziemski has noticed how hard everyone plays for Curry and the Warriors vets. He’s one of those players.
But someday, he hopes younger players do the same for him.
“Nobody wants to play so hard for Steph [just] because he can shoot the s–t out of the ball,” Podziemski told Friedell. “Nobody wants to play hard for Draymond [just] because his voice is the loudest. It’s doing the right things consistently, being at the right place, the right time, always taking young guys under their wing, showing them the way. That’s the reason why game days, people play so hard for Steph. If someone knocks him down we’re always right there, got his back.
“It’s not because he can shoot the ball that that’s the case. It’s so many other things. So, you want to take that and grab your own version of it and apply it. So, when the younger guys come in, and this is my team, if I get that opportunity, they have a reason to play hard for me too.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr has been impressed with what he’s seen from Podziemski thus far as the young guard is set to enter Year 3. Speaking to the media after Day 1 of training camp practice, Kerr applauded Podziemski for taking a “big leap” during the second half of last season.
But when asked what those next steps look like for Podziemski to take another leap in his third NBA season with Golden State, Kerr also acknowledged that emotional maturity is one of the main things.
“Honestly, you’ll laugh,” Kerr began. “But leaving the refs alone. That’s important. It’s important to his energy, his mindset, it’s important for our team’s mindset. And taking that next step in terms of being more even-keeled. One of the hardest lessons I ever learned as a player is when you have that bad night you have to move on quickly, and you can’t let it get to you. You can’t carry it over into the next day’s practice.”
Podziemski admitted it’s become a “conscious effort” to think about keeping his emotions in check.
Once he masters that, whenever that might be, he hopes that will help give him a better chance of one day being the leader of the Warriors.
Blood, bias and the Battle of Florida: how the NHL’s dirtiest rivalry exposed hockey’s old-boy rot
The Florida Panthers–Tampa Bay Lightning rivalry was once a regional sideshow, a quirky matchup between two southern expansion teams playing to half-empty arenas and polite indifference. But in the space of just a few years it has mutated into the nastiest, most revealing feud in hockey: one that’s exposed the NHL’s double standards, cronyism and cultural divide.
Related: The NHL preached inclusion. So why has it got into bed with Donald Trump?
Preseason hockey is meaningless by design, a handful of perfunctory tune-ups that even hardcore fans barely notice in the run-up to opening night, when the games finally start to count. Yet in the past week the Panthers and Lightning turned a pair of exhibition contests into three-hour fever dreams of violence: 114 penalties totaling nearly 500 minutes in the box, 16 game misconducts and one ejected player who somehow picked up an assist on an eighth goal that shouldn’t have counted. It was all-out bedlam before the season even began, but the uneven fallout has raised uncomfortable questions around the sport.
It all kicked off last Thursday when Florida’s AJ Greer sucker-punched Tampa’s Brandon Hagel in the head – a callback to last spring’s playoff meeting between the teams, when Hagel’s borderline hit on Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov sparked Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad’s retaliatory headshot that left Hagel concussed. Greer’s cheap shot, punished with only a $2,000 fine, broke hockey’s unspoken code: you never go after a player with a known concussion history, especially one you’ve already injured.
So on Saturday, Tampa iced a lineup of AHL enforcers and spent the night exacting frontier justice. The league’s response? Heavy fines and suspensions for the Lightning, none for Florida.
The ugly scenes revived an old suspicion: that the NHL’s disciplinary system protects its favorites. The Panthers’ connections only make the optics worse. The league’s director of hockey operations, Colin Campbell, is a longtime power broker whose son is a minority owner and assistant general manager of – you guessed it – the Panthers. The head of player safety, George Parros, is a former Panther himself. A decade ago Campbell’s leaked emails showed him berating referees for not giving Florida preferential treatment. Nothing changed.
Across the NHL, this latest bloodbath looked like business as usual: a vivid reminder that hockey’s old-boy network pulls the strings on a two-tiered system of justice.
The bad blood has been brewing for years. For most of their existence the Panthers were an afterthought, overshadowed by the more successful Lightning, who won the first of their three Stanley Cups in 2004. Then they traded for Matthew Tkachuk – a brilliant, agitating forward – and hired a coach who encouraged the chaos. Overnight, the franchise became an almost comically ratty heel team: relentlessly annoying, gleefully abrasive and somehow good enough to win anyway. They ran goalies, took liberties after whistles, and seemed to delight in their role as the villains of modern hockey.
Tampa, by contrast, had built its dynasty on cool precision: a team that mixed speed, skill and structure to win back-to-back Cups in 2020 and 2021. To Lightning fans, Florida’s rise represented something else: the triumph of cynicism, of hockey as provocation rather than craft.
The long-simmering tensions finally exploded in April’s postseason meeting. When Hagel flattened Barkov with what looked like a clean shoulder check – a hockey play at playoff speed gone wrong – the officials ruled it illegal because Barkov hadn’t touched the puck. Hagel was slapped with a one-game suspension. The next night Ekblad, who’d already served a lengthy ban earlier in the season for performance-enhancing drugs, hunted him down and delivered a full-force shot to the head, concussing him – a retaliatory hit that earned just two games. Florida went on to win the series and their second straight Cup, while Tampa were left muttering about double standards.
So when Greer targeted Hagel again – during a meaningless September preseason game, no less – the Lightning saw red. Coach Jon Cooper rested his stars and called up six players from the minors – two known enforcers among them – to ice a full lineup without exposing his smaller, skilled forwards. Within minutes, 32-year-old bruiser Scott Sabourin leveled Ekblad with a single punch that dropped him to his knees. From there the night descended into absurdity: brawls after nearly every whistle, fights in the penalty box, more than 300 combined penalty minutes and so many ejections that both teams ended with nine skaters. At one point, Florida’s Niko Mikkola even picked up an assist despite having been sent off minutes earlier. It’s not every night an ejected player somehow helps to extend an 8-0 lead before anyone notices.
The next day, the discipline meted out by the NHL’s department of player safety came down squarely on Tampa. Six players fined, two suspended, the organization docked $100,000 and Cooper fined another $25,000. Florida’s Greer kept his token $2,000 fine. The perception was plain as day: the Panthers could do no wrong. And that sense of impunity is what has turned a once-anodyne cross-state rivalry into something much darker: a microcosm of how the NHL still protects its insiders and punishes its critics.
That defiance fits neatly with the Panthers’ broader identity. Under owner Vincent Viola – a billionaire financier and one-time Donald Trump nominee for secretary of the army – the franchise has cultivated an overtly Maga aesthetic. After their first Cup win, team executives proudly visited Trump at the White House, presenting him with a custom “45–47” jersey. Viola’s longtime business partner and minority owner Douglas Cifu, the Panthers’ vice-chairman and alternate governor, also runs Virtu Financial, the high-frequency trading firm he co-founded with Viola. In May, Cifu was suspended indefinitely by the NHL after an inflammatory social-media exchange with a Canadian fan where he invoked the Israel-Palestine conflict and Trump’s 51st state taunts, a move that did little to distance the team from its hard-right image.
Across the state, the Lightning’s ownership has taken the opposite tack: removing a Robert E Lee statue from downtown Tampa, supporting diversity initiatives and hosting some of the league’s most inclusive heritage nights.
In miniature, the Battle of Florida now mirrors the United States itself: grievance and aggression on one side, progressive branding on the other, both locked in a fight over what the sport, and the country, should be.
The irony is that all this has unfolded during what’s meant to be the NHL’s modern age of enlightenment. League executives boast about player safety and mental-health awareness, and evolving beyond the blood-and-guts spectacle of decades past. Yet its disciplinary machinery still operates with the opaque impunity of an old boys’ club. When New York Rangers owner James Dolan semi-publicly condemned the league’s refusal to suspend Washington’s Tom Wilson in 2021, the NHL didn’t revisit the call; it fined the team $250,000 for daring to question it. Commissioner Gary Bettman scolded the Rangers for “demeaning” a league executive and declared such criticism “unacceptable”. The message was clear enough: silence is rewarded, dissent is punished and the culture that enables violence is the one most fiercely protected.
This time, though, the silence has cracked. Around the league, executives and players are said to be quietly rooting for Tampa – not because they condone vigilante justice, but because they recognize the futility of appealing to a system stacked against them. The Panthers may have won the Stanley Cup for two years running, but they’ve also become the embodiment of a league that rewards swagger and punishes accountability.
That the NHL’s biggest controversy of the year erupted before a single regular-season game had been played says it all. The sport that keeps promising to modernize still can’t stop celebrating its own anarchy: a league where power, not principle, decides who gets away with what – and who gets left bleeding on the ice.