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In a ballpark where the walls shake with every chant and the ‘Red October’ air feels heavier than most places on Earth, Shohei Ohtani made his long-awaited postseason pitching debut on Friday night. 

It came not in the friendly and comfortable confines of Dodger Stadium, but under the red glow of Citizens Bank Park — against the most hostile crowd baseball has to offer, and the National League’s best home team, the Philadelphia Phillies.

Ohtani struck out nine, and the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied behind Kiké and Teoscar Hernández to steal Game 1 of the best-of-five National League Division Series 5-3 over the Phillies in a matchup of two October heavyweights. 

“I was a little nervous imagining myself out there on the mound,” said Ohtani of his nerves before the game. “But once I was on the mound and on the field, that went away and it was really me focusing.”

Ohtani’s presence alone felt cinematic. The two-way superstar, leading off for the Dodgers and taking the mound in Game 1 of the NLDS, brought with him an aura that silenced even the rowdiest sections of South Philly — for a while, anyway.

By the second inning, though, the spell broke. And it broke loudly.

After walking Alec Bohm to open the frame, Ohtani gave up a sharp single to Brandon Marsh. When J.T. Realmuto laced a hard line drive into right-center, it looked like a simple base hit — until Teoscar Hernández misplayed it, his casual jog turning disaster into a full-blown nightmare. The ball skipped past him, rolling all the way to the wall. Bohm and Marsh both scored easily, and Realmuto stood at third base with a two-run triple that electrified the sellout crowd in red. Two batters later, he tagged and scored on a sac fly to make it 3-0 Phillies.

“In that inning, I was playing straight in. I didn’t get a good angle. He hit it pretty good. I tried to get it, so he can’t go all the way to third or they can score two runs in that situation. It went by me,” said Hernández of the misplay.

It was the kind of inning that can rattle even the best. But Ohtani didn’t flinch.

From there, the Japanese phenom looked every bit the legend he’s been billed to be. He struck out nine over six innings, retiring 13 of the final 15 batters he faced, his slider darting and his splitter vanishing like a mirage under the lights. By the time Dave Roberts shook his hand in the dugout after the sixth, Ohtani had given his team a chance — and, improbably, the lead.

“We continue to witness history with him,” said Roberts of Ohtani’s postseason pitching debut. “I use the word compartmentalize a lot. But this epitomizes compartmentalizing. He’s essentially two people in one night, in one game.”

That lead didn’t exist until the Dodgers rallied in the sixth and seventh, when the Dodgers finally cracked Christopher Sánchez’s code. The Phillies’ left-hander, a quiet Cy Young candidate who’s turned his changeup into one of baseball’s deadliest weapons, was dominant early. Through five innings, he’d punched out eight, allowing only just two hits —and one of them was a weak single that barely left the infield. His poise, his rhythm, his command — all had the feel of a man born for this stage.

But with two outs in the sixth, that rhythm broke. Sánchez walked Freddie Freeman, surrendered a single to Tommy Edman, and then came face to face with Kiké Hernández — a man who seems to only exist in October.

Down 0-1, Kiké slashed a hanging changeup into the left-field corner. Freeman scored easily. Edman motored home right behind him. The Dodgers’ dugout erupted, and suddenly the deficit was one. Sánchez had blinked.

“Freddie [Freeman] got us going with a two-out walk, Tommy took a pitch away and he went with it, he [Sanchez], showed me everything and he had a lot more movement than when we faced him at home,” said Hernández of that inning. “He made a really good pitch, but I was able to stay inside that ball and keep it fair. For us, it feels like it’s only matter of time, it’s always a matter of getting it going.”

An inning later, the Dodgers landed the knockout blow.

Matt Strahm came in to face Teoscar Hernández, the same man whose defensive lapse had opened the floodgates earlier. Baseball, as it always does, found him again. With two on and two outs, Strahm fired a fastball that caught too much plate. Teoscar turned on it, launching it deep into the Philadelphia night — a 3-run moonshot that soared into the right-center bleachers and silenced an entire city.

He likes to go up in the strike zone. I think that’s when he’s stronger. I was looking for something up in the strike zone,” said Hernández of that game-changing at-bat. I was trying to not over-swing or anything like that. Maybe just get a hit and try to bring in a run and tie the game, but he left it over the strike zone.”

Redemption had come to Hernández, who for the second time in as many games had made a costly mistake on defense that cost his team runs, but more than made up for it at the plate with his heroic offense.

“For me, anything that happened before a big moment like that, it’s in the past,” said Hernández of his early miscue, and how he was able to mentally overcome it and save the day with his home run. “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 place on defense and just trying to help my team.”

From there, the Dodgers bullpen — often their Achilles’ heel — became their savior. Tyler Glasnow, lined up to start Game 4, entered in the seventh for his first taste of Dodgers postseason baseball and carved through the heart of the Phillies order with electric stuff. He came back out for the 8th, and walked the bases loaded before Alex Vesia got a pop out to center field to end the threat.

“Honestly, I could have went to a couple other guys in those spots. But just kind of knowing who I’ve got, I felt good about those guys we ran out there,” said Roberts about his bullpen decisions in Game 1.

The Dodgers newest closer, Roki Sasaki, the monster from Reiwa Era, got the save in the 9th. The first save of his career, and it came in the postseason, in the most hostile environment and the most difficult park for a visiting team in all of baseball.

Ohtani earned the win in his long-awaited October debut on the mound — six innings, three hits, one walk, nine strikeouts, and a performance that was equal parts resilience and brilliance. Teoscar Hernández, once the goat of the game, became its hero. Kiké Hernández, once again, became October personified.

And the Dodgers — the team many had written off as underdogs in this heavyweight NLDS — walked out of Citizens Bank Park having stolen Game 1 from the most dominant home team in baseball over the last 25 years. 

In a series loaded with star power — Ohtani, Schwarber, Harper, Freeman, Turner, Betts — it was the imperfect heroes who decided the opener.

For the Dodgers, it feels like something more — a reminder that October doesn’t care about records, ballparks, or past mistakes. It only cares about moments. And on Friday night in Philadelphia, the Dodgers owned them all.

Source: NBC Los Angeles