The Dodgers battled back from a sloppy start to the NLDS as Teoscar Hernandez atoned for a misplay that led to at least one (possibly two) runs with a go-ahead game-winning seventh inning homer. Shohei Ohtani was excellent on the mound outside of a rough second inning, giving the Dodgers six solid innings before Tyler Glasnow, Alex Vesia and Roki Sasaki held the Phillies off the board for a 5-3 win. The Dodgers stole Game 1 in Philly, which historically is a good sign.
They have home field advantage in this round now, and have an opportunity to really keep their foot on the Phillies’ throats with Blake Snell facing off against Jesús Luzardo.
3:08 P.M.
Philadelphia
DH
Ohtani (L)
SS
Turner
SS
Betts
DH
Schwarber (L)
RF
T. Hernández
1B
Harper (L)
1B
Freeman (L)
3B
Bohm
2B
Edman (S)
C
Realmuto
LF
K. Hernández
RF
Castellanos
3B
Rojas
2B
Sosa
CF
Pages
CF
Marsh (L)
C
Rortvedt (L)
LF
Kemp
P
Snell (L)
P
Luzardo (L)
Snell made his Dodger postseason debut in Game 1 against the Reds and very good. It was the first of Snell’s 13 career postseason outings where he pitched past the sixth inning as he completed seven with four hits, two runs and one walk allowed with nine strikeouts. Nearly all of the damage came in the seventh inning as Snell allowed a pair of singles, a run-scoring groundout and an RBI double for both runs and three of the four hits. He was able to get through the inning on a groundout, keeping the Dodgers up 8-2 for the bullpen to make things more tense than they needed to be in the eighth. Snell saw the Phillies on September 17 and turned in his best start of the season, allowing two hits over seven shutout innings with a season-high 12 strikeouts. Only two Phillie starters (J.T. Realmuto and Bryson Stott) didn’t strike out in the game and five of their starters struck out multiple times, including Kyle Schwarber‘s three strikeouts. Snell’s last postseason start prior to this year came against the Phillies when he was with the Padres in 2022. He allowing four runs in five innings, really laboring in the second inning. He allowed three straight singles to begin the inning, with the third scoring a run and Alec Bohm ending up on second on a Juan Soto throwing error. He got a strikeout, but allowed a double, single and RBI groundout for a four-run, five hit inning. He was nearly perfect outside of that disastrous inning, allowing only a fifth-inning walk outside of that. He also got the win in the game, as Aaron Nola struggled and the Padres evened up the series.
Luzardo gets the Game 2 start in his fifth career postseason outing. He hasn’t been good as a starter in the playoffs, with 10 runs and 19 hits allowed in 11 2/3 innings across two starts for Oakland in 2020 and a start for Miami in 2023. His first postseason appearance came in relief in 2019 and he allowed one hit and two walks over three shutout innings in Game 1 for Oakland.
Luzardo had a nice bounceback year after a rough, injury-laden 2024. He set a new career-high with 183 2/3 innings and posted a 3.92 ERA with a 2.90 FIP. He started in LA on September 17 opposite Snell got through seven, but allowed four runs and six hits. Freddie Freeman led off the second with a homer and Luzardo did come back out for the eighth, but Ohtani hit a leadoff homer to chase him from the game. He also faced the Dodgers in Philly back in April in his second start as a Philly and allowed two hits over seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts.
Luzardo didn’t have a pretty ERA, but he turned in a pretty good year otherwise. His 28.5 percent strikeout rate was the sixth-best among qualified starters and you could argue he got a bit unlucky, as his .324 BABIP was the fourth-highest despite posting an above average xBA (.235, 66th percentile) and hard-hit rate (37.1 percent, 77th percentile). His walk rate was also not bad (7.5 percent, 61st percentile). Luzardo leads with a four-seamer that he throws 34.1 percent of the time and averages 96.5 MPH on. He throws a sweeper (31 percent), change (17.3 percent), sinker (10 percent) and slider (7.7 percent). His sweeper had a 43.7 percent whiff rate, tied for the third highest whiff rate for any pitch for qualified starters per Baseball Savant (min 200 plate appearances).
The Dodgers roll out a very similar lineup as Game 1 against another lefty starter. Ben Rortvedt remains behind the plate after Will Smith caught the final four innings in Game 1. Enrique Hernandez starts at left with Alex Call sitting today, and Miguel Rojas starts at third as Max Muncy sits again. For the Phillies, Harrison Bader sits today after leaving Game 1 with a hamstring/groin issue. His MRI came back clean and he could be available to hit today, but Brandon Marsh gets the start in center with Otto Kemp in left and Nick Castellanos in right.
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Smith did catch Game 3 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto‘s bullpen today, and could be in line to start Game 3.
If things continued to trend this direction, Dave Roberts said, Will Smith will start Game 3. https://t.co/BqYeZndUzU
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) October 6, 2025
It’ll be interesting to see how they manage Games 3 and 4 behind the plate. Game 3 is a 6PM start time in LA and Game 4 is the next day at 3 (or 4 depending on the other series’), so we’ll see if they let Smith catch a day-ish game after a night-ish game.
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Should this series go to Game 5, Ohtani would get the start. He won’t be available out of the bullpen in this series.
#Dodgers Dave Roberts said pitching Shohei Ohtani in relief is “not on the table.” If the series goes the distance Ohtani would start Game 5
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) October 6, 2025
Him pitching in the pen doesn’t make a ton of sense considering he’d need to warm up and they’d lose the DH, but he’s lined up to start a potential Game 5 on Saturday. Game 1 of the NLCS is scheduled for a week from today, so if they wrap up this series early it wouldn’t be surprising if he gets another Game 1 start.
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First pitch is scheduled for 3:08 PM PT and will be on TBS and HBO Max.
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