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- The Dodgers overcame an early 2-0 deficit to beat Cincinnati 8-4 and sweep their NL wild-card series.
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivered 6⅔ strong innings while Kiké Hernández and Mookie Betts provided key hits.
- The Dodgers shared their optimism ahead of their NLDS series against the Philadelphia Phillies that starts Saturday.
The “theater of October,” as Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman often describes playoff baseball, descended upon Chavez Ravine for Game 2 of the National League wild-card series Wednesday night.
There was dramatic adversity early, after Teoscar Hernández’s consequential dropped ball in the first inning created a sudden deficit.
There was climactic tension late, as the Dodgers’ bullpen grinded through more eighth-inning trouble that threatened to squander another comfortable lead.
There were leading performances in the middle, from Mookie Betts (four hits, three doubles, three RBIs), Kiké Hernández (two hits, two runs, one RBI in another postseason masterclass) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto most of all (6⅔ clutch innings that got the game back under control).
At the end, there was even a star turn from rookie phenom Roki Sasaki, who slammed the door shut in an 8-4 victory that completed a wild-card sweep of the Cincinnati Reds.
“It was a great test, and we didn’t waver,” manager Dave Roberts said.
“One inning at a time, one pitch at a time,” Betts added. “That’s what I love about this team.”
The Dodgers not only advanced to the NL Division Series, where they will face off against the powerhouse Philadelphia Phillies beginning Saturday. But they did so with the kind of performance that could catapult them through the rest of this month, steeling their resiliency and their resolve in pursuit of a second consecutive World Series championship.
“We’re coming together at the right time, and that’s all that really matters,” third baseman Max Muncy said.
“We have gone through a lot, had a lot of struggles really all year,” Betts echoed. “But I think we all view that as just a test to see how we would respond.”
On Wednesday, the Dodgers didn’t have to wait long to find out. With two outs in the top of the first, Yamamoto induced a routine fly ball down the right-field line that should have ended the inning. Instead, Teoscar Hernández dropped it, putting runners at second and third for Sal Stewart to drive home with a single in the next at-bat.
“I felt terrible,” Hernández said, explaining he misread the flight of the ball and drifted too far underneath it.
“Going down quick there, especially the way it was there with an error like that, can really deflate you,” Betts acknowledged.
This Dodgers team, however, has been through such fires before.
Just three weeks ago, they were mired in an extended second-half slump that had their division lead dwindling and World Series credentials in doubt. But since then, the team has reeled off 17 wins in 22 contests. It has combined dominant starting pitching with opportunistic offense. And it has grown battle-tested from a regular season of so much frustration and stress.
“We’re starting to use those tests that we went through earlier [this season] to respond now and be ready,” Betts said. “We’ve been through so much, that we know it’s just a matter of time.”
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Right on cue, at a point when they could’ve so easily crumbled, the Dodgers instead found a way to summon their best.
The turnaround started with Yamamoto, who quickly ended the first by striking out Elly De La Cruz, then didn’t let another runner reach base for the next four innings.
The offense, meanwhile, chipped away at veteran Reds right-hander Zack Littell, stressing him with constant early traffic before eventually breaking through in the third, when Ben Rortvedt, who had two hits and a sacrifice bunt, sliced a leadoff double down the left-field line to set up Betts for an RBI single.
The Dodgers then went in front in the fourth, thanks to a big swing from a familiar postseason hero. After a leadoff single from Muncy, Kiké Hernández smacked an elevated fastball into right-center field. Muncy scored from first base to tie the score. Hernández, whom the Dodgers have re-signed each of the past two offseasons thanks largely to his playoff reputation, had his latest moment of fall-time magic.
“When he’s playing well, guys feed off of that,” Roberts said. “October Kiké is something pretty special.”
Kiké Hernández has another big night in Game 2 against the Cincinnati Reds, but that’s no surprise to the Dodgers, who have seen him excel in October for years.
Hernández scored in the next at-bat, when Miguel Rojas (who also had two hits) dumped a tie-breaking single down the right-field line.
From there, the score remained 3-2 until the sixth inning — when the game was ultimately decided in two memorable sequences.
First, Yamamoto had to wiggle out of a five-alarm fire, facing a bases-loaded jam with no outs after the Reds led off with three straight singles. At that point, the right-hander’s pitch count was climbing. Blake Treinen started to get loose in the bullpen. But Roberts, as he promised entering the playoffs, elected to ride it out with his starter.
Yamamoto quickly rewarded his manager’s show of faith.
After Austin Hays bounced a grounder to Betts that the shortstop threw home for a forceout, Yamamoto slammed the door with back-to-back strikeouts. Stewart fanned on one curveball. De La Cruz couldn’t check his swing on another. Yamamoto — who went on to finish his start with nine strikeouts and just the two unearned runs in the first — celebrated with a primal scream. A crowd of 50,465 at Dodger Stadium erupted around him.
“Once he got the two outs, I think he kind of smelled blood right there,” Betts said.
“He’s shown why he got the contract that he got,” Muncy added of the $325-million Japanese star. “It’s really impressive to be behind him. You feed off it.”
In the bottom half of the inning, the Dodgers finally pulled away with a four-run outburst. It started with a single from Kiké Hernández, marking his second straight two-hit game to begin these playoffs. It was aided by a throwing error from Stewart at first base, allowing Rortvedt to reach safely and put runners on the corners. Shohei Ohtani then knocked in an insurance run on a single. Betts added another with a one-hopper that got past third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes for an RBI double.
The death blow, fittingly, came courtesy of Teoscar Hernández, who broke it open with a two-run, bases-loaded double that was rich with redemption.
“I think we just knew we were getting close to October, and we couldn’t be making the mistakes we were making at that time,” Hernández said, reflecting back on a three-week roll the team has continued through the first round of the playoffs. “Concentration got bigger. Focus got bigger. And the little things come up. I think that’s what has been the key to us winning the way we’re winning.”
And on Wednesday, not even their continually shaky bullpen could trip them.
After the Dodgers stretched the lead to 8-2, when Betts drove in his third run of the game with his third double of the night in the seventh, the relief corps did flirt with disaster for a second consecutive night.
This time, Emmet Sheehan was the culprit, giving up two runs in the eighth on two singles and two walks, before being pulled in the middle of an at-bat against Will Benson after nearly plunking him in an 0-and-2 count.
“It was his first real crack at kind of late [inning] leverage,” Roberts said of Sheehan, a converted starter whom the Dodgers were expecting to fill an important role in their late-season bullpen.
“I didn’t pitch well,” Sheehan conceded.
Luckily for him, others did.
Alex Vesia took over in the middle of the at-bat (a move the Reds countered by pinch-hitting Miguel Andujar) and extinguished the threat with a pair of strikeouts sandwiched around a walk.
“Doc made a call, he was trusting his gut, and I definitely think that it paid off,” Vesia said of Roberts’ unorthodox move. “Doc’s a legend, man. And that’s the [stuff] that legends do right there.”
The Dodgers square off in the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies, who have fallen short in the postseason since reaching the World Series in 2022.
In the ninth, Roberts made another big call, summoning Sasaki to get the final three outs. The right-hander delivered with a flurry of 100 mph fastballs and swing-and-miss splitters, striking out his first two batters before the game ended on a soft lineout to Betts.
“All you can say is wow,” Muncy quipped of the 23-year-old’s performance. “That’s what we need right there.”
It didn’t matter that this series wasn’t pretty. The Dodgers didn’t care that Wednesday’s clincher came with unexpected plot twists.
They knew, at some point or another, they’d be dealt the full range of October theatrics. Now they’re moving on, hoping to be better for it.
“Anything that comes our way, it can’t be worse than what we’ve already went through,” Betts said. “Just keep a positive mindset, and just keep going.”
