- Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernandez each hit two homers in Dodgers’ Game 1 romp.
- Blake Snell dazzled in his postseason debut for the Dodgers.
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts Game 2 for the Dodgers with the chance to clinch.
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ players couldn’t help but watch in disbelief Tuesday night, even giggling at times, admiring the greatest postseason power show they’ve ever witnessed.
If it wasn’t Shohei Ohtani hitting a 100-mph fastball that left his bat at a record 117.7-mph, it was Ohtani hitting a homer 454 feet into the night, the longest in Dodgers postseason history.
If it wasn’t Teoscar Hernández hitting a home run to left field, twirling his bat like a baton before an epic flip, it was Hernández hitting a home run to right field and simply admiring it as he slowly strolled up the line.
By the end of the night, and the Dodgers’ 10-5 rout over the Cincinnati Reds was complete, the Dodgers tied a franchise postseason record with five home runs, traveling a total 1,997 feet, with Ohtani and Hernández becoming only the fifth set of teammates to hit two or more homers in a postseason game.
“That was a lot of fun,’ Dodgers second baseman Tommy Edman said. “A lot of feet of home runs. That’s just the explosive nature of our offense.’
And, well, their star power, too.
‘I think it’s the clutch gene,’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think they’re not afraid to fail. They like the spotlight. And it’s just a really good heartbeat for those guys in those big moments.’
The Dodgers, the team that everyone feared when they opened the season with all of their stars and $416 million payroll, are back to being the scariest team entering October.
They finished the season winning 15 of their last 20 games and are now showing everyone that the World Series still runs through Los Angeles.
They pulverized the Reds and ace Hunter Greene, producing 15 hits, including six that went for extra-bases, while Blake Snell snuffed out the Reds offense, limiting them to one hit in his first six innings. If the Dodgers keep playing anything like this, even with a bullpen that left their own fans booing them, they may want to start planning for another parade.
“We’ve been playing really good baseball the last two, three weeks,’ Hernandez said. “We knew the things that we can do, especially in big moments like this. The focus is always there, but I think as a player, you get more when the playoffs start.’
Ohtani set the tone when he took Reds ace Hunter Greene deep on the fourth pitch in the bottom of the first.
‘That’s the reason why he signed to be with this ballclub, this organization,’ Roberts said, “to play in games like this. To showcase his other-worldly talent. I expect really fun things this postseason out of Shohei.’
If this is only the beginning, just wait until stakes get even greater, with even Ohtani hinting at the possibility that this offense can’t be stopped.
“Overall, looking at our lineup, we’ve been able to move guys over,’ Ohtani said, “score early and score with runners in scoring position. I think we had a pretty good flow to the game today.’
Yep, when you’re up 5-0 in the third inning and 8-0 in the sixth inning, that qualifies as a flow.
“I think that the leadoff homer from Shohei was big,’ Roberts said. “I think that the shutdown inning from Blake was big. And I just thought from the outset we had a really good game plan against Hunter, and we just didn’t miss pitches when he made mistakes. And Teo was big tonight. …
“I still think Hunter [Greene] is one of the really, really talented pitchers in the game, and for us to get to him like we did, pretty impressive.’
The Dodgers will tell you it started with Ohtani, and once he homered, there was no stopping them. Hernández, who is hitting .429 during his seven-game postseason hitting streak, and Edman hit two homers in a span of three pitches. Freddie Freeman reached base three times. Enrique Hernandez produced a couple of singles.
“I mean, I don’t really have any more words for Shohei,’ Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts said, “but Teo definitely helped us a lot. It just makes the lineup so much longer. It’s huge for us. We took it from there.’’
It was the 15th time the Dodgers scored 10 or more runs in a postseason game, and it was their 11th victory in the last 14 postseason games dating back to last year’s division series against the San Diego Padres.
“We’re playing,’’ Betts said, “Dodger baseball.’
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