best-of-five series

If Wednesday’s game proves to be the last one in a Dodgers uniform for Clayton Kershaw, it will do little to tarnish his legacy, said teammate Mookie Betts.

“He’s gonna have a statue, so we have to kind of keep that in mind,” Betts said. “In the grand scheme of things, Kershaw is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, one of the best pitchers to ever do it.

“So if you let two innings kind of ruin that, then you don’t know baseball.”

But, Betts confessed, Kershaw’s relief appearance in Game 3 of the National League Division Series was hard to watch. In those two innings he gave up six hits, five runs, walked three and did not strike out a hitter, turning a tight game into an 8-2 rout for the Philadelphia Phillies, who staved off elimination and extended the best-of-five series to a fourth game Thursday.

“He just didn’t have a great slider tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Clayton pitches off his slider. He was working behind, too. The command wasn’t there tonight.”

Clayton Kershaw bends over during a tough eighth inning.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Kershaw, who went 11-2 as a starter during the regular season, was left off the roster for the wild-card series and hadn’t pitched in nine days when he started warming up in the sixth inning Wednesday. He hadn’t gone that long between appearances all year.

“I did everything I could in between,” he said. “It’s been a while but, you know, I threw [off] flat ground as best I could. It wasn’t there tonight.”

That was obvious from the first batter he faced. Kershaw, who walked a batter every 3.2 innings during the regular season, threw three straight balls to Trea Turner before giving up a single. He would give up two more walks, one intentional, in the inning but escaped harm thanks to a poor baserunning decision by the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber and a nice catch by right fielder Teoscar Hernández.

But with Tanner Scott unavailable for personal reasons and Alex Vesia having already pitched twice in the series, Roberts had few other good options against the left-handed-heavy Phillies. So he sent Kershaw out for the eighth and that’s when things really got out of hand.

J.T. Realmuto led off the inning and drove Kershaw’s second pitch — a slider — over the wall in left-center. The Phillies would send eight more men to the plate in the inning, scoring four more times, with two of those runs coming on Schwarber’s second homer of the night.

Kershaw threw first-pitch strikes to just four of the 14 batters he faced and missed the zone with 26 of the 48 pitches he threw overall. That won’t stop the Dodgers from building a statue of him when he retires this fall but it didn’t move him any closer to a second straight World Series ring either.

“I wasn’t throwing strikes, and it’s hard to pitch behind in the count,” he said.

Kershaw said he felt fine physically but added, “I just wasn’t finding it.”

That wasn’t a problem for the top of the Philadelphia lineup, which found little success in the first two games of the series. The Phillies’ first four hitters — Turner, Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Alex Bohm combined for just three hits, all singles — in 27 at-bats, striking out 12 times. They matched that hit total against Dodger starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the span of 11 fourth-inning pitches Wednesday, with Schwarber homering off the roof of the right-field pavilion and Harper and Bohm following with singles.

They finished the night nine for 16 with five runs scored and five RBIs, with Schwarber’s two homers traveling a combined 863 feet.

“We just had a little quick meeting. Nothing crazy, but just focus on the game, win today,” Turner said. “We all know we were kind of pressing as a group in the first two games and wanting to win so bad.”

If Turner and the Phillies win again Thursday, the series returns to Philadelphia and raucous Citizens Bank Park — where the Phillies had the best home record in baseball — for a decisive Game 5 on Saturday. If the Dodgers win, they move on to the NL Championship Series, where Kershaw could get a chance to end his career on a more sonorous note than the clunker he played Wednesday.

“That’s the great thing about baseball,” he said. “You get a new game every day.”

PHILADELPHIA — This is over.

Or, from the perspective of the Dodgers, this is just starting.

Because the Dodgers are returning to the World Series.

Technically, they still have to close out their National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. They still have to win the NL Championship Series.

But they will.

They will because they won’t blow the two-games-to-none lead they have after their 4-3 victory over the Phillies on Monday in Game 2 of their best-of-five series.

They will because the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs don’t have the firepower necessary to take down these Dodgers in the next round.

One victory at Citizens Bank Park would have sufficed. The Dodgers won two, and now they’re on the verge of sweeping the greatest threat they will encounter in their title defense.

“To get two in this environment is obviously massive,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “You can’t understate it. This is a really hard place to play in the regular season, let alone here (in the playoffs).”

The Dodgers can officially eliminate the Phillies on Wednesday.

They will be playing at Dodger Stadium. They will have their best pitcher on the mound in Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Call in a priest — or a padre. The time has come to read the Phillies their last rites.

The Dodgers didn’t come close to winning 120 games, and they were underwhelming in the regular season, which explains why they were unable to secure either of the first-round byes that were claimed by the Phillies and Brewers. They entered the postseason with an alarmingly untrustworthy bullpen, and that bullpen nearly blew a four-run lead in Game 2.

But in stealing two wins at Citizens Bank Park, the Dodgers demonstrated they still have that championship something that no other team in baseball has.

That something emerged on Monday night in the six scoreless innings pitched by Blake Snell, the run-scoring slide by Teoscar Hernández on a slow roller by Kike Hernández, the two-run single by Will Smith that broke open the game, the insurance run driven in by Shohei Ohtani. That something was reflected in the two innings contributed by converted starter Emmet Sheehan, and game-saving defensive plays made by Mookie Betts, Max Muncy and Miguel Rojas.

“It’s huge,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s obviously huge. Guys are really stepping up.”

The Phillies aren’t stepping up, and their championship window that was opened by the likes of Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber could soon be closing. The urgency of the situation was recognized, with Phillies manager Rob Thomson making no effort to downplay the importance of Game 2, saying before the game that Ranger Suarez and Aaron Nola could pitch in relief.

Suárez and Nola were two candidates to start Game 3 (the Phillies announced after the game Nola would get the nod).

Thomson was prepared to deploy Suárez in a high-leverage situation. He was ready to call on Nola if the game went into extra innings.

“And we’ll figure out Game 3,” Thomson said.

The home fans comprehended the stakes. Citizens Bank Park was a madhouse in Game 1, but the crowd for Game 2 was comparatively toned down.

The nervous tension in the stadium quickly morphed into unbridled frustration, as the Phillies’ lineup was unable to do anything against Snell.

There were boos when batting champion Trea Turner struck out in the third inning. There were boos when Brandon Marsh was caught stealing on a pickoff by Snell to end the inning. There were more boos when Alec Bohm struck out for the final out of the fourth.

The first hit Snell gave up was with two outs in the fifth inning, a flare single to center field by Edmundo Sosa. The very next batter, Marsh, grounded out. More boos.

How nervous were Phillies fans? When a warning on the public-address system about streaking was followed by a bare-chested Philly Phanatic running across the outfield before the sixth inning, they offered no reaction. Baseball’s most iconic mascot was completely ignored.

Up to this point, the Dodgers were equally unproductive against the Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo. Betts singled and Teoscar Hernández walked in successive at-bats in the first inning, only for Luzardo to retire the next 17 batters in a row.

The Phillies threatened Snell for the first time in the sixth inning when Turner and Kyle Schwarber drew successive one-out walks. Up next: Harper, a two-time NL most valuable player.

In almost any other postseason, this is where Roberts would have instructed one of his coaches to phone the bullpen. But Roberts wasn’t about to replace Snell, not at this stage of the game, not with the combustibility of his relievers.

Snell struck out Harper and forced Bohm to hit a sharp grounder to Rojas at third base. Once Rojas secured the ball, he dived to the nearest bag, his outstretched glove touching the base before the hand of a sliding Turner.

The defensive stand set the stage for a four-run seventh inning that decided the game.

Thomson inadvertently assisted the effort but not because he removed Luzardo. His error was in the pitcher he chose to replace Luzardo with runners on second and third base with no outs. With closer Jhoan Duran available, Thomson went with Orion Kerkering.

Nothing could stop the Dodgers — not even their own bullpen.

Sheehan pitched the seventh and eighth innings, over which he limited the Phillies to a run.

Reluctant to use rookie Roki Sasaki twice in three days — Sasaki closed out Game 1 — Roberts gambled by calling on Blake Treinen to pitch the ninth inning. The slumping former World Series hero failed to get a single out, giving up a pair of runs on a double by Nick Castellanos. What was once a four-run lead was suddenly down to 4-3.

With Alex Vesia on the mound, the Dodgers executed a wheel play that resulted in Muncy fielding a bunt by Bryson Stott and throwing to third base, where Betts applied a tag on Castellanos. The play potentially saved a run, as well as the game.

Vesia was replaced with two outs and runners on the corners by Sasaki, who forced Turner to ground out.

The game was over.

Unofficially, the most important series of the postseason was, too.

PHILADELPHIA — On the mound, he self-destructed in a second inning that nearly placed the game out of his team’s reach.

In the batter’s box, he struck out four times for only the seventh time in his career.

A two-way player for the first time in a postseason game, Shohei Ohtani didn’t save the Dodgers on Saturday night.

Instead, Ohtani was the one being saved in a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of their National League Division Series.

He was saved by Tyler Glasnow, Alex Vesia and Roki Sasaki, who combined to shut down the lethal Phillies lineup over the last three innings.

He was saved by a two-run double by Kike Hernández in the sixth inning that reduced their deficit to 3-2.

He was saved by a three-run blast by Teoscar Hernández in the seventh that moved them in front, 5-3.

Ohtani said in Japanese of Hernandez’s go-ahead homer: “It was a wonderful moment. I think it was the kind of moment that made you think, ‘This is the postseason.’”

The victory cleared a path for the Dodgers to defend a World Series title that once felt indefensible. By stealing the road win necessary to advance, the Dodgers have taken control of this best-of-five series against the Phillies, who could be the greatest obstacle in their World Series defense.

The Dodgers should have the edge in starting pitching over the next two games, as Blake Snell is scheduled to start Game 2 on Monday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto Game 3 on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.

If a fifth game is required to decide this NLDS, Ohtani will be able to pitch on six-days’ rest.

Who could have imagined the Dodgers would be in this position after a game in which Ohtani staggered through a three-run second inning that left him looking as if he was eaten alive by the notoriously hostile Citizens Bank Park crowd?

“He’s not always going to be perfect,” Roberts said.

That being said, Roberts was quick to point out Ohtani’s contributions.

How after that brutal second inning, Ohtani pitched four scoreless innings to keep the Dodgers within striking distance. How Ohtani showed bunt and stepped out of the batter’s box in his ninth-inning at-bat as part of a plan to buy more time for Sasaki to warm up to close the game.

Ohtani sounded particularly proud of how he struck out NL home run king Kyle Schwarber for the third out of the fifth inning. The Phillies stranded two runners.

“I think it might have been a scene that decided the direction of the game,” Ohtani said.

The Dodgers scored two runs in the next innings and three in the inning after that.

“To kind of look at the at-bats that he took tonight and how he struggled offensively, but to separate that and just be a pitcher and weather that [second] inning and to go out there and give us six innings and keep us in the ballgame, I just don’t know any human that can manage those emotions,” Roberts said.

The comeback was necessary because of a second inning that started with a walk by Alec Bohm. Midway through the at-bat of the next hitter, Brandon Marsh, the Citizens Bank Park crowd started to taunt Ohtani.

Sho-hei!

Sho-hei!

Marsh singled. Ohtani responded by reaching back and throwing a 100.2-mph fastball over the heart of the plate to J.T. Realmuto, who launched a rocket into right-center field.

Heavy-footed right fielder Teoscar Hernandez failed to cut off the ball, which skipped to the outfield wall. Bohm and Marsh scored.

Realmuto reached third and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Harrison Bader.

Just like that, the Dodgers were down, 3-0.

This was not the start envisioned by the Dodgers, who set up Ohtani to be the star of this series.

The Dodgers didn’t send Ohtani to the mound in either of their two games of the previous round against the Cincinnati Reds.

By starting Snell and Yamamoto in the wild-card series, the Dodgers were able to save Ohtani for Game 1 of their series against the more formidable Phillies.

The Dodgers entered the NLDS reveling in the history about to be made by Ohtani, the most valuable player as a designated hitter last season back in the October spotlight to pitch in the postseason for the first time.

“I think as he takes the mound for the bottom half [of the first inning], I’m going to take a moment just to appreciate him doing something unprecedented,” Roberts said before the game.

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman went as far to make the case that Ohtani was underrated.

“I just don’t think the human brain can comprehend what he does and how difficult it is and how he is elite at both,” Friedman said. “The passion he has for hitting and the passion he has for pitching, it doesn’t seem like there’s enough passion to go around, but there is with him.”

Ohtani didn’t pitch last season as he was recovering from an elbow operation he underwent in 2023. Friedman recalled the diligence with which he rehabilitated.

“It wasn’t just about pitching for him,” Friedman said. “It was about pitching really well.”

Ohtani didn’t pitch really well on Saturday night, but he will have a chance to pitch really well in the days and weeks ahead.

His team gifted him the opportunity.