Shohei Ohtani set the tone early in Game 1 for the Dodgers.
The two-way superstar put Los Angeles on the board quickly against the Reds in the first game of their best-of-three National League wild-card series on Tuesday night with a solo homer before he went deep again in the sixth inning of a 10-5 Dodgers win.
After the Reds went down in order in the top half of the first, Ohtani stepped in against the hard-throwing Hunter Greene and got the count in his favor, 2-1.
The slugger turned on an inside fastball that came in at 100.4 mph and sent it 375 feet to right — at an eye-popping 117.7 mph.
“It was a really hard pitch to hit, but I felt like I reacted pretty well,” Ohtani said through a translator. “I was happy I was able to help the team score early.”
Though Greene, an All-Star last year, got through the rest of the first and subsequent two innings unscathed, he couldn’t escape more damage in the fourth when things fully unraveled.
After walks to Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy, outfielder Teoscar Hernandez smacked a three-run homer to left. One batter later, switch-hitter Tommy Edman, batting from the left side, crushed a homer to right.
Shohei Ohtani celebrates as he rounds the bases after belting a solo home run in the first inning of the Dodgers’ 10-5 win over the Red in Game 1 of their NL wild-card series on Sept. 30, 2025. APGreene finished the third inning but was removed before the start of the fourth for reliever Scott Barlow.
The Cincy right-handed starter had been on a roll going into the postseason, allowing just two runs over his last two starts (15 innings). The potent Dodgers — a team Greene lost to at the end of August when he allowed five runs (three earned) — proved to be too much.
Blake Snell, who struck out nine, allowed just two runs over seven strong innings for the Dodgers.
Hunter Greene looks on after giving up a three-run home run during the third inning of the Reds’ Game 1 loss to the Dodgers. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect“I felt really in control, could read swings and just kind of navigate through the lineup the way I wanted to,” Snell said.
In the sixth, Ohtani added a 454-foot moonshot off reliever Connor Phillips to make the lead 8-0.
While the Reds scored five times across the seventh and eighth innings, it was too little, too late, and the Dodgers are now one win away from advancing to the NLCS.
— with AP
