Déjà vu From Last Year: Phillies Waste Excellent Cristopher Sanchez Start as Sleepy Bats Allow Dodgers to Steal NLDS Opener
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images
Red October is back in full swing, and despite that, the Phillies decided to leave the bats at home for the NLDS opener for the second year in a row.
Backed by 45,777 of some of the craziest fans in the world, the Phillies kicked off a five-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s the first time that the Phillies and the Dodgers have ever met in the NLDS, and the first time since 2009 that they’ve met in the playoffs.
The Phillies turned to left-handed pitcher Cristopher Sanchez for the NLDS opener, making just his second career postseason start. Sanchez has been everything and some for the Phillies in 2025, putting together a 13-5 record season with a 2.50 ERA over 202 innings pitched. He’ll almost certainly be a finalist for the Cy Young and has a chance to win it.
At home this season, Sanchez has been nearly untouchable. In 15 starts, he’s posted a 6-0 record, a 1.94 ERA in 97.2 innings, and a 0.90 WHIP. The last time he lost a start at home, regular or postseason, was July 31st, 2024, against the New York Yankees.
For the Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani was on the mound, making his first career postseason start. It’s been a solid return to the mound for Ohtani, who missed time pitching due to shoulder surgery in 2023. This season, he posted a 1-1 record and a 2.87 ERA. Ohtani became the first player since Babe Ruth in 1918 to start a playoff game as both a pitcher and a hitter.
Sanchez went to work right away, setting the tone for the remainder of the night, picking up a pair of strikeouts in a 1-2-3 first inning. Ohtani responded with a 1-2-3 first of his own, and his offense nearly picked up runs in the second after two runners reached base, but Sanchez ended the inning with his third strikeout of the night to Andy Pages.
While the Dodgers landed a punch in the top of the second, the Phillies earned a takedown in the bottom half of the inning. Alec Bohm led things off, working a full count walk, and instantly moved up 90 feet thanks to a single off the bat of Brandon Marsh.
Up came J.T. Realmuto, who has had his fair share of highs and lows in 2025. It didn’t take long into the at-bat for Realmuto to show that in the postseason, the highs of J.T. were on display, as he smoked a 1-0 middle-middle fastball into the right-center field gap, rolling all the way to the wall for a two-run RBI triple, giving the Phillies an early 2-0 lead.
For Realmuto, he becomes the third-oldest catcher to hit a postseason triple at 34 years and 200 days, with the other two coming from Gabby Hartnett: 37 years 289 days in the 1938 World Series, and Jack Meyers: 36 years 70 days in the 1916 World Series.
With a runner on third and no outs, the Phillies needed just a flyball to make it a three-run game. While Max Kepler couldn’t come through, grounding out to third, trade-deadline acquisition Harrison Bader delivered a deep flyball to left field for a sacrifice fly, making it 3-0 Phillies.
Now with the lead, Sanchez did what Sanchez does best: dominate. He picked up another pair of strikeouts in a scoreless third inning, got three groundouts on just eight pitches in the fourth, and after allowing a leadoff single in the fifth, got a big diving catch from Bader for one out, and struck out the remaining two Dodgers, including Ohtani for a third time, to get out of the inning.
Striking out Othani once is a rare feat for some pitchers, but three times in one game is almost unheard of. In fact, it was just the fourth time in 2025 that Ohtani struck out three times in a game, the other two coming from David Peterson, Nick Lodolo, and Sanchez himself back in April.
The Phillies threatened to add to their lead in the bottom of the fifth, after Bader was hit by a pitch and Bryson Stott smoked a single to center, but a lineout from Trea Turner and a strikeout from Kyle Schwarber kept it a three-run game.
The sixth inning started on a similar note for Sanchez, picking up two quick outs, including his eighth strikeout of the game. However, a two-out walk from Freddie Freeman started the beginning of the end for Sanchez.
Tommy Edman followed up the walk with a single past a diving Stott into right field, putting two runners on for Kiké Hernández. Hernández, a known playoff riser, kept that narrative true as he smoked a two-run double down the left field line to make it a one-run game. That double was the final straw for Phillies’ manager Rob Thomson as he pulled Sanchez after 5.2 innings.
David Robertson was on to clean up the mess in the inning from Sanchez, and after starting Max Muncy off with a 3-0 count, Robertson got Muncy to ground out back to him to end the inning with the lead.
While Sanchez had been dominating up until the sixth, the Phillies’ bats, on the other hand, were falling asleep. They had managed just one hit and two base runners since their three-run second inning, and the bottom of the sixth was no different, as Ohtani picked up two strikeouts in another 1-2-3 inning.
Robertson came back out for the seventh inning and instantly couldn’t find the zone, allowing a single to Pages and hitting Will Smith on the arm, putting two runners on for the top of the lineup.
Matt Strahm was called on to get out of the jam, and for the first two batters, he did just that. He struck out Ohtani on four pitches for his fourth strikeout of the night, and Mookie Betts popped out to third. Up came Teoscar Hernández, and with the lefty vs righty advantage, he took full advantage of that, smoking a ball to right center field for a go-ahead three-run home run, putting a dagger into the Red October crowd.
Just like that, an excellent start from their ace Sanchez was wasted, and now the Phillies had nine outs left to mount a comeback. Three of those were instantly wasted despite Realmuto getting on thanks to an error to start the inning, as Kepler flew out and a pinch-hitting Nick Castellanos grounded into an inning-ending double play. Castellanos pinch hit for Bader, who left the game with a left hamstring strain.
After a 1-2-3 eighth from Orion Kerkering, the Phillies put together a few good at-bats in the bottom of the inning. A walk from Turner and Bohm, and a single from Harper loaded the bases for Marsh with two outs. The Dodgers decided to bring in left-handed pitcher Alex Vesia to face Marsh, and Rob Thomson responded by bringing in Edmundo Sosa to pinch hit.
With the bases loaded, Sosa dug in with a chance to flip the game script. After battling, Sosa lifted a flyball to center field for the final out of the inning, as the Phillies still trailed. The last remaining air had been lifted out of Citizens Bank Park after that flyout, as despite a double from Kepler in the ninth, the Phillies weren’t able to do the impossible, losing the NLDS opener 5-3. It’s the second year in a row that the Phillies have dropped Game 1 of the NLDS at home, as last year they blew a lead late after a great outing from Zack Wheeler.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
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