Oct 9, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) bats in the tenth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies during game four of the NLDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
LOS ANGELES - The Phillies had a gameplan heading into their NLDS series against the Dodgers - come hell or highwater, they weren't going to let Shohei Ohtani beat them.
He didn't, but hell came anyway.
And in many ways, it came because the Phillies were so hellbent on stopping Ohtani that the reverberations of those actions directly led to all three losses in the series.
Ohtani came to the plate 20 times in the four games. He went 1 for 18 with two walks, one intentional, and struck out nine times.
In 16 of those 20 plate appearances he faced a left handed pitcher. The only righties that faced him were Aaron Nola, who got him to fly out to left field in the first inning of Game 3, and Jhoan Duran, who faced him three times, striking him out once and walking him twice.
As far as executing a plan well, the Phillies were masterful at rendering the game's best player as irrelevant.
Or, so it seemed.
Because Ohtani may not have personally contributed much more than an RBI single in Game 2, but his offensive impact was still far reaching in this series.
That's because so many key moments for the Dodgers in this series were directly related to how the Phillies wanted to pitch Ohtani.
Let's go through them:
Game 1, Top Seven, Phillies lead 3-2
Rob Thomson had a decision to make. The last two hitters in the Dodgers lineup, Andy Pages and Will Smith, both righties, were due up. Ohtani was in the hole.
Thomson wanted a lefty on Ohtani, but didn't like the fact that the other four hitters around Ohtani (two in front of him and two behind him) were righties.
So, rather than have Matt Strahm start with a clean inning, he chose to ask David Robertson to come back out for a second inning of work to face the first two hitters before Strahm faced Ohtani.
Robertson gave up a hit to Pages and hit Smith with a pitch. Strahm struck out Ohtani, so that goal was accomplished. But two batters later, Strahm gave up a three-run homer to Teoscar Hernandez.
TEOSCAR HERNANDEZ GO-AHEAD THREE-RUN HOME RUN IN THE SEVENTH! pic.twitter.com/m5crHQS3BN
It basically won the game for the Dodgers.
If Strahm starts the inning, maybe Hernandez doesn't come to the plate. Robertson needs to do his job, and didn't, but the idea of having Strahm come into the game to face Ohtani first, impacted the outcome.
Game 2, Top Seven, score tied 0-0
Jesus Luzardo was cruising. He had allowed just one hit through six innings of work. But in the seventh, he gave up a single to Hernandez and a double to Freddie Freeman.
Thomson had to go to the bullpen. The guy who has been best at getting out of dirty innings for the Phillies this season had been Tanner Banks.
In the past two years, it had been Strahm. Yes, there was a pocket of righties coming up, but there were couple of things to consider here:
1. Tommy Edman is a switch hitter, so he was going to hit left against a righty reliever.
2. If you bring in a righty, Max Muncy was sure to pinch hit for Miguel Rojas.
So, the question was, would you rather go to a righty knowing he was going to have to face two lefties, or go to one of the better dirty inning guys to get out of trouble, even though they are left-handed?
The decision was to go to a righty. Why? Because Ohtani was looming, and Thomson didn't want to make a lefty potentially face five batters before Ohtani came to the plate. Most relievers don't get a sixth batter to face, and at that point, you don't want to have a guy throwing that many pitches run out of gas when Ohtani is due up.
The lefties needed to be saved for Ohtani (and Freddie Freeman, but Ohtani was a paramount).
So, Thomson chose Orion Kerkering.
He struck out Edman, gave up a run on a fielder's choice, when Trea Turner fielded a weak grounder by Kike Hernandez and made a offline through home to try and get the lead runner.
Kerkering then walked Muncy, who did, in fact, pinch hit, before getting Pages to pop out.
Then he had to face Smith, his fifth batter of the inning. Strahm was warm, but he was being saved for Ohtani, if it got there.
Smith ripped a two run single off Kerkering.
The Dodgers get two insurance runs on a Will Smith single in the seventh.
Dodgers 3, Phillies 0pic.twitter.com/lmZjmMmfMv
Ohtani then faced Strahm and got his lone hit of the series, an RBI single. The Phillies would rally to score three runs, but then the ill-advised bunt and wheel play thwarted a complete comeback in the bottom of the ninth.
Still, it was bullpen decisions centered around having lefties available for Ohtani that led to three of the four Dodgers runs.
Game 3, Bottom Three, Score tied 0-0
The game plan for Game 3 was set before the game. Nola would go one time through the order, then Ranger Suarez would come in to pitch five innings.
Nola did his job in two innings, although it was one batter fewer than planned.
Rather than have him come out to start the third inning against Edman, Thomson decided to go to Suarez one batter sooner because he wanted to give him a clean inning.
Edman hit a home run on the first pitch Suarez threw.
Tommy Edman has a career .809 OPS against lefties and .683 against righties.
Curious as to why you don't let Nola at least face Edman before going to Ranger for Ohtani.
And the whole clean inning thing may be the answer, but it doesn't mean it's a good one.
Again, they wanted Suarez on Ohtani. But because of the way the first two innings fell, they went to Suarez a batter early, and allowed him to hit from his stronger side. Ultimately, this one didn't hurt the Phillies, because of the offensive outburst later in the game when they pounded Clayton Kershaw, but it was just another example of worrying so much about Ohtani that someone else did damage.
Game 4, Bottom Seven, Phillies lead 1-0
Cristopher Sanchez had pitched another gem, but got in trouble in the seventh after home plate umpire Mark Wegner missed strike three call to Alex Call, leading to a base on balls. (Sanchez said Wegner apologized to him afterward for missing the pitch). Sanchez then gave up a hit to Kike Hernandez, and with one out, the Phillies needed desperately to try and protect the one-run lead.
So, even though it was only the seventh inning, Thomson called on Duran. This, was the most important time in the game, and he wanted his best reliever in the game.
It was the right call in the moment. The season was on the line.
Duran got Pages to ground out, but the runners moved up to second and third with two outs.
Guess who stepped to the plate?
Sticking with the mantra of not letting Ohtani beat them, the decision came from the dugout to walk Ohtani intentionally. Never mind that he had looked awful in almost every plate appearance this series. He wasn't going to get a chance.
It made sense.
But Mookie Betts was next and Duran, who had never once walked a batter with the bases loaded in his career, proceeded to walk in the tying run.
Mookie Betts works the RBI walk!
(Via: @Dodgers) pic.twitter.com/Ar91PBtNsQ
Duran got out of it after that, but refusing to pitch to Ohtani created a situation where something happened that allowed the tying run to score.
We all know how the game-ended by now. And that had nothing to do with Ohtani. But that all-time blunder doesn't happen if the Dodgers don't tie the game on a bases loaded walk that was the result of avoiding Ohtani.
The way the Phillies handled Ohtani was a good strategy. No one will argue that. But the repercussions of executing it as they did are what ultimately sunk them against the Dodgers.
