Dodgers Territory - Teo HUGE HR, Shohei Ohtani deals as Dodgers win Game 1 over Phillies

Episode Date: October 5, 2025

Alanna Rizzo and Los Angeles Dodgers play-by-play Tim Neverett break down the Dodgers Game 1 win against the Phillies. (Top of show)(10:34) The hosts dig into Shohei Ohtani’s first postseason win on the mound.Download the DraftKings Pick6 app now and use code FOUL – play just $5, get $50 in Pick6 bonus picks.(15:02) The Hernández "brothers" deliver again in October! Alanna and Tim name Teoscar Hernández their Player of the Game. (24:59) Plus, a lookahead to Monday’s Game 2 - Blake Snell vs Jesús Luzardo. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kentucky can count on bourbon, basketball, and 97-5. WAMZ, Kentucky-N-A-N-A-N-A-Nus number one for country. Hey, it's Rachel Elliott, and we never take for granted that you make us part of your day. That's why we make it a point to play your favorite country. Whether you're starting your day off with the Bobby Bone Show, making your workday go a little faster by hanging out with me on the job, or dealing with that Gene Snyder traffic on the ride home with Corey Calhoun, you can count on us for the best country music in Kentucky. In Louisville, you can catch us on the radio dial at 975 and anywhere on the I-Heart Radio app. Good evening, everybody, and welcome to a live, brand new edition of Dodgers Territory. It is a postgame edition after the first game of the NLDS.

We are your host. I am Alana Rizzo, and I'm so excited to see my friend and have my friend Tim Nevert as my co-host, Clint Paseas, is off tonight. So, Tim, thank you because I know you're a very busy man. Of course, you can hear Tim on AM 570 with the Los Angeles Dodgers. as you can see Tim on SportsNet, L.A. I didn't know how this was going to go, honestly. I think the Phillies are a phenomenal opponent.

The first couple of innings, when the Phillies went up 3-0, I'm like, oh-oh, but Shohei Otani settled in, and the Dodgers get game one. What was the biggest takeaway that you have of game one of the NLDS? Well, I think the fact that, again, they went up 3-0. You can't panic. I mean, you've seen enough baseball games, you know that it's not over for a while. Sanchez at some point or another. They got him out of the ball game. David Robertson was tough

coming out of the bullpen. But again, the Dodgers did what they had to do. They got two. Kike Hernandez, I would stop short. I'd pump the brakes on calling him Mr. October yet. But maybe we just say it's Keked over because of how he plays during this month of the year. And I was thinking to myself, all right, come up with something, do something. Then he waxed it down the line for a two-run double. And it's three-two. Now you've got a ball game, right? And Shohei Otani's still the pitcher of record. And his stuff was fabulous today. I think, you know, there's I think a number of takeaways here because you look at the play in right field that turned into a triple for real muto and you wonder how Teosker didn't cut that ball off.

I mean, would have held him to a double. Might have saved another run. Okay, that's water under the bridge, especially when he hits a three-run home or later. to make up for that. But just there's a lot of takeaways. I think, you know, Otani pitching in this game in particular was the right move instead of starting him in game one of the wild card because now you get a day off for him to rest the bat. The bat wasn't there today.

He was 0 for 4 with a walk. He struck out four times, which you don't see him do very often. And twice he struck out on fastballs down the middle looking. So that's out of the way. The Dodgers steal game one. And in a short series, stealing game one when you're on the road is super important. What's a huge advantage in a five-game set? 100%.

So I really think that it was great. I mean, you know, the way that both starters pitched today, I thought, was very good. It was kind of what I expected. I was really interested in seeing how the matchup Otani against Schwerber would go, power against power. And if it was the other way around, Schwerber pitching to O'Ton. I would say advantage Otadi, right? So, but in this case, it was really good to see.

I like the fact they went to Glasnow, I know he didn't throw enough strikes there and got himself in a little trouble, but Vesia get out of it. And then Roki Sasaki, is he the X factor? Is he the Walker Bueller of last year? Is he going to be the Julio Orias from 2020, the guy who was a starter and now is coming out of the bullpen?

And right now he's finishing up games. He just saved the game for Otis. So I think that there's plenty of takeaways from this one, but the biggest takeaway is going into Philadelphia in that environment. And you know what it's like, Alana, because the Philly fanatics set out a dinner table for you in the past. You know what it's like there. So to go in there and steal game one is it's, it couldn't have gone any better. No, it's massive. It's massive. There's so many things I want to break down about this game.

Let's talk about first the starting pitching. And then we'll talk about the offense. about the Hernandez brothers coming up huge. But Tim, let's talk about the starting pitching. So obviously, Shohay Otani was the starter of this game. On our show the other day, I told Clint Paseas, I said, Shohei is going to give us six innings. He's not going to give up an earned run and he's going to be great. If you can set up the bullpen, seven, eight, and nine, you're going to be fine. Obviously, he gave up an earned run. He gave up three, but he did give you six, which is exactly what you needed. Hopefully that will continue throughout this series,

where your starters give you six innings. Tyler Glasnow comes out of the pen, which Tyler is used to being a starter, right? And then you have Roki Sasaki. But think about the embarrassment of riches. Shohei Otani, Tyler Glazano, Alex Vesia, Roki Sasaki. But let me ask you this. Is this the piggyback strategy the way that it's going to be

throughout the postseason for the Los Angeles Dodgers? I would think so. I think they need to get Emmett Sheehan back on track after his wild card outing and have him pitch. If he can pitch the way he pitched during the regular season, he's been unbelievable, this guy. And he's, you know, it was like a, it was the equivalent to a trade acquisition, getting him back off of Tommy John surgery. What was that, late June, early July in there. So I, I like the piggyback thing. I've seen it before.

Back in 2018, when I was with Boston, Alex Cora did that with Rick Porcel. He was kind of, he called him his rover, right? So he would be the rover pitcher. He would come in at these different spots and whatnot. Nathan Evaldi was coming out of the bullpen. Then Joe Kelly was there at that time and a converted starter back to the bullpen. So guys with starting experience were coming out in relief in these games. Every pitch in these games is like three pitches in a regular season game, right?

I mean, there's so much more to it. There's so much more importance on every single pitch, every single ball that's put in play, every strike, every ball, you know, because you hang on every pitch in the postseason. During the regular season, a game in June, you might look over and say, hey, give me some popcorn or something. You know, you might miss a pitch or two. You might be talking about work or home or whatever, but not in the postseason. You're glued to, you know, what's going on. And it's just so different. It's such a heightened sense of importance with every pitch. And that's why I think you have to use your best pitchers.

And I think, you know, the way that Clayton Kershaw has pitched this year, most of his season, he's been really terrific. Even his last outing in Seattle was incredible. I thought for where he is in his career, we're going to see him at some point in this series coming out of the bullpen. I don't see him starting unless Dave Roberts decides to start him in game five, which I think that would be what? That would be back in Philadelphia, Thursday, Friday, a week from today, so that would be Otani. So, you know, Kersh is going to be in the pen and we might see him come out of the pen for some brief work. But I like what I see from Sasaki. It's in everybody's benefit that there's a day off tomorrow, which is just basically part of the TV schedule.

But it's, you know, and it benefits everybody. And now you go back to work in two days. and you've got Blake Snell on the mound. So I think it works out pretty well for the Dodgers right now in terms of the pitching. And I do like the stacking of the starters. It really, it is. We have amazing, amazing talent. And throughout the season, Tim, I wasn't sure if it was all going to come together

and it's coming together at the right time because they're all healthy and they all have availability. Let me ask you, though, about there's a little bit of a question mark about Will Smith. Why is he healthy enough to come in in the fifth inning or whatever it is? to pinch it and then catch the remainder of the game, but he's not healthy enough to start. You know more about this situation than I do. So break this down. What is the plan for Will Smith and why are the Dodgers carrying three catchers? If there's, nobody's told me anything about this.

This is just my opinion on it, just from being an observer there every day. They are very, very impressed with the way Ben Roitvet has handled the pitching staff. and I think they knew that Will was going to get in this game at some point in time when they needed a hit. You know, Ben's not the hitter that Will is, obviously. So it was healthy enough to catch. And it's tough to say, okay, are you ready to go in game one of the division series? Yeah, so he was ready to go. But I do think they wanted to get Roortbet through a couple of cycles of hitters.

with Otani. He's done really well with Otani. He's done exceptionally well with Yamamoto. The first time he caught Yamamoto, it was eight and two-thirds, no-hit innings with Blake Snell. And I'm interested to see if he starts with Blake Snell. And the reason I think he might is I asked Ben about catching Blake Snell for the first time. I said, you know, you just got here. We were in the dugout in San Francisco, and he wasn't here very long. And I said, you just got here. You know, it's like drinking out of a fire hose. How's it been? And, you know, Roartfitt's kind of a character. So he goes, oh, it's hot, man, it's hot.

And I started laughing. And I said, well, what about catching Snell? I said, how did you, you know, take time and learn him? He goes, you know, I didn't. So what do you mean? He goes, no, he just said, because he wears the pitchcom on his left hip, Snell does. He goes, no, I'll just call him, you catch him.

And it was as simple as that. The first time they worked together and Snell had a great out. So I think they've been going with that philosophy. And there was a lot of that the first time he caught Yamamoto too. If you notice, Yamamoto wore the pitchcom where he hadn't worn it much, if not most of the season. So he called some of his pitches and he did tell me that it was a mix. Sometimes he'd call it. Sometimes Yama would call the pitch.

I do think they like Ben's defense early in the game and the way that he receives the pitchers. That's my opinion. That's the only reason I think Will Smith didn't start. Okay, makes sense. Let's do a focus on Shohei Otani. And the reason being is because he's the best player in the game. So I want to talk about showtime for a second, Tim Nebrett. You can't for a second. All right. So on the mound tonight, six innings, three hits, three earned runs, one walk, nine K's. It took him a minute to settle in, but he did so. I mean, Harper and Schwerber, the two big, big lefties. By the way, congratulations to Bryce. and Kay Harper. They'd had their son, another son today. Congratulations, or not today, but recently. Harper and Schwerber, O for six with four K's. I mean, that's massive, right? So show hay on the mound,

unbelievable. It took him a minute. Why did he, why did he need that time to settle in? What was the difference? What did you see? I thought he just got more comfortable as it went on. He has never started a postseason game before in the major leagues. I mean, here's the guy who finished up the world baseball classics, tracking out his then teammate Mike Trout. That was probably the biggest time for him that he's been on the mound in a game, right? I mean, because, you know, Japan won. It was a huge moment for his country, winning the WBC, and he was the guy on the mind

that got it done. So for him, I think it just took him a little bit to settle in, get comfortable. He wasn't on his home mound. He was on the road. I do know that Dave Roberts wanted to let him go, right? He was good with 100 pitches or so today. He didn't get there. We'd have 89 and 60 of them good for strikes.

So the game dictated when he came out. But this guy is, he's crazy good. I mean, you saw how good his curveball was. The split is just dynamic again. His sweeper that he's been throwing a lot of has been good. And the fastball's got great. spin and movement on it. It's just, it's hard to, you know, it's hard to bear a lot. And, you know, for him, this was a pretty good game. I'm sure he's probably sitting after he finishes talking to

the media. He's probably going, boy, I could have done a lot better because that's just the way he is. He is about perfection. He's about, you know, and he's got two things to think about, right? Like everybody else has one thing, but he's got to think about his at-bats too. And so he'll be going over those later, I'm sure. He'll be prepping for better at bats as he as he gets ready for what, whatever is Saturday, as we get ready for Monday's game. The stat for Otani on games after he pitches, he hits 147. So that's the day after, but the day after he pitches is off. So we'll see if that applies on Monday or not. A little bit extra. A little bit extra rest for Shohei Otani. And we He is the best player we've seen. There's no question. I mean, we're lucky to be living in the same era.

If you like baseball, you watch Otani play. There's nothing he can't do. And it's just crazy to watch. And we've, both of us have seen baseball for a long time. And we've seen great players. We've seen them come and go. We've seen Hall of Famers play out great careers. But I don't think I've ever seen anybody like Otani ever. And I don't know if we'll see another one like him. No, I don't think we will. I absolutely don't. He's, I mean, he's such a special, special, special player. It doesn't ever seem like he gets phased. Much more to come on Dodgers territory. Tim Nevert is our special guest. We are going to talk about the Hernandez brothers coming up. We're also going to do a game two preview with Blake Snell on the hill. We'll be back right after this. Football is back. And so is your shot at big wins with Draft Kings pick six, the official daily fantasy partner of the NFL. Your game day instincts can score you real. money fast. Here's the play. Just pick more or less on two or more player stats from breakout rookies to elite

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Voidware prohibited, one per new customer. Bonus awarded as non-withdrawable pick-six bonus picks that expire in 14 days. Limited time offer. See terms at pick-6.draftings.com slash promos. All right, before we look on to game two, which is Monday, Blake Snell, Jesus Luzardo, let's speak about the Hernandez brothers. Hernandez has a pension for the big moment. Big lights, big stage, big deal. Teoscar Hernandez and Dave and the media have talked about it how Teasca

sometimes like regular season, much like Nis Castellanos is like me, but in the big moment, like it matters to him. Like, you know, you cannot get up for 162 games a year. You just can't. It's just not how it works. But the Hernandez brothers today, Tim, once again, major dividends. What do you make of that? Well, their averages so far in the postseason. Kike is hitting 417, Teosker 357. Yeah, it's three games, but Teosker's also got three bombs too, right? And Kike with two big RBIs in this one tonight. That was the one that lit the fire. It's funny, you know, we watch Teosker a lot. And he's just sometimes you don't think he's going to hit the ball at all. You look, watch him. He'll chase a sweeper and a slider. It's three feet outside.

He's never going to hit the ball. And the next pitch, it's, you know, 410 feet somewhere. It's just he's, he's hard to explain other than the fact that he does have good at bats, even though some of them don't look very good. But he ends up with a good at bat. Like this one that he had with a three-run home run. It didn't start out great. But then, all of a sudden, bang, he got the pitch toward the outer half, and he's very good going the other way. One of his two home runs in game, one of the wild card series was to right center also at Dodger Stadium. And then with Kike, you know, we watch him all year. His defense has always been good.

The guy can play anywhere. Always. Okay. Always. You know, I'm glad we don't have to use them on the mound anymore. But everywhere else I'm fine with, right? I asked, in fact, I asked Dave Roberts when, I think when Will got hurt, was it Will? Yeah, I think when Will got hurt, I asked him, I said, who's your emergency catcher?

I said, is it Kiki? He goes, no. I said, well, who is it? He goes, it's Alex Call. He caught in high school. Oh, my God. And I, you know, nobody, nobody knew that. I said, well, let's hope it doesn't come down to that. And it never did, fortunately. But in front of him would have been Miguel Rojas. Miguel had volunteered. No surprise there. But you put Kike at third base, he makes great plays. You put him in left field, he's going to make great play. Because of the fact that he hits this time of year, he's a clutch player in October. He's already proven that. Plus he can defend. That's why he's in left field. And that's why he's on this playoff roster and he's going to play. I mean, I don't know how you can't put him in the lineup. You just have to keep him in the lineup every day. He does something. You know, during the regular season, no, not all the time, come up with a big hit every now and then and come up with a long home run every now and then. But during the postseason, again, there's just something about this time of year that the switch flips in Kike Hernandez. So Dan Hunter, who is a member of our chat, and we appreciate

everybody that's commenting on the chat right now. We appreciate you guys being here on Dodgers territory. He has a good point. And there was some speculation or some consternation, I should say about Teasca Hernandez in the outfield with a non-defensive play. Dan Hunter says agree, but still mad about Teo's botch play in the outfield. What do you make of that on J.T. Rao Muto's triple, triple, because J.T., that was obviously the first triple of the postseason. It's game one for the Phillies. I get that.

But J.T. Rao Muto is not a triple guy. Okay. He had one triple in the regular season. He's a catcher. And I mean, granted, he's not the slowest human on the planet, but he's not a triples guy. So what do you make of that perceived botch play by Teo in the outfield on J.T. Real Muto's triple. Well, Teasca only has one triple in this season, too. So maybe he doesn't know how to recognize it.

I can't repeat what I said when I saw it happen, but... You can. You're allowed to cuss on this show. It's fine. It started with the word what. But I was surprised at the angle he took. I think that ball has to be cut off because it's going to prevent at least one run there and you're going to hold him to a double. Because of the distance, it traveled after he just sort of like pulled up on the ball, I mean, you know, Pajas had to go after it and it bounced off the wall.

He didn't get to, you know, clean off the wall either. So it gave Real Buto a chance to get a chance to get. the third base two runs come in and now it's two nothing at that point in time fortunately at the end of the day and in baseball it's one of those sports where at the end of the day you look back and go okay we got away with it it happened he's aware of it everybody's aware of it don't let it happen again uh we're up one nothing so that's kind of the main thing but yeah i i think that um you know you got to knock that ball down somehow uh but i'm I'm glad that he didn't come out of the game early for defense.

But sometimes he did late in games. I'm glad he was still at the plate in the seventh inning. Yeah, you know, it's interesting too because despite that defensive play, however you want to look at it, I am also going to say, and I agree with some of the folks in our chat here, Gilberto Castaneda says, I don't care about those mistakes. He is the reason we won. I mean, honestly, it was the reason we won offensive. defensively, right? So it's like, you look at it like he's still the player of the game. Bad defensive play, defensive miscue. It could go a variety of ways, but offensively, massive, massive knocks to win this game.

Rewind the tape to last fall. Okay. How did he hit the ball then? Yeah. Did he get to enjoy a parade? Yeah, he sure did. So that's why he's back because he's a big October performer. He it last year. If you make a defensive gaff, you better be the guy that makes up for it. He more than made up for that tonight. Yeah, no, he absolutely atone for it. All right, looking ahead, I think, okay, before we look ahead, and it seems obvious, Tim, never. You've covered this game a long time. And again, super appreciate your insight here. Game one's massive. The statement game in a five-game series is massive, especially on the road, my friend, especially at Citizens Bank Park. And as much as I love Dodgers Stadium

and as much as I love Dodgers fans, Citizens Bank Park is no flippin' joke. And those fans are no joke. And that park is loud, loud, loud. So to get Game 1 after falling behind and having a come from behind win, I feel is huge. In your estimation,

how big is a game 1 wins? statement on the road. Enormous. Enormous. If you were the road team, you're going into a play, and this isn't Rust, right? Now, you look at the Rust stats, and I know that Major League Baseball's research department put out the stats this morning on teams that had the buy, and, you know, they still win a lot, okay? And the Phillies, they had, they do what everybody else does. They do simulated games, they have scrimmages, they open them to the public, they split up teams, they do what you can to simulate games. But the way they came out and played, they looked ready. They looked like they were ready for game one. They had the right pitcher on the mound. These guys were playing

defense. Harrison Bader made the defensive play of the game for the Phillies. You know, Bone was really good at third base. Balls were just smashed down there. He did a good job, right? So they were ready to play, I thought. And for any visiting team in a five-game series to go on the road and take game one, now you have home field advantage in the next three. Correct. Okay. So, so if now, and the way this schedule works, you've got a day off. This is crazy good for both teams, but it's good for the Dodgers too.

Everybody's going to get an extra day of rest to come out Monday night. They'll play in prime time. And if somehow, some way they can take two, then they go back and they have home field advantage for the remainder of the series with two at Dodger Stadium. And they've got two chances to wrap up the series. So again, getting game one, it couldn't be bigger. You know, it really couldn't be bigger except for clinching this series. But you get ahead game one and you get ahead against a team like the 20, 25, Philadelphia, Phillies.

And coming from behind, you got to remember, too, the Dodgers had the second most come from behind wins in baseball, only behind the Blue Jays this year. I think it was 46 or so, something like that off the top of my head. So they're used to coming from behind. They've done it a lot. And the game's just not over. You know, I mean, people thought Yogi Berra was crazy with all his sayings. It's games not over. Yeah, but when you're around, like, can you, it really makes sense.

That getting that 27th out is huge, you know, and being able to walk somebody off is huge, too. So, yeah, to answer the question simply, this was an enormous win by the Dodgers. But now they've got some time to put it aside and get ready for Monday and have Blake Snell pitch. Yeah, let's talk about. Monday. So Blake Snell going up against Hesus Luzardo. I believe it's three lefties in a row that they're going to run out there. The Philadelphia Phillies are. What do you think about that? Obviously, Blake Snell, I hated that he was on the shelf as long as he was. But man, he looked unbelievable against Cincinnati, seven innings, four hits, two or two runs, one walk. Just nine

K's you love to see the swing and miss. Luzardo this season two, Tim, 15 and 7 to 3.992 ERA. He's been good as well. I mean, 216Ks and 183 and two-thirds of innings pitched. You love it. You love to see it. This is what you want. You want to beat the best. And Philly is no joke.

So what do you like about this matchup? What does Blake Snell need to do in game two on Monday? Well, hopefully he gets that curveball working the way that it normally does. And, you know, he was on the shelf for a long period of time. The Dodgers were not taking any chances with him because they needed him for this time of the year. They needed him ready for this time of the year. And when he came back off the shelf, he just got better and better and better and better. So, you know, his change-up's really good. His curveball is really good. And, you know, it's, I don't know, it's like you can't wait for

Monday, right? You know, you just have this happen. Now you're like, come on, I play tomorrow. Let's play tomorrow. No, no, you got to wait until Monday because that's what TV says you have to do. But, no, I think is he's been just absolutely dynamite. And another thing, too, to keep in mind, will Will Will Smith catch him or will RoortVet catch him? That's going to be the question. He's had a lot of success with RoortVet since he's been back. However, with another lefty,

now, again, I'm going with the lefty tonight. They won't the lefty RoortVet for a couple of times, right? Will they do that again? It worked in game one. Maybe they do it again in game two. Will catches a successful. second half of the game, we will see. We will see. But what it does, though, with a lefty is the Phillies end up changing the Dodger lineup. Probably going to have Alex Call in there again, probably

going to have, you know, Kiki starting at third, then moving to left once they get into the bullpen. You know, you'll have Freddie Freeman moving down in the order. So the lefties that you'll have will be Otani, of course, Freeman. And then maybe Rortman. vet if he catches. Other than that, Muncie will not start and they want to keep Muncie's bat out of there as much as they can. And, you know, Tommy Edmund can bat him, you know, from the right side. So you're just going to hit right hand. So that's one of the other things that the Phillies have considered, too, when they have, when they have, you know, a lefty on the hill is that the Dodgers is not going to put the lineup out the way they've had it most of the year. So when do the Dodgers start to score later in the game?

And let you know, maybe they start. score early. Every game's different. You don't know. You could blow a team out one day and lose one nothing the next. We've all seen it. You just never know. It's baseball. That's the beauty of the game is you just never know what you're going to see when you show up to the park. But as far as, you know, what we'll see. My guess is we may see the same exact starting lineup against the lefty Luzardo. We'll see. Now they'll dig into the analytics. They'll dig into the matchups. I haven't done that. I haven't looked looked into who does better against Luzardo than anybody else. yet, but we'll see.

Now we've got 48 hours instead of 24 to worry about it. I know. It's going to be, this is the beauty of it. It's like, it's all fun in games because they won game one. I mean, if this was very, this would have been a very different conversation had the Dodgers lost game one, you know, then you're stressed out. The sky would be falling. It would be falling.

We don't have to worry about that now. This has been fun, Tim. Thank you so much. Don't forget you guys. We have the other side of the conversation, too. From the other side of the series, don't forget to watch the Philly Show, part of the Fowl Territory Network, Todd Zalke, Jim Salisbury, Rubin Amaro Jr., host, subscribe on YouTube, and wherever you get your podcast to the entire Fowl Territory Network. Tim, thank you.

This has been fun. We've loved listening to you all season long on AM 570. Love watching you on SportsN, LA. Enjoy tomorrow. And then we'll reconnect on Monday for game two of the NLDS. Thank you for being. here. Thanks for the insight. Yep. Just watching football tomorrow. That's it. Go Broncos. Then thinking about baseball again on Monday. That's how the schedule works. So,

now, thanks for having me on. I'm happy to do it anytime. All right. Thanks guys for being here on Dodgers territory. We appreciate you. Like, subscribe, greatest five stars. We will definitely have Tim on again. And go Dodgers. We'll see you Monday.