Last Night in Baseball: Shohei Ohtani Immediately Set The Pace Against the Reds

There is always baseball happening — almost too much baseball for one person to follow themselves.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help you by figuring out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from the weekend in Major League Baseball:

Dodgers bats save the pen from itself

The Dodgers bullpen was a problem in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series against the Reds, but you knew that was going to be the case before that matchup even began. The important thing for them was that they scored a ton of runs and that starter Blake Snell did his job in sticking around as long as possible, lessening what was being asked of Los Angeles’ relief corps.

Hey look, Shohei Ohtani led off the game with a home run. It was a laser, too, measured at nearly 118 mph by Statcast, and off of Reds’ ace Hunter Greene.

Teoscar Hernandez would hit a dinger in the third, then Tommy Edman would go back-to-back with him, putting the Dodgers up 5-0 after three.

The offense was not done yet. In the fifth, Hernandez hit a solo shot, and in the next inning, Ohtani also went deep for the second time in the game. 

We could just cite MLB’s post saying that this 454-foot blast was the longest, per Statcast, in Dodgers’ (recorded) postseason history. But then you would miss the casual-and-so-cool bat flip that Ohtani delivered after this blast, and you wouldn’t want that.

By the time the Reds finally scored, it was already the seventh inning and the Dodgers up 8-0. Snell did his job, too, as he allowed a pair of runs in his final inning of work, and then it took four relievers to get through one inning of relief and end the game. But not before allowing another three runs to score, of course.

All’s well that ends well, at least as far as a short series where a single misstep can doom you. The Reds are the ones in possession of said misstep at the moment, as their ace took the hill and lasted just three innings against the potent Dodgers’ lineup. They have a chance to even the series up and force a decisive Game 3 on Wednesday, when Zack Littell takes on Yoshinobu Yamamoto. 

That’s Garrett Crochet

Game 1 of Red Sox-Yankees had a little bit of everything. It was slow-paced but exciting, it had excellent pitching performances, and oh, Yankees fans are wondering why Aaron Boone gets to continue to be the manager of the team. It’s the postseason, baby, expect that for as long as the Yankees are in it.

The real problem for New York, however, was just that sometimes you get beat. It tends to happen to the opponents of Garrett Crochet fairly regularly, even. Crochet, who went a very deserved 18-5 in 2025 — with Boston going 22-10 in his 32 starts overall — was dominant in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series. He went 7.2 innings with 11 strikeouts and didn’t allow a walk, while giving up just the one run to New York on four hits. Crochet went deep enough that the Red Sox didn’t have to dip into any of the middle portions of their bullpen or even a setup guy, and instead went straight to Aroldis Chapman for the four-out save.

New York’s best chance to come back was right there in the ninth: Chapman loaded the bases with no outs, with Boston up just 3-1, thanks to three straight singles from Paul Goldschmidt, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger. Chapman, by the way, has been historic levels of difficult to hit in 2025: he allowed just 4.1 hits per nine, somehow more than a full hit stingier than his already impressive career rate. 

Given that, after allowing three hits in a row, maybe he won’t allow another three until some time in 2026. Chapman met this self-inflicted hard mode head-on, and proceeded to strike out Giancarlo Stanton, get Jazz Chisholm Jr. to fly out then got Trent Grisham to K on a foul tip. Ballgame, Boston.

The Yankees face elimination on Wednesday due to the three-game format of the Wild Card Series, and will send Carlos Rodon to the mound to keep the season going at least one day longer, against Boston’s Brayan Bello.

A Windy Wrigley W

The Cubs didn’t take any risks with lefty starter Matthew Boyd, pulling him in the fifth inning after just 58 pitches despite the fact he was keeping the Padres in check. That ended up working out for Chicago, as the bullpen held San Diego scoreless for the rest of the game, and Chicago got all the offense they would need for the rest of the game in the bottom of the fifth.

Seiya Suzuki hit a home run off of Nick Pivetta…

…and then Carson Kelly followed with his own, putting the Cubs up 2-1. A shame for Pivetta, too, as he gave up just one hit otherwise without walking a batter, but Suzuki and Kelly got all of those two pitches. 

Chicago can also thank Dansby Swanson for helping to keep the Padres off the board — he made a number of slick defensive plays that kept San Diego from ever putting together a real rally, and helped the Cubs win in what was mostly a pitcher’s duel from the starters and relievers, back-to-back dingers aside.

San Diego will attempt to extend their season at least one more day on Wednesday at Wrigley, when Dylan Cease faces off against reliever Andrew Kittredge — despite the heavy use of relievers in Game 1, Chicago will go with an opener in Game 2. Starter Shota Imanaga is likely to pitch after Kittredge, but the play here seems to be avoiding the powerful top of the Padres’ lineup if possible, for at least one turn through the lineup, given Imanaga allowed a ghastly 1.9 homers per nine innings this year, but has otherwise been solid.

Oh so that’s why he might win the 2025 Cy Young, too

Tarik Skubal! You should be very familiar with him at this point, given he won the 2024 AL Cy Young while leading the league in ERA, and then was just as good again this season. If not, though, then Tuesday’s Game 1 performance against the Guardians should have opened your eyes. The Tigers’ ace gave up a single run on the most Guards Ball sequence of events imaginable — capped by Cleveland likely making life harder for themselves by bunting with two outs and a runner on third, for some reason — but was otherwise untouchable. Skubal struck out 14 batters over 7.2 innings while allowing just six baserunners and the one weirdo run.

Basically it was an entire day of this happening again and again.

Luckily for the Guardians, Skubal only gets to pitch one game in the series. They’ll attempt to keep their season alive with a Game 2 win, when Tanner Bibbee going up against Casey Mize.

RIP, camera

Hey, have you ever heard what it sounds like when a fouled-back Tarik Skubal fastball smashes a camera behind home plate?

Now you have!

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