Analyzing MLB Wild Card postseason matchups
Bob Nightengale breaks down each of the four Wild Card matchups to kick off the 2025 MLB postseason.
The Dodgers’ quest to become baseball’s first repeat champion in a quarter-century begins Tuesday, hosting the Cincinnati Reds in the opener of the best-of-three National League wild card series.
No World Series winner has defended its crown since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000 and the Dodgers face a long road back with the wild card series followed by a potential matchup with the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS. The Reds are in the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2013 and claimed the NL’s final postseason berth despite finishing with an 83-79 record.
Ace Hunter Greene (7-4, 2.76 ERA) starts for the Reds, making his postseason debut. Two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell takes the mound for the Dodgers, his first start in the playoffs since signing a big-money deal with Los Angeles last winter.
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Tuesday’s game will air on ESPN and can be streamed with Fubo.
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Cincinnati got on the board in the top of the seventh with an RBI when Elly De La Cruz hit an RBI groundout against Blake Snell and came around to score on Tyler Stephenson’s RBI double, cutting the Reds’ deficit to 8-2.
Snell is done after seven stellar innings, giving up four hits and two runs with nine strikeouts and one walk in his first postseason start for the Dodgers.
With a 6-0 lead in the sixth inning, Shohei Ohtani crushed a 454-foot two-run homer off Cincinnati’s Connor Phillips for his second home run of the game.
Having already dealt the big blow in the Dodgers’ four-run third, Teoscar Hernandez hit an opposite-field solo homer off Reds reliever Scott Barlow in the bottom of the fifth to extend the Dodgers lead to 6-0.
Reds ace Hunter Greene was replaced by Scott Barlow to start the fourth inning, bringing Greene’s postseason debut to an end. The 26-year-old right-hander gave up six hits – three of them home runs – and five earned runs with four strikeouts and two walks.
Last year’s World Series hero Teoscar Hernandez hit a three-run homer off Hunter Greene in the bottom of the third and Tommy Edman followed with a solo shot to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 5-0.
LOS ANGELES — Dodgers MVP Shohei Ohtani, who played with one healthy shoulder last year in the World Series, reminded everyone just what he can do this postseason when he’s healthy.
Ohtani jumped on Cincinnati Reds ace Hunter Greene’s 100-mph fastball and sent it into the right-field pavilion, traveling 117.7 mph off his bat in Game 1 of the wild-card series.
Blake Snell struck out Reds leadoff hitter TJ Friedl to begin Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. Snell is making his 13th career postseason appearance, pitching 48â…” innings or the Rays and Padres.
Shohei Ohtani (L) DHMookie Betts (R) SSFreddie Freeman (L) 1BMax Muncy (L) 3BTeoscar Hernández (R) RFTommy Edman (S) 2BAndy Pages (R) CFEnrique Hernández (R) LFBen Rortvedt (L) CTJ Friedl (L) CFNoelvi Marte (R) RFMiguel Andujar (R) DHAustin Hays (R) LFSpencer Steer (R) 1BElly De La Cruz (S) SSTyler Stephenson (R) CKe’Bryan Hayes (R) 3BMatt McLain (R) 2B