WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 24, 2024 — Washington Nationals faced the Los Angeles Dodgers at Nationals Park. (Joe Glorioso/All-Pro Reels for Washington Times Sports)

LOS ANGELES (CNS) – The Dodgers will begin their National League Division Series against the East Division champion Philadelphia Phillies today in Philadelphia, with Shohei Ohtani set to accomplish another previously unprecedented feat.

When Ohtani takes the mound at Citizens Bank Park in the bottom of the first inning to make his postseason pitching debut, he will become the first player to start at least one game as pitcher and at least one as a non-pitcher in a single postseason, according to Sarah Langs, a researcher with Major League Baseball.

Ohtani did not pitch in 2024 during the Dodgers’ run to the World Series championship as he recovered from a procedure to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow performed on Sep. 19, 2023. The Angels never reached the postseason in his six seasons with the team.

Ohtani made his Dodger pitching debut June 16. He was 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA. The Dodgers were 5-9 in his pitching starts, including losses in each of his last three games and seven of his last eight.

Ohtani pitched five no-hit innings against the Phillies on Sept. 16 at Dodger Stadium in his only career pitching appearance against them. The Dodgers led 4-0 through five innings but lost 9-6.

Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said Friday it “was probably his best start of the year. He was phenomenal. It’s the combination of power and control, command, stuff. He was really good. He was pumping strikes and it was 98, 99 (miles per hour). And the secondary pitches are all way above-average. So if he’s doing that, it’s a tough task.”

Left-hander Cristopher Sánchez will pitch for the Phillies. He was 13- 5 with a 2.50 ERA in the regular season. Philadelphia was 23-9 in his starts.

Sánchez is 2-0 with a 4.01 ERA in four career starts against the Dodgers. He faced the Dodgers twice in 2025 with no record and a 5.68 ERA. He also pitched in the Sept. 16 game, allowing four runs and seven hits in seven innings.

Ohtani is 4-for-16 for a .250 batting average and two RBIs against Sánchez.

The Dodgers were 2-4 against the Phillies in the regular season, going 1-2 at both Citizens Bank Park and Dodger Stadium.

Three Dodgers who did not play in the Wild Card Series are expected to play in the NLDS, according to manager Dave Roberts.

Catcher Will Smith has played only once since suffering what was later diagnosed as a hairline fracture in his right hand when he was hit by a foul tip Sept. 3 and not at all since Sept. 9 when his hand flared up the next day.

Roberts said on Friday Smith is “getting better each day” and “will be available to catch” in the best-of-five series.

“Just trying to be mindful of haven’t caught in a long time and then kind of looking at the series and the capacity he can take on,” Roberts said.

“So those are things that are kind of going through our heads right now.”

Left-hander Clayton Kershaw will be used as a reliever, Roberts said. He was not on the 26-man roster for the Wild Card Series because he threw “a full ramp-up” Sunday, two days before the start of the Wild Card Series.

Right-hander Tyler Glasnow will be available to pitch Saturday, one week after his latest pitching appearance, when he pitched three shutout innings against the Seattle Mariners, Roberts said.

Kershaw and fellow left-hander Anthony Banda were the two Dodgers on the 26-man roster for the NLDS who were not on the roster for the Wild Card Series, the team announced Saturday. They replaced Edgardo Henriquez and Justin Wrobleski.

Henriquez walked the first two batters he faced in the eighth inning of Game 1, then allowed an RBI single by Spencer Steer, prompting Roberts to take him out of the game without recording an out.

Henriquez did not pitch in Game 2. Wrobleski did not pitch in either game.

The Dodgers have a 57.6% chance of winning the series, Philadelphia a 42.4% chance, according to FanGraphs. The baseball statistics and advanced analytics website has made the Dodgers the favorite to win the World Series at 24.1%, with the Phillies the fourth choice at 13.5%, also behind the Seattle Mariners (17.6%) and New York Yankees (15.8%).

The 3:38 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time game will be televised on TBS, streamed on HBO Max, broadcast in English by KLAC-AM (570) and in Spanish by KTNQ-AM (1020).

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