The Phillies Blueprint to Beat the Dodgers

The Philadelphia Phillies welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers to Citizens Bank Park on Saturday for Game 1 of the 2025 National League Division Series.

Shohei Ohtani will take the bump against Cristopher Sánchez in Game 1. It’s going to be a madhouse at The Bank. Red October, you know the deal.

I will say, if I hear one more Philly Sports Talk radio host say that this is “scary” or the Phillies got “screwed” by having to face the Dodgers in the NLDS, I’m going to lose my mind. It goes against the fabric of Philadelphia and really, The Liberty Line

• Playoff Seeding Doesn’t Matter.
• There’s NEVER a loss on the schedule.

All Things Red October Right Here >>

The Los Angeles Paper Tigers Don’t Change Things…

The Los Angeles Paper Tigers am I right

— Drew Smith (@drewmsmith) October 2, 2025

Sure, I’m not an idiot. I know the Dodgers have all the star power in the world. They have the highest payroll in Major League Baseball and the golden boy, Shohei Ohtani.

None of that matters because the biggest, most glaring weakness that turns the NLDS on it’s head is the fact that the Dodgers bullpen is complete ass.

Dodgers’ Bullpen = Ass

Look no further than the Wild Card. The Reds scored more than half their runs off Dodgers relievers. I know we’re talking about the Reds here but it wasn’t some weird collapse like we saw from our own bullpen (pain) in the postseason last year against the Mets.

This has been a trend for the entire season out in Los Angeles and there’s no reason to believe it’s all of the sudden going to change on the road for the first two games in the NLDS, in the hardest ballpark in America, against the second-best team in all of baseball.

Paper Tigers: The Dodgers have no bullpen

• 4.19 ERA (10th worst in MLB)
• .727 opponent OPS (bottom 10 again)
• 27 blown saves (seventh most)
• 269 walks (pinch counts, baserunners)

From August to the end of the regular season, no team blew more saves than the Dodgers bullpen. These dorks couldn’t strike me out, let alone a veteran lineup who thrives under the pressure of Red October.

Phillies Feast on Relievers

No team in baseball was better against relief pitching in 2025.

The Fightins put up an MLB-best .787 OPS against relievers, led the league in home runs per nine innings off the ‘pen, and drove in 363 runs against them. Back in September, the Phillies went to L.A. and lit up five different Dodger relievers for 12 runs in two wins.

They’ve already written the playbook.

Ohtani’s Pitch Count

Yes, Ohtani gets the ball in Game 1. Yes, he no-hit Philly for five innings a few weeks ago. It’s hard to think that the Dodgers would let him run wild.

He hasn’t thrown more than 91 pitches in over a month.

That means this game, like every game in this series, eventually goes exactly where the Phillies want it to go.

That Dodgers bullpen is going to be in hell on Saturday and Monday.

The Formula is Obvious

The Dodgers lineup is loaded, but you’re not shutting them down completely. This series won’t be decided by stars on paper, it’ll be decided by which team forces the bullpen door open first.

t’s no secret that nobody in baseball breaks bullpens better than the Phillies, they just have to take strong at-bats in order to get the starter out of the game.

Sounds easy, right? Saturday can’t come soon enough.

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