LOS ANGELES -- Last year, Shohei Ohtani introduced himself to postseason baseball with a game-tying blast in the second at-bat of his first big league playoff game.
He didn't make the fans at Dodger Stadium wait nearly as long this time around -- and he added on another tape-measure blast later in the game.
Behind multihomer efforts from Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández and seven stellar innings from Blake Snell, the Dodgers defeated the Reds, 10-5, to take Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.
In the history of best-of-three Wild Card Series, Game 1 winners have gone on to win the series 18 of 20 times (90%), including 16 sweeps. Teams to win Game 1 at home have finished the two-game sweep all seven times. Game 2 is set for 6 p.m. PT at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, airing on ESPN, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto opposing Zack Littell.
As is often the case for the Dodgers in big moments, it all started with Ohtani.
"His focus gets more keen and the at-bat quality is better," manager Dave Roberts said. "That's the reason why he signed to be with this ballclub, this organization, to play in games like this to showcase his otherworldly talent."
Ohtani pulled triple-digit heat from Reds starter Hunter Greene out to right field, leading off the Dodgers' half of the first inning with a laser of a home run, scorched at 117.7 mph off the bat. It was the fourth-hardest-hit postseason home run since Statcast began tracking in 2015.
Ohtani narrowly missed beating himself for third on that list, as he had a 117.8 mph homer in Game 4 of last year's NL Championship Series -- which had been the Dodgers' most recent leadoff homer in the postseason before Tuesday.
Greene's offering, at 100.4 mph, was also the hardest thrown pitch Ohtani had homered off in his career (prev. 100.1 mph, off Jhoan Duran on July 22, 2025, and Paul Skenes on June 5, 2024). No Major Leaguer has had a harder-hit homer run off a 100-plus mph pitch than Ohtani's bomb.
"It was a really hard pitch to hit, but I felt like I reacted pretty well," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. "I was happy I was able to help the team score early."
Five innings later, Ohtani left the yard again. His second homer of the game wasn't hit quite as hard -- 113.5 mph -- but the two-run shot off reliever Connor Phillips sailed deep into the night, traveling a projected 454 feet. It was the longest postseason home run by a Dodger, passing the previous record of 447 feet (Chris Taylor, 2017 World Series Game 1, and Corey Seager, 2020 Wild Card Series Game 1).
Ohtani is only the second player with two home runs hit 113 mph or harder in a postseason game in the Statcast era, joining Giancarlo Stanton (2020 ALDS Game 2).
In just two years with the team, Ohtani already has Los Angeles' 16 hardest-hit balls of the Statcast era, a list topped by his milestone 100th homer as a Dodger, wallopped at 120 mph off the bat on Sept. 2 of this year.
Just two days before, Ohtani surpassed his own franchise single-season home run record by hitting his 55th of the year in Game 162 of the regular season. Two years into his tenure in Los Angeles, the two-way star has already begun to make his mark on the record books of one of the most storied franchises in baseball.
The Dodgers have become so accustomed to impressive feats from their two-way superstar that it can almost feel like business as usual.
"It's crazy, but it's easy to take it for granted when it happens so often," catcher Ben Rortvedt said. "I feel like I'm clapping as if someone gets another hit."
Later on, Ohtani and Hernández became the fifth pair of teammates to hit multiple homers in a postseason game, and only the second in franchise history (also AJ Pollock and Taylor, 2021 NLCS Game 5). They drove in seven of the Dodgers' 10 runs, a cushion they would need after the Reds pulled within five runs following a laborious inning from the bullpen.
The Dodgers were able to finish the job in Game 1 and are a win away from advancing to the NL Division Series against the Phillies.
"Obviously, Shohei sets the tone, as usual," Max Muncy said. "It was a great game for everyone, all around. We got out to a good start, and that's the most important thing in these types of series, especially a short series like this. If you can come out and put some pressure, it goes a long way."