LOS ANGELES -- This is Tyler Glasnow’s dream job. Not just pitching for the Dodgers -- the team he grew up rooting for in nearby Santa Clarita -- but pitching for the Dodgers in the postseason.
He made it count, tossing six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and just two hits allowed on 83 pitches in an intense pitchers’ duel with Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez, setting the tone for the Dodgers’ 2-1 win to clinch a spot in the National League Championship Series.
This is what he had in mind when he inked a five-year, $136.5 million contract extension with the Dodgers shortly after they acquired him in a trade from the Rays two winters ago.
“It means everything,” Glasnow said. “It's been a dream of mine for a long time. … It just feels incredible.”
It was also a bit of a dream deferred. Glasnow missed the entirety of the 2024 World Series run with a sprained right elbow.
“I couldn't be more excited for Tyler,” manager Dave Roberts said. “A little bit on the outside looking in last year, and wanting to be a part of things. And all offseason, this season, he couldn't wait for this moment, for the postseason, and to contribute.”
The Dodgers entered Thursday clinging onto a 2-1 lead over the Phillies in the NLDS. But even after losing in blowout fashion less than 24 hours earlier, the Dodgers felt confident in their ability to close the series out at home because of who they had on the mound.
“If you look back going into this series and said we'd be up 2-1, we would have banked it with Glas going in,” Roberts said Wednesday.
Glasnow didn’t disappoint. The Dodgers have needed -- and are going to continue to need -- length from their starters this postseason in order to make a deep run. Even when he started to feel cramping in between the third and fourth innings, Glasnow kept it out of his mind as much as he could and carried on for the longest scoreless postseason start of his career.
He kept the Phillies lineup off-balance with a four-pitch mix of his four-seamer, curveball, slider and sinker, drawing a game-high 16 whiffs. Glasnow mentioned his timing was working especially well for him on Thursday, which is something that he had been workshopping with pitching coaches Mark Prior and Connor McGuiness.
And with Sánchez dealing on the opposite side, Glasnow began to focus more on the present moment. He was able to take each inning for what it was instead of trying to over-analyze things from the previous inning or think ahead to the next one.
“It was his time today,” Roberts said. “Today was his moment. And I was just very happy to see that he rose to that occasion and gave us a huge boost. This is something that I know is going to propel him going forward.”
Glasnow met the moment he always imagined himself in. Now, he’s ready for the next one.
“I thought about it a lot of times, and I want to keep it going,” Glasnow said. “I want to have a lot more memories. It's an incredible feeling."