Dodgers take Hunter Greene to the woodshed as hipster Reds takes die on the vine

A few hours ahead of his Wild Card Game 1 start, Reds ace Hunter Greene took a moment on the mound at Dodger Stadium. Greene is an LA native who grew up rooting for the Dodgers, and he would be getting the first postseason start of his career at their stadium.

With the way Greene pitched through the first three innings against the Dodgers later that night, it'd be fair to wonder if he'd let some of his childhood fondness for them get to him.

Shohei Ohtani led off the first with a solo homer that left the bat at 117.7 MPH — par for the course for him. By the bottom of the third, he'd given up three singles, walked two batters back-to-back, and then allowed those runners to advance with a wild pitch.

It set the stage for Teoscar Hernández who, by most metrics, has had one of the worst offensive seasons of his career. He saw a ball way out of the zone before smashing a three-run homer.

Tommy Edman, who calmed down significantly after the brief power surge that had him dubbed Tommy Tanks at the beginning of the season, followed it up with a solo homer to go back-to-back and give the Dodgers a 5-0 lead.

Dodgers tee off of Reds ace Hunter Greene to take early 5-0 lead in Wild Card Game 1

Meanwhile, Blake Snell was cruising for the Dodgers. He took down his first six batters in order and got his first two outs in the third before giving up a double to Matt McLain, the Reds' first hit off of him in 11 2/3 innings dating back to his no-hitter against them as a Giant in 2024. His fourth inning was more of the same — three up, three down.

Greene has been on a roll since returning from a lengthy IL stay in mid-August, just a week and some change after Snell came back from his own long stint, but the pressure of his first ever postseason start was clearly getting to him, and the Dodgers were able to capitalize.

He was still throwing up to 101 MPH as one of the more fearsome fireballing starters in the league, but the Dodgers are clearly onto him. Run support has been a massive issue for LA, but Snell can probably rest assured through the rest of this start — as long as the bullpen doesn't blow it.