2025 NLDS: LA maintains high hopes after Philly blast clears roof
By Mark Langill
There are six plaques in the Centerfield Plaza honoring the five players who have hit a home run beyond the Pavilions of Dodger Stadium.
Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell is the only one to twice perform the trick in 1969 and 1973. Stargell was followed by Mike Piazza (1997 Dodgers), Mark McGwire (1999 Cardinals), Giancarlo Stanton (2015 Marlins) and Fernando Tatis Jr (2021 Padres).
With Dodgers still holding a 2–1 National League Division Series lead and a chance to close out the battle with the Phillies in this afternoon’s Game 4, what will be the significance of Kyle Schwarber’s 455-foot blast off Dodger starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto during the Phillies’ 8–2 victory Wednesday?
There’s debate as to whether it qualifies in the category of the other six deep blasts. But will it become a big blue footnote or a bright red shrine?
Brushing aside the disappointment of a missed opportunity to sweep, Manager Dave Roberts is optimistic with Game 4 starter Tyler Glasnow.
“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. “I feel good with where we’re at.”
Unlike Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ’Round the World,” walk-off home run for the New York Giants against Brooklyn reliever Ralph Branca in the deciding third game of the 1951 National League playoff, the Dodger season is not over.
Nor did the Game 1 walk-off home runs by Kirk Gibson and Freddie Freeman 36 years apart — spawning the instant “Gibby, meet Freddie!” merchandise — end the respective seasons of the 1988 Oakland Athletics and 2024 New York Yankees. Each of those shellshocked opponents lasted five games before expiring.
But an opposing home run in a pennant race or actual postseason game can linger for generations. You can eventually spare the details and years. The simple names can still cause a grimace, twitch and recoil:
Reggie Jackson.
Joe Morgan.
Jack Clark.
Matt Stairs.
Schwarber’s first of two home runs was the first punch that landed squarely on the jaw of the reigning champs who were 4–0 in the postseason.
The evening started with optimism.
Steve Garvey, the former Dodger All-Star and Gold Glove first baseman and 1978 NLCS MVP against the Phillies, threw out the ceremonial first pitch as a symbol of past playoff magic.
With Los Angeles leading 1–0 in the third inning, scoreboard watchers monitored the other National League Division game at Chicago’s Wrigley Field and were prematurely wondering whether the Dodgers would host the Cubs or travel to Milwaukee to open the NL Championship Series.
Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax was in attendance for a chance to see fellow three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw. Koufax witnessed plenty of history, both Schwarber’s tape-measure blast and Kershaw’s two-inning stint in relief that could’ve been the final act of his storied 18-year Major League career.
Seemingly on the verge of hurdling NL East champion Phillies with ease, the Dodgers face a crossroad. Though not the elimination threat as the 2024 Division Series Game 4 in San Diego, it’s one last chance for the Dodgers to take care of business at home as the potential Game 5 lingers in Philadelphia, home of the Rocky Balboa boxing statue.
A dynasty suddenly hangs in the balance.
2025 NLDS: LA maintains high hope after Philly blast clears roof was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.