The redemption tour began just as the Dodgers imagined it.
With a momentous home-run swing from Shohei Ohtani.
One inning into their postseason opener Saturday night, the Dodgers were having nightmare flashbacks to this time last year, facing yet another early deficit after yet another poor performance from their Game 1 starting pitcher.
The 53,028 towel-waving fans at Dodger Stadium had been silenced. In the visiting dugout, the San Diego Padres were riding a sudden jolt of momentum.
But then, in the kind of sequence that has eluded the Dodgers during their postseason failures of recent years, Ohtani came to the plate and, in his first career playoff game, immediately wiped the slate clean.
“We didn’t expect anything less than that,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said. “He’s the guy that is gonna guide us through all of this.”
Indeed, in the Dodgers’ 7-5 winin the opening game of this year’s National League Division Series, Ohtani’s three-run homer in the …