PHILADELPHIA — Teoscar Hernandez rallied the Los Angeles Dodgers with a three-run homer in the seventh inning that bailed out Shohei Ohtani, both on the mound and at the plate, and led his club to a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of their National League Division Series on Saturday night.

Ohtani struck out four straight times at the plate, the final time in the seventh with no outs and two runners on against Matt Strahm.

No worries, at least for the reigning World Series champions.

Following a Mookie Betts popout, Hernandez, who hit two homers in the wild card round, silenced a roaring Phillies crowd with an opposite-field drive to right off Strahm for a 5-3 lead. The veteran slugger gestured in wild celebration in his trot around the bases.

His hat off, Ohtani rose from his dugout seat to join in the fun, and exhale once he was on track for the win.

A three-time MVP, Ohtani recovered from a three-run second in his first career playoff pitching start to shut down the Phillies and finish with nine strikeouts over six innings.

Alex Vesia retired pinch-hitter Edmundo Sosa with the bases loaded in the eighth to preserve the lead. Roki Sasaki worked the ninth for his first career save.

Ohtani had admitted to nerves about playing in front of a crowd that voraciously tried to live up to its four hours of hell moniker — he was jeered as he stepped on the field during warmups — and he never found his footing at the plate.

Ohtani walked in the ninth.

Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez struck out Ohtani three times, included a called strike three in the fifth inning that sent a towel-waving crowd into delirium.

Sanchez was even fired up on that one, and punched his fist in the air as he left the mound.

The Oh-4 became but a mere footnote — though Ohtani is the first player to strike out four times as a batter and strike out nine batters as a pitcher in the same postseason game — in an exhilarating comeback for a Dodgers team riding high after thumping the Reds in two games in the Wild Card Series.

Game 2 is Monday in Philadelphia.

Sanchez was thrust into the ace role when Zack Wheeler was ruled out for the season in August with complications from a blood clot. Wheeler was in full uniform and received a roaring ovation in the pregame introductions.

Sanchez pitched early like a No. 1 starter. He fanned Ohtani on three pitches to start the game and breezed through five scoreless innings.

Kike Hernandez chased Sanchez in the sixth when he ripped a two-out, two-run double down the left-field line that made it 3-2. David Robertson retired pinch-hitter Max Muncy to end the threat.

Robertson, the 40-year-old late-season pickup, allowed a single and hit Will Smith with a pitch to open the seventh before yielding to Strahm.

While disaster struck late for the Phillies bullpen, Vesia saved Tyler Glasnow in the eighth. Glasnow, pitching out of the bullpen in a short series, loaded the bases before he got the hook. Vesia got Sosa, who hit three home runs in a game last month, to fly out to center field.

The Phillies had only two hits after they scored three times in the third on J.T. Realmuto‘s two-run triple and Harrison Bader‘s sacrifice fly.

Jesus Luzardo will start for the Phillies on Monday in Game 2. Luzardo went 15-7 with a 3.92 ERA with a career-high 216 strikeouts in his first season with the Phillies after he was acquired from the Miami Marlins in an offseason trade. The Dodgers already had announced that two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell was expected to start Game 2, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the bump in Game 3.

TORONTO — Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s playoff career before Saturday was not befitting a $500 million franchise cornerstone. The Toronto Blue Jays first baseman managed just three hits in 25 plate appearances and didn’t hit a ball over the fence across six games. More important, the six games, split into two-game slices over three postseasons, were all Blue Jays losses.

That all flipped in a 10-1 win over the Yankees, the franchise he has long openly despised, in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday.

Starring in front of a raucous Rogers Centre crowd hungry for playoff baseball, Guerrero delivered an all-around clinic in the Blue Jays’ first playoff win since Game 4 of the 2016 AL Championship Series with a diving catch and three hits to fuel an offensive explosion.

“He’s the face of our franchise and a big reason why we go, a big part of why we’re here,” Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman said. “So it’s been nice to see him have the night that he had.”

At the plate, Guerrero swatted his first career postseason home run and finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored to fuel an offense that pounded 14 hits, including three home runs and three doubles. Defensively, his diving catch of Ryan McMahon‘s lineout at first base — while a bat shard whizzed by him — initiated an inning-ending double play in the second.

Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk complemented Guerrero’s effort with his first two career postseason home runs. Right fielder Nathan Lukes contributed two hits, including a two-run double, with three RBIs and a diving catch down the right-field line. Shortstop Andres Gimenez went 2-for-4 as the Blue Jays chased Luis Gil after 2⅔ innings and forced the Yankees to use six pitchers.

“I think having him get the scoring going, the double play at first with McMahon, it’s nice,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of Guerrero. “It gives you a little bit of a jolt because it’s Vlad and what he means to this team.”

Guerrero did not waste time in providing that energy, swatting a 90 mph changeup from Gil in the first inning to give the Blue Jays a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. He added singles in the second and eighth innings and a sacrifice fly in the Blue Jays’ game-busting four-run seventh, igniting the sellout crowd on a gorgeous day in Ontario with the building’s roof open.

That it happened against the Yankees was fitting. Guerrero’s dislike of the Yankees, he has said, dates back to two incidents over two decades ago: the Yankees pulling a contract offer for his father, a Hall of Fame outfielder, in 2003 and Yankee Stadium security telling his father to take him off the field when he was a boy.

“For me, I bring the same energy every game regardless who I’m playing, especially now in the playoffs,” Guerrero said. “That’s all I’ve got on my mind is to go out there and play hard.”

Whatever his motivation, the five-time All-Star has enjoyed facing the Yankees during his seven-year career. Entering Saturday’s matchup — the first ever between the two clubs in the postseason — Guerrero was batting .302 with 22 home runs and an 0.918 OPS in 102 career games opposite the Yankees.

He improved those gaudy numbers Saturday, adding another highlight reel to a year that began with him committing to Toronto with a 14-year, $500 million contract extension in April and that he hopes ends with the franchise’s first championship since 1993 later this month.

“For me, my goal always is to win a World Series, to bring the World Series here,” Guerrero said. “My father, he never had the chance to win a World Series. That’s one of my goals, always been one of my goals, to do that for me, for him.”