MLB division series: Lineups, analysis from NLDS Game 4s

By / October 10, 2025

It’s time for a pair of a Game 4s in the National League Division Series!

The first matchup between the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers was a pitchers’ duel that went 11 innings, finally ending with Andy Pages driving in Hyeseong Kim for the winning run to punch the Dodgers’ ticket to the National League Championship Series and send the Phillies packing.

The Chicago Cubs look to stay alive with a win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the second Game 4 of the day. Who will move on to face the Dodgers for the NL pennant?

We’ve got you covered with the day’s top moments and takeaways for each game after the final out.

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Top moments | Takeaways

Top moments

We’ve got you covered with all the top moments from both NLDS Game 4s on Thursday.

Brewers at Cubs

Follow live for pitch-by-pitch coverage

Cubs strike early with 1st-inning, 3-run blast

Phillies at Dodgers

Dodgers walk it off in the 11th on an Orion Kerkering error

A stellar 9 straight outs for Roki Sasaki as the game goes to extras

Dodgers tie it after Jhoan Duran gives up bases-loaded walk

Phillies score first run in the 7th inning

It’s still 0-0 in L.A.

What a start to Game 4 for Tyler Glasnow

Takeaways

Los Angeles wins series 3-1

This one, baseball friends, was most definitely not a snooze-fest, not when every pitch mattered, when the tension kept ratcheting up, inning after inning. In the end, it will be remembered for the completely bizarre ending to the game, when Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering — for some reason only the baseball gods will understand, or perhaps not realizing there were two outs in a game he had just entered — tried to throw home after bobbling Andy Pages’ tapper to the mound instead of throwing to first base, where he had plenty of time to get Pages. One of the craziest endings to a playoff game ever.

Before that, there was a pitching duel between Tyler Glasnow and Cristopher Sanchez, the second game of this series to go scoreless through six innings. Phillies fans will understandably complain about the 2-2 non-strike call on Alex Call in the seventh inning that was followed by ball four, which led to the tying run when Mookie Betts somehow laid off a 3-2, 101-mph fastball just out of the strike zone from Jhoan Duran for a walk to force in the tying run.

And before that, Phillies manager Rob Thomson intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani — 1-for-17 with eight strikeouts at that point in the series — to load the bases for Betts. Maybe the baseball gods were simply frowning on that decision. Nobody ever said the gods were gentle. The Dodgers’ quest to repeat remains alive while the Phillies suffer a bitter defeat, heading home for the fourth consecutive season, knowing they had a roster good enough to win it all. — David Schoenfield

Mookie Betts barely blinked as he stood on the field shortly after the Dodgers scored the winning run to dispatch the Phillies and advance to the NLCS. “I couldn’t even move,” he said of how he experienced those last few innings. Winning that series, and dispatching a Phillies team that talented, was one of the hardest challenges Betts had ever experienced. Doing so, he added, said a lot about the mettle of this year’s team. Like last year, when they beat the San Diego Padres in five games in the NLDS, the Dodgers conquered what was probably their most difficult foe early on in October. There will be other challenges, of course. But now Ohtani won’t face a team with so many devastating lefty starters who could suffocate him offensively. And the Dodgers’ shorthanded-yet-talented pitching staff won’t face a lineup this talented. — Alden Gonzalez

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