After reaching base 9 times (!!!) with 2 HRs in Game 3, Ohtani starting Game 4 on the mound
This browser does not support the video element.
LOS ANGELES -- When he wills it, Shohei Ohtani finds a way.
No matter which arms they threw at him, the Blue Jays couldn't find an answer for the Dodgers' two-way superstar in Game 3 of the World Series. Ohtani knocked four extra-base hits in his first four trips to the plate on Monday night -- two doubles and two homers, the last of which knotted the contest in the seventh inning.
After Ohtani's game-tying blast, Toronto opted to simply take the bat out of Ohtani's hands, intentionally walking him four times -- and unintentionally once -- before Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off homer to send L.A. to a 6-5 win in an 18-inning classic.
And approximately 17 hours after the conclusion of Game 3, No. 17 will be on the mound for Game 4, trying to help the Dodgers jump out to a 3-1 lead.
In Ohtani’s last start -- in Game 4 of the NLCS -- he struck out 10 Brewers over six-plus scoreless innings while launching three home runs in the pennant clincher. It was one of the greatest performances by any player on a baseball field ever -- especially considering the stage.
There’s only one stage bigger: the World Series. Monday's Game 3 marked Ohtani’s eighth World Series game. But he has yet to pitch in any of them after spending last season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
"Yoshi navigated that [Toronto] lineup really well," Ohtani said after Yamamoto's Game 2 gem. "You have to really have good stuff to be able to put up good results. So for myself, I'm just trying to put myself in the best position to be able to make sure that I can navigate and put up good results."
"I don't know how he does it," Max Muncy said. "Every time he goes out there and pitches, I kind of look at him and the first thought that comes to my head is, 'That guy must sleep really good at night.'"
“I want to go to sleep as soon as possible so I can get ready," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton on the FOX broadcast.
With his second homer Monday night, Ohtani tied Corey Seager's franchise record set in 2020 with eight homers in a single postseason. He is just the second player in Major League history with four extra-base hits in a World Series game, joining Frank Isbell in 1906, and the fourth to reach base nine times in a game -- because after all, very few players get multiple plate appearances beyond the 14th-inning stretch.
"He's the best player on the planet, and he was on the heels of a huge offensive night," manager Dave Roberts said. "And [Blue Jays manager John Schneider] smelled that and wasn't going to let Shohei beat him at all."
This browser does not support the video element.
Even as Ohtani endured a slow start to the postseason, opposing teams handled him with care. The one thing he can't do by sheer force of will is ensure he gets pitches to hit from the Blue Jays going forward.
Ohtani made the most of the ones he got in Game 3.
"I think after that, you just kind of take the bat out of his hands," said Schneider, indicating more free passes would be in Ohtani's future.
This browser does not support the video element.
Ohtani's first pair of hits came off Max Scherzer. It was only the second World Series matchup between a three-time MVP winner and a three-time Cy Young winner -- the other came in 2009, when Pedro Martinez and Alex Rodriguez faced off -- and both rounds went to Ohtani.
Ohtani led off the game with a double before taking Scherzer deep for a solo shot in the bottom of the third, giving the Dodgers a short-lived two-run lead before the Blue Jays stormed back for four runs (two earned) in the fourth off Tyler Glasnow.
In the fifth, Toronto turned to its primary answer for Ohtani: lefty Mason Fluharty. Ohtani had faced Fluharty three prior times and only had three strikeouts to show for it. But this time, he went the other way for an RBI double before Freeman drove him in to tie the game.
Then came Ohtani's turn to make it a new ballgame, one half-inning after the Blue Jays had pulled ahead by a run in the top of the seventh. Seranthony Domínguez left a fastball squarely over the heart of the plate, and Ohtani sent the mistake pitch sailing into the seats in left field.
This browser does not support the video element.
That's when Schneider began to put four fingers up when Ohtani came up. Ohtani went more than three hours without seeing live pitching until Alex Call singled in front of him in the 17th inning. (Ohtani still drew a four-pitch walk.)
"If I were the manager, I wouldn’t let him swing, either," Teoscar Hernández said in Spanish. "Especially now. He’s seeing the ball really well. As a manager, you don’t want Shohei to beat you, especially not a game of this magnitude."
Between his statement three-homer game in NLCS Game 4 and World Series Game 3, Ohtani became the first player with multiple games of 12 or more total bases in a single postseason. The only other player with two such games in a postseason career is none other than Babe Ruth.
Ruth is, of course, a fitting comparison.
In a marathon victory that required every arm in the bullpen and nearly emptied the bench, the Dodgers could have cut their two-way superstar's night short because he was due to take the mound the following evening. Ohtani was even checked on by a trainer after feeling some cramping while running the bases in the 11th inning, but he wanted to stay in the game.
This browser does not support the video element.
"Talks a lot about the character of the guy," Miguel Rojas said. "He's the best player in the game but at the same time, he's human and he understands how everybody here expects to play the game."
The decision on whether to pitch to Ohtani is difficult when Mookie Betts and Freeman are hitting behind him. Betts reached after two of Ohtani's four intentional walks on Monday, while Freeman's big cut decided the game -- with the bases empty.
They can't argue with the decision to give Ohtani a free base rather than risk him circling all four.
"That's the right move," Freeman said. "You don't want Shohei to beat you, and let other guys try and beat you after his first four at-bats. Took a lot longer, but we finally did it."