The superlatives to explain Shohei Ohtani’s performance this October are operating out as rapidly as Dodger Stadium ran out of meals in Monday’s marathon World Series game.
And on Tuesday, he’s about to as soon as once more do one thing baseball has by no means seen.
Ohtani’s monster 4-4 night – which included two residence runs, two doubles, an astonishing 5 walks and 12 whole bases – helped the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-5 win in 18 innings on Monday. The game ended simply earlier than midnight Pacific time, giving the Japanese famous person about 17 hours to relaxation and recuperate earlier than he takes the mound as LA’s starter in Game 4 on Tuesday evening.
“He’s spent. He was on base eight, nine times tonight, running the bases. He’s elated. But, yeah, he’s taking the mound tomorrow. He’ll be ready,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts stated after Monday’s game.
World Series game lasts 6 hours and 39 minutes
Six hours and 39 minutes of baseball is an extended evening. NCS’s Andy Scholes chronicled passing the time and looking for a Dodger Dog at the historic Game 3 of the World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Roberts might have misplaced rely, as Ohtani was formally on base 9 instances in a single game – a brand new postseason document. His two residence runs and two doubles made him the second participant ever to have 4 additional base hits in a World Series game. He’s the first participant in postseason history to have a number of doubles, a number of homers and a number of walks in the identical postseason game, and the second participant to ever do it in history.
And that’s not all. He’s the first participant to have 4 intentional walks in a postseason game, the first participant with three multi-homer video games in the identical postseason, is tied for the most profession postseason residence runs by a Japanese participant with Hideki Matsui and his eight residence runs in the 2025 postseason are tied for second all time.
To put it mildly, all of that taken collectively is frankly insane.
“Shohei’s game, I hope we don’t lose sight of … our starting pitcher tomorrow got on base nine times tonight,” stated Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers first baseman who hit the walk-off solo shot that lastly received the game for Los Angeles in the 18th inning on Monday.
“Just incredible.”
Andy Scholes joins Elex Michaelson from Dodgers stadium after profitable Game 3
After all that, Ohtani is set to take the mound at Dodger Stadium – a mind-boggling thought all by itself given the normal remedy of beginning pitchers in trendy baseball.
Starting pitchers nowadays are often creatures of behavior. Typically, they pitch each 5 days and have strict health regimens that they comply with on every of these days to get themselves able to hit peak efficiency. It’s not remarkable for starters to go away a game early in the event that they’re beginning the subsequent day to make sure they get sufficient relaxation.
Ohtani, although, is removed from typical. And it’s not a stretch that Tuesday’s begin will put his postseason in a class all its personal, surpassing even the legendary achievements of Babe Ruth.
Ruth is clearly the best comparability for Ohtani’s profession, as absurd as that feels. The Great Bambino was his period’s most prolific residence run hitter and began his profession as one in every of the game’s finest pitchers as properly. But even the Babe by no means performed in a six-and-a-half-hour World Series game after which pitched the subsequent day – when he was nonetheless pitching for the Boston Red Sox in 1916 and 1918, none of the video games in these World Series lasted greater than two-and-a-half hours.
The final time Ohtani took the mound was in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, delivering a sterling six innings, permitting two hits and hanging out 10 batters. In that very same game, he hit three residence runs turning into the twelfth hitter to hit three homers in a playoff game.
But to do each of these issues in the identical game? Unheard of. No participant had ever struck out 10 hitters and hit a number of residence runs in the identical contest.
When Ohtani takes the mound tonight in Chavez Ravine, he’ll have the alternative to place his workforce on the verge of clinching a second-straight World Series championship, which hasn’t been performed since the dynasty New York Yankees groups of the late Nineties and early 2000s.
Dodgers win Game 3 of World Series
But don’t rely on him having too many extra alternatives to harm the Toronto Blue Jays at the plate. The AL champions are planning on persevering with the technique they developed in the late innings on Monday: Simply strolling Ohtani each likelihood they get.
“We’re trying to pitch around him,” stated John Schneider, the Blue Jays’ supervisor, of Ohtani’s seventh-inning residence run that tied the game and set the stage for the 18-inning marathon.
He added, “Sometimes, for pitchers, it’s hard to do that when you’re kind of trying to throw a ball and didn’t put it where you want to put it. But he had a great game, he’s great player, but I think after that, you just kind of take the bat out of his hands.”
When requested if he plans on issuing Ohtani intentional walks going ahead, Schneider merely stated, “Yeah.”
Roberts stated he understands.
“He’s the best player on the planet, and he was on the heels of a huge offensive night, and John smelled that and wasn’t going to let Shohei beat him at all, obviously,” the Dodgers supervisor stated, “and even when nobody’s on base and putting him on to make the other guys beat him. Respect it and, fortunately, we have other guys behind Shohei that can still do some things.”