LOS ANGELES — As the Dodgers were celebrating Freddie Freeman’s walk-off home run in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night, Shohei Ohtani joined the mob near home plate.
He revelled among the team’s position players for a moment before peeling away from the crowd and running up the left-field line with his hands waving above his head. Ohtani made a beeline toward Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was on his way in from the bullpen after preparing to enter the game, and gave the Dodgers’ right-hander a giant hug.
The scene perfectly illustrated the two-way nature of Ohtani. Even during celebrations, he carves out time to be a hitter and also a pitcher.
The Dodgers’ 6-5 triumph over the Blue Jays in 18 innings featured many heroes. There was Freeman, who belted the game-winning homer off Brendon Little, and also reliever Will Klein, who delivered four scoreless frames to earn the victory. Even Clayton Kershaw, the future Hall-of-Famer pitching in his final season before retirement, had his own time to shine when he entered in relief and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 12th inning.
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Kershaw faced questions about all the above inside the home clubhouse at Dodger Stadium before shifting the conversation to Ohtani.
“I mean, we didn’t even talk about Sho,” Kershaw said. “He got on base nine times. He’s about to pitch in, I don’t know, 12 hours. It’s pretty unbelievable.”
Ohtani took control of the game in a way that few have ever done. If it felt like he hadn’t yet factored into this World Series, that changed quickly on Monday whether it was by swinging the bat or leaving it on his shoulder.
The best baseball player on the planet launched two home runs, smacked two doubles and walked five times. He became the first player to ever reach base nine times in a post-season game and his four intentional walks were also a playoff record.
“Another one in the history books for Shohei,” said teammate Mookie Betts. “Another record broken.”
“No one’s touching that,” said starter Tyler Glasnow. “He still shocks people.”
Ohtani’s second homer of the night came off Blue Jays’ reliever Seranthony Dominguez in the seventh inning and evened the score at 5-5 while bringing fervour to the crowd of 52,654. Blue Jays’ manager John Schneider refused to let Ohtani impact the game again and later acknowledged to reporters that Ohtani could expect to be issued plenty more free passes to first base in this series, which the Blue Jays now trail 2-1.
“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,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
However, even if he’s prevented from taking another swing, Ohtani will still have the opportunity to determine the path of this Fall Classic. The right-hander will make the first World Series start of his career when he toes the rubber on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) against Blue Jays’ starter Shane Bieber.
That was the plan all along, and it didn’t change despite Ohtani’s busy night as the designated hitter during the 6-hour, 39-minute contest.
“He’s spent,” Roberts said. “He was on base nine times tonight, running the bases. He’s elated. But, yeah, he’s taking the mound tomorrow. He’ll be ready.”
Ohtani resumed pitching in June after his right elbow recovered from its second Tommy John surgery. Since then, he’s convinced Dodgers’ teammates he simply doesn’t abide by the physical limitations that shape their worlds.
They’re not surprised he’s going to start Game 4.
“It’s a tough ask physically, but if anybody can do that, it’s just him,” said Dodgers reliever Emmet Sheehan, another hero in Monday’s victory. “I don’t think anybody else would be alright doing that. But he takes such good care of his body behind the scenes. That’s just who he is.”
Ohtani presents a daunting challenge for the Blue Jays as they look to even the best-of-seven series. He’s coming off a dazzling six-inning, 10-strikeout performance against the Brewers in Game 4 of the NLCS and posted a 2.87 ERA and 1.90 FIP over 14 starts and 47 innings during the regular season. His strikeout percentage of 33.2 is a career high, while his 4.3 per cent walk rate is a career low.
Simply put, the soon-to-be four-time MVP is at the peak of his powers.
“[He presents] a lot of challenges,” said Blue Jays shortstop Andres Gimenez recently. “I mean, he’s throwing a hundred now with an elite slider and really good split.”
Shortly after Freeman survived the mob scene on the field, he summed up his teammate nicely.
“He’s a unicorn — there’s no more adjectives you can use to describe Shohei,” Freeman said. “We’ve been talking about him since he got here in 2018. We’re still running out of words to describe a once-in-a-ten-generational player.”
