LOS ANGELES (AP) — Even in a monumental 18-inning World Series game overflowing with statistical superlatives and unforgettable achievements all across the field, Shohei Ohtani again managed to tower above it all.
No player ever had more extra-base hits in a World Series game than Ohtani did in Game 3 on Monday night when he slugged two homers and two doubles in the first seven innings.
No player in any major league game ever reached base more times than Ohtani did when he got walked five straight times following his four-hit barrage.
And nobody who ever picked up a baseball accomplished a fraction of Ohtani’s latest mind-blowing feats at the plate on a night when they really needed to get to bed because they had to pitch the next day.
“I want to go to sleep as soon as possible so I can get ready,” a smiling Ohtani said through his interpreter after the Dodgers’ epic 6-5 victory finally ended with Freddie Freeman’s walk-off homer leading off the 18th.
Dodgers fans crawled into bed Tuesday morning dreaming of back-to-back titles after Ohtani was a thorough nightmare for the Toronto Blue Jays’ pitching staff.
Just 10 days after he hit three homers and struck out 10 Milwaukee Brewers to clinch the National League pennant in what’s already considered by many to be the most spectacular one-game performance in baseball history, Ohtani gave himself some competition for that distinction when he reached base in all nine of his plate appearances in his very next game in Chavez Ravine.
“I hope we don’t lose sight of, you know, our starting pitcher got on base nine times tonight,” Freeman said. “Just incredible. When you’re that hot … like Shohei was tonight, I mean, (walking him is) the right move. You don’t want Shohei to beat you. Let other guys try and beat you after his first four at-bats. It took a lot longer, but (we) finally did it.”
Ohtani tied a 119-year-old record when he got four extra-base hits. After the Jays effectively took the bat out of his hands by refusing to pitch to him any more, he became the first major leaguer in 83 years to reach base nine times in any game, let alone the postseason.
“He had a great game,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “He’s a great player, but I think after that, you just kind of take the bat out of his hands.”
When asked if the Blue Jays’ handling of Ohtani late in Game 3 is what should be expected going forward in the World Series, Schneider flatly replied: “Yeah.”
When Freeman finally blasted his second historic walk-off homer in a World Series game at Dodger Stadium, Ohtani leapt onto the field with his teammates and then ran out toward the bullpen for a joyous celebration with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who had been warming up to pitch the 19th inning just two days after throwing a complete-game victory in Toronto.
“What matters the most is we won,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “And what I accomplished today is in the context of this game, and what matters the most is we flip the page and play the next game.”
Freeman’s latest clutch homer cleared the fence just over 17 hours before Ohtani will make his first World Series start on the mound when he pitches for the Dodgers in Game 4 on Tuesday night. The exertion of a 6-hour, 39-minute game could affect his pitching — or Ohtani could continue to accomplish practically superhuman feats with grace and style.
Ohtani led off the bottom of the first in Game 3 with a ground-rule double to right field. He followed with a solo homer to right in the third inning off Toronto starter Max Scherzer, and he added an RBI double in the fifth off reliever Mason Fluharty.
Ohtani then hit a tying 401-foot homer off Seranthony Domínguez with one out in the seventh. It was his sixth homer in the Dodgers’ last four games, and he tied Corey Seager’s eight homers in 2020 for the most by a Dodgers player in a single postseason.
The Blue Jays had seen enough of Ohtani by then: Schneider intentionally walked him in the ninth, 11th, 13th and 15th innings — and the gambit worked each time, with Ohtani’s teammates unable to get him home.
Ohtani is the first player to be intentionally walked four times in a postseason game, just one shy of the overall major league record for intentional passes set by Andre Dawson in May 1990.
With a man on first, the Blue Jays pitched to Ohtani in the 17th — but just barely, with Brendon Little throwing four pitches comfortably outside the zone.
Ohtani became the first player to reach base nine times since Stan Hack had five hits and four walks for the Cubs in an 18-inning game on Aug. 9, 1942, tying a record also achieved by Max Carey in 1922 and Johnny Burnett in 1932.
After becoming the first player in MLB history with three multihomer games in one postseason, Ohtani is closing in on Randy Arozarena’s MLB record of 10 homers in a postseason.
Only one other player in baseball history got four extra-base hits in a World Series game: Frank Isbell had four doubles for the Chicago White Sox in Game 5 in 1906 against the Chicago Cubs.
Ohtani also became the first hitter to have multiple games with at least 12 total bases in a single postseason. The only other player to have two such postseason games in his career was Babe Ruth.
Ohtani has six hits and five RBIs in the first three games of the World Series against Toronto, the city where fans chanted “We don’t need you!” at Ohtani while the Blue Jays won Game 1. Ohtani also homered late in that blowout loss.
Ohtani hit two homers in the Dodgers’ first game of the postseason against Cincinnati, but he hadn’t homered again until his historic performance in the NLCS. All three of those homers were solo shots, and he hit a pair of solo homers in Game 3.
Ohtani now trails only Arozarena, who set the major league record with 10 postseason homers in 2020 before Tampa Bay lost the World Series to Seager and the Dodgers.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer
