- Shohei Ohtani won NLCS MVP after his jaw-dropping performance in Game 4.
- Ohtani pitched six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts and hit three home runs in Game 4.
- The Dodgers are back in the World Series for a fifth time in nine years.
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers circled around one another Friday night, spraying champagne and guzzling beer, with a few taking turns sliding on the wet tarp, but no matter how deep into the night the celebration lasted, no matter how many adult beverages were consumed, they still couldn’t adequately describe what they just witnessed.
They knew they were part of history. They knew they had never seen anything like it. There was nothing like it in the history books. It just didn’t seem humanly possible.
So how could they express what Shohei Ohtani just did in front of a frenzied sellout crowd of 52,883 that screamed and cheered so loud that Dodger Stadium actually shook?
“What we witnessed,’ Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said, “was the single greatest game by a baseball player in the history of baseball.’
Gushed Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez: “It was the greatest game by a human.’
“This is a performance that I’ve just never seen,’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “No one’s ever seen something like this. There’s a reason why he’s the greatest player on the planet.’
There wasn’t a hint of hyperbole by anyone in their clubhouse to describe Ohtani’s performance.
The reality is that Ohtani became the first player in history to hit three home runs, strike out 10 batters and pitch six shutout innings.
“Sometimes you’ve got to check yourself and touch him to make sure he’s not just made of steel,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Absolutely incredible. Biggest stage, and he goes out and does something like that.
“It’ll probably be remembered as The Shohei Ohtani Game.”
Ohtani’s night was so impressive that he actually hit more home runs than the two hits he allowed. He struck out more batters than the combined total of the Milwaukee Brewers’ entire starting rotation this series. He was the 12th player to hit three homers in a postseason game, and joined Hall of Famer George Brett as the only players to do it from the leadoff spot.
The greatest playoff performance in baseball ever?
“I think there’s no question about it,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations. “Through four innings I texted our Slack thread and said, ‘This is the greatest four innings every played in postseason history by a major league player. The greatest four innings ever.’
“Then he hits another home run. ‘The greatest six innings ever. Seven innings.’ There’s no question it was the greatest postseason performance in the game ever.’
The only real debate of the night was just how far Ohtani’s second home run traveled in the fourth inning, clearing the right-field pavillion and landing in the picnic area.
“That one kind of took everyone’s breath away,’ Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts said.
It was measured at 469 feet.
“That’s the farthest ball I’ve ever seen hit,’ Muncy said. “I’ve played a lot of games here, and I’ve never seen a ball go that far. I know Statcast said 460 feet, but I don’t care what Statcast says. Statcast is wrong. I know this stadium really well. I know the dimensions. I know how deep the bleachers are. That ball is not less than 500 feet.’
Maybe even further.
“There’s only one person who can do that in the world, and in the history of this game,’ Dodgers utilityman Enrique Hernandez said, “and it’s him.’
It really doesn’t matter. When this performance is re-told generations from now, it will be a 600-foot homer, maybe 700 feet.
“We were sitting in the bullpen watching that fly out of here, and we lost it,’ Dodgers reliever Anthony Banda said. “We thought it had left the stadium. It went over the clearing of the pavillion rooftop. We never even saw it land. It was incredible.’
Ohtani gave up just one hit through six innings when he tired in the seventh. He walked the leadoff batter, gave up a single and was taken out of the game only as a pitcher, walking off the mound to a roar that could be heard to Malibu.
Well, like any good entertainer, he decided to return to the stage for an encore. He hit Brewers closer Trevor Megill’s 98.9-mph fastball over the center field fence, 427 feet away, leaving the crowd and his own teammates screaming in awe.
“I was in my office having to do something,’ Dodgers president Stan Kasten said, “and I said something completely unprintable. So, there.’
Said Muncy: “It’s kind of funny. There wasn’t one person in the dugout that didn’t think he was going to hit a home run tonight. He hits the second one and we’re all talking, ‘Is this the single greatest game anyone has ever played?’ Everyone at the same time just said, ‘You know he’s going to hit another one.’”
The only other time a pitcher hit three home runs in a baseball game was Jim Tobin of the Boston Braves in 1932, and that was a regular-season game.
Now, it’s off to the World Series, where the Dodgers will face the Toronto Blue Jays or the Seattle Mariners with a chance to become the first National League team to win back-to-back World Series in 49 years.
“Before this season, they were saying the Dodgers are ruining baseball,’ Roberts said on stage while raising the National League championship trophy. “Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball.’
Well, that narrative can wait.
This night all belonged to Ohtani.
Betts, standing in the clubhouse, still shaking his head in disbelief, said there are no words to describe Ohtani, but he sure knows what it feels like to be his teammate.
“We’re like the Chicago Bulls, and he’s Michael Jordan. I can tell my kids one day that I got to play with Ohtani. There’s just no more words what you can say what he does.
“It’s just Shohei being Shohei.’
A once-in-a-lifetime talent, who put on a show for the ages Friday, perhaps paving the way for future generations.
“He gets put in these situations where you expect the incredible,’ Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior says, “and very rarely does he disappoint. To be able to impact the game on both sides of the game is unbelievable. I think he is trying to inspire a different generation that it can be done.
“It’s not easy by any means, but it’s pretty cool for him to pave the way.
“What a night.
“What a performance.’
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