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Forget what Shohei Ohtani has done until now, which includes three MVP awards, a World Series ring and MLB’s only 50-50 season. We just watched “The Ohtani Game.”

Despite a ho-hum performance in the first three games of the series, the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was named NLCS MVP on Friday after one of the greatest single-game performances in the history of not just baseball but all of team sports.

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With his team already up 3-0 in the series, Ohtani reached his apex as a two-way player in Game 4, with three homers at the plate and 10 strikeouts in six scoreless innings on the mound. Unprecedented doesn’t begin to describe what he just did in a delirious night at Chavez Ravine, which ended with a 5-1 Dodgers win.

It all started with a first inning that, by itself, might have been the best single inning ever from a player. Ohtani took the mound for his second career postseason start and worked around a leadoff walk with three straight strikeouts against the most dangerous part of the Brewers’ lineup.

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Jackson Chourio? He went down swinging on a 100.3-mph fastball. Christian Yelich? Frozen on a 100.2-mph fastball. William Conteras? Wiped out on three pitches, the last of them a nasty, 87.6-mph sweeper.

Unlike every other starting pitcher in MLB, Ohtani’s responsibilities didn’t end after throwing a scoreless first inning. He proceeded to don a batting helmet and hit a leadoff homer off Brewers counterpart José Quintana.

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And by “hit,” we mean he smashed the ball 446 feet and 115.6 mph deep into the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium.

Three innings later, Ohtani one-upped that homer by demolishing a cutter from Brewers reliever Chad Patrick, sending the ball past the right-field pavilion.

That homer? 469 feet and 116.9 mph, sending the ball out of Dodger Stadium. Meanwhile, he was still keeping the Brewers scoreless.

Then came home run No. 3.

Facing Brewers right-hander Trevor Megill, Ohtani ripped a ball 113.6 mph to the opposite field to put his team up 5-0.

Meanwhile, on the mound, Ohtani just kept stomping on the Brewers.

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He finished with 10 strikeouts, three walks, two hits allowed and zero runs against one of MLB’s peskiest lineups. He featured a seven-pitch mix, according to Baseball Savant, and topped out on that 100.3-mph fastball to Chourio. Even by itself, that’s a star-level performance.

Here’s some perspective. In Game 3, Tyler Glasnow struck out eight, allowing three hits and only one run in 5 2/3 innings. It was, by a wide margin, the worst performance by a Dodgers starting pitcher in this series, behind Blake Snell’s eight innings of one-hit ball, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s complete game and Ohtani’s two-way domination.

Ohtani’s night on the mound ended anticlimactically, with a walk and a single allowed to lead off the seventh inning, but he exited to a standing ovation, and then Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia kept the Brewers scoreless. And one half-inning later, Ohtani hit his third homer.

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In total, Ohtani hit the three hardest balls of the night, hit the three farthest balls of the night, threw the 11 hardest pitches of the night and led all pitchers in swing-and-misses. No other player in the history of baseball is capable of doing all that in a single game, and we might not ever see one do it again.

Ohtani wasn’t having the best postseason going into Game 4, but that didn’t stop the Brewers from treating him like a Barry Bonds-level threat throughout the NLCS. They threw left-handers at him at every opportunity, trying to prevent him from getting hot.

There was a reason for that, as we all saw on Friday.

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SEATTLE (AP) Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer woke up Torontoâ€s offense as the Blue Jays hit five home runs to rebound from an early deficit, routing the Seattle Mariners 13-4 Wednesday night and closing to 2-1 in the AL Championship Series.

Julio Rodríguezâ€s two-run, first-inning homer off Shane Bieber put Seattle ahead and stirred thoughts of a possible sweep in the best-of-seven matchup by a team seeking its first World Series appearance/

Andrés Giménez then sparked the comeback with a tying, two-run homer in a five-run third against George Kirby.

Springer, Guerrero, Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger also went deep as the Blue Jays totaled 2,004 feet of homers among 18 hits.

Guerrero had four hits, falling a triple short of the cycle, after going 0 for 7 as the Blue Jays lost the first two games at home.

“No one expected us to win the division, no one expected it us to be here, and I think the guys take that to heart.†Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “I said it when we left Toronto: I hope we find some slug in the air out here. Maybe we did.â€

In the 2-3-2 format, teams that lost the first two games at home and won Game 3 on the road have captured the series three of 11 times.

A crowd of 46,471 at T-Mobile Park for Seattleâ€s first home ALCS game since 2001 saw the teams combine to match the postseason record of eight combined home runs, set by the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis in Game 3 of the 2015 NL Division Series and matched by the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston in Game 2 of the 2017 World Series.

Giménez hadnâ€t homered since Aug. 27 before his drive off a fastball from Kirby

“Really big swing to get us going,†Schneider said.

Kirby allowed eight runs, eight hits and two walks, taking the loss. All eight hits were during the first three pitches of the at-bat.

“The first couple innings I thought he was dynamite,†Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “This is a team thatâ€s going to hurt you if you make mistakes on the plate. It looked like there were a couple that they were able to get to.â€

Kirbyâ€s run-scoring wild pitch put Toronto ahead 3-2 and Daulton Varsho followed with a two-run double.

Springer homered in the fourth, tying Bernie Williams was fourth on the career list with his 22nd postseason homer. Guerrero hit his fourth of the postseason for a 7-2 lead on the first pitch of the fifth.

Kirk added a three-run homer in the sixth and is hitting .413 (19 for 46) with eight RBIs in 14 games at T-Mobile Park.

Bieber, who got the win, pitched shutout ball after the first and wound up allowing four hits in six innings – the longest outing by a Blue Jays starter in seven postseason games.

“Obviously didnâ€t the start the way he would have wanted to, but thatâ€s pretty much who he is,†Springer said. “He can battle back from anything.â€

After the Blue Jays opened a 12-2 lead, Randy Arozarena connected in the eighth against Yariel Rodríguez for his first home run since Sept. 9 and Cal Raleigh, who led the major leagues with 60 home runs during the regular season, followed three pitches later with his third of the postseason.

Seattle RHP Luis Castillo, who pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief against Detroit in Game 5 of the Division Series, starts Thursday against RHP Max Scherzer. The 41-year-old, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, is 0-3 over eight postseason starts since the 2019 World Series opener, and hasnâ€t started a game since Sept. 24.

—

AP MLB:

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The Seattle Mariners are halfway to an American League Championship Series victory, and they haven’t even played a home game yet.

Seattle seized a 2-0 series lead over the Toronto Blue Jays with a 10-3 victory in Monday’s Game 2 at Rogers Centre. It is now just two wins away from its first World Series appearance in franchise history.

Power was the name of the game for the visitors in their latest triumph, as Julio Rodríguez launched a three-run homer in the first inning, Jorge Polanco sent one over the wall for another three-run long ball in the fifth and Josh Naylor added insurance with a two-run homer in the seventh.

Polanco’s blast broke a tie and put the Mariners ahead for good and helped provide plenty of run support for a strong bullpen that went the final six innings.

The home runs and overall performance also caught the attention of social media:

Neither team wasted any time offensively with immediate fireworks. While Rodríguez’s home run was the first blow, Toronto answered right back with two runs of its own against Mariners starter Logan Gilbert in the first inning.Â

George Springer doubled and scored on an error after Nathan Lukes’ single, and Lukes then scored on Alejandro Kirk’s single. Lukes was far from done, as he tied it up in the second with an RBI single.

Toronto was dialed in against Gilbert across the starter’s brief three innings of work, but the same could not be said against the bullpen. Eduard Bazardo got the ball first out of the Seattle bullpen and was brilliant with two shutout innings.

The Blue Jays were unable to counter with their own bullpen, as Louis Varland came in for starter Trey Yesavage with runners on first and second and nobody out in the fifth only to give up Polanco’s monster homer two batters later. Yesavage was charged with five earned runs in the four innings, but the Mariners continued to add to the lead with an RBI single from J.P Crawford in the sixth.

By the time Naylor hit his homer, the result was hardly in doubt.

Carlos Vargas and Emerson Hancock shut the door the rest of the way for Seattle’s bullpen against a strong Toronto offense that just overwhelmed the New York Yankees in the last series.Â

The formula of timely long balls on offense and shutdown pitching in the late innings from the bullpen is a dominant one in the playoffs, and the Mariners will look to unleash it again when the series shifts to Seattle for Wednesday’s Game 3.

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Sep 24, 2025, 11:21 PM ET

Cal Raleigh became the seventh player in major league history to hit 60 home runs in a season Wednesday night, launching two solo shots as the Seattle Mariners clinched the American League West with a 9-2 win over the Colorado Rockies.

“It’s crazy. Sixty is — I don’t know what to say,” said Raleigh, who leads the majors in homers. “I didn’t know if I was going to hit 60 in my life. Just tonight, what a way to do it.”

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Batting left-handed in the first inning, the switch-hitting catcher connected off Tanner Gordon and sent a drive to right field that reached the top deck at T-Mobile Park for his 59th longball of the year.

“It was like a movie,” teammate Julio Rodriguez said of Raleigh’s moonshot. “I’m just so grateful that he’s on our team, that he’s able to do what he does. He’s so special, and I can’t say enough.”

In the eighth, batting left-handed again, Raleigh hit No. 60 off Angel Chivilli. Raleigh is four home runs ahead of Philadelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber and six in front of Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.

The only other players to reach 60 home runs in a season are Babe Ruth (1927), Roger Maris (1961), Mark McGwire (1998, ’99), Sammy Sosa (1998, ’99, 2001), Barry Bonds (2001) and Aaron Judge (2022).

It was the 11th multihomer game for Raleigh this year, tied with Judge (2022), Hank Greenberg (1938) and Sosa (1998) for the MLB record.

With four games remaining in the regular season, Raleigh has a chance to pass Judge for the AL record. Judge hit 62 homers in 2022 to break the previous AL mark of 61 set by Maris in 1961.

Raleigh’s latest homers came four days after he surpassed Ken Griffey Jr. for the franchise record with his 57th homer of the season. Griffey hit 56 in both 1997 and 1998.

Raleigh also broke Mickey Mantle’s MLB record of 54 home runs by a switch-hitter that had stood since 1961. And the Seattle slugger has set a new standard for homers by a catcher, eclipsing the 48 hit by Salvador Perez in 2021.

“When you look at how he has done it and the position that he plays — I was telling somebody earlier today that when you come off the field, you’re mentally and physically exhausted,” said Mariners manager Dan Wilson, a former major league catcher. “And for him to do what he’s done offensively and to do what he does behind the plate, I honestly don’t think we’ve seen this before. It’s been incredible. I think he deserves the MVP, no question.”

Raleigh also had a two-run double in the second and finished with four RBIs to give him 125 this season, most in the AL.

Seattle clinched its fourth AL West title and first since 2001. The Mariners are the only big league team never to reach a World Series.

“To do it in this fashion, on this night, in front of these fans, mom and dad, obviously, was really cool,” Raleigh said, adding, “It’s 20-plus years since we’ve done something like this, and it’s special. It’s special to this group, to this organization, to the city.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sep 17, 2025, 12:33 AM ETKANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cal Raleigh broke a record held by Mickey Mantle on Tuesday…

Jorge CastilloSep 12, 2025, 07:28 PM ETCloseESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington…