Browsing: Shohei

LOS ANGELES — It’s easy to take Shohei Ohtani for granted. By now, we’ve settled into the rote comfort: He is the best player on the planet, and that’s that. Ohtani’s baseline is everyone else’s peak. He is judged against himself and himself only.

And it’s human nature that when we watch something often enough — even something as mind-bending as a player who’s a full-time starting pitcher and full-time hitter and among the very best at both — it starts to register as normal.

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Which is why his performances on Friday — the unleashing of the full extent of Ohtani’s magic — was the sort of necessary reminder that one of the greatest athletes in the world, and the most talented baseball player ever, is playing right now, doing unfathomable things, redefining the game in real time. And that even when he starts the day mired in an uncharacteristic slump, Ohtani needs only a single game to launch himself into the annals of history.

Where Ohtani’s performance in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series ranks on the all-time list of games will be debated for years. In the celebration following Los Angeles’ 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, though, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stood on the field and said, “That’s the greatest night in baseball history,” and no one cared to argue.

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Over the course of 2 hours, 41 minutes, in front of 52,883 fans, with millions watching domestically and tens of millions more in Japan, Ohtani threw six shutout innings and struck out 10 in between hitting three home runs that traveled a combined 1,342 feet, including one that left Dodger Stadium entirely. It was the sort of game that happens in comic books, not real life — and it was a game that completed a championship series sweep and sent Los Angeles to its second consecutive World Series. It was the kind of night that leaves patrons elated they saw it and also just a little ruined because they know they’ll never see anything like it again. Everyone was a prisoner, captive to perhaps the greatest individual game in the quarter-million or so played over the last century and a half.

It was, at very least, one of the finest displays of baseball since the game’s inception, up there with Tony Cloninger hitting two grand slams and throwing a complete game in 1966 or Rick Wise socking two home runs amid his no-hitter on the mound in 1971. And unlike those, this came in the postseason, and in a game to clinch Los Angeles the opportunity to become the first team in a quarter-century to win back-to-back championships.

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It wasn’t quite Don Larsen throwing a perfect game — but Larsen went 0-for-2 in that game and needed a Mickey Mantle home run to account for his scoring. It wasn’t Reggie Jackson hammering three home runs, either — because Reggie needed Mike Torrez to throw a complete game that night to make his blasts stand up.

Ohtani is the only player who can do this, the offense and the defense — the mastery of baseball, the distillation of talent into something pure and perfect.

Hours earlier, his day had started by navigating the tricky balance of starting and hitting on the same day. His metronomic routine, such a vital piece of his three MVP seasons (the fourth will be made official in mid-November), is upended completely when he pitches. He budgets for the extra time he needs to spend caring for his arm by sacrificing his attendance at the hitters’ meeting, instead getting the intel he needs from coaches in the batting cage about an hour before the game.

Nobody could tell, when Ohtani arrived in the underground cage Friday, that he was mired in a nasty slump that had stretched from the division series through the third game of the NLCS, a jag of strikeouts and soft contact and poor swing decisions and utter frustration that got so bad earlier in the week he had taken batting practice outside at Dodger Stadium, something he never — like, really, never — does. He had decided to do so on the plane ride back from Milwaukee, where the Dodgers had humbled the Brewers with the sort of starting pitching never seen in a league championship series.

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Game 4, his teammates were convinced, was going to be a culmination of that extra cage work and the matching of his pitching peers’ dominance.

“You guys asked me yesterday, and I said I was expecting nothing short of incredible today,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “And he proved me wrong. He went beyond incredible.”

After walking the leadoff hitter, Brice Turang, Ohtani struck out the next three hitters, popping a pair of 100 mph-plus fastballs and unleashing the most confounding version of his splitter seen all year. He followed by obliterating a slurve from Jose Quintana in the bottom of the inning for a home run, the first time a pitcher ever hit a leadoff homer in the game’s history, regular season or playoffs.

The strikeouts continued — one in the third inning, two more in the fourth, preceding Ohtani’s second home run, which left 50,000 mouths agape. In the stands, they cheered, and in the dugout, they whooped, and in the bullpen, they screamed: “The ball went out of the stadium!” Alex Vesia, the reliever who would come in after Ohtani struck out two more in the fifth and sixth innings, could not conceive that a person could hit a baseball in a game that far. Officially, it went 469 feet. It felt like 1,000.

“At that point, it’s got to be the greatest game ever, right?” said Vesia, who did his part to help keep it so. Ohtani allowed a walk and a hit in the seventh inning, and had Vesia allowed either run to score, the sparkling zero in his pitching line could’ve been an unsightly one or crooked two. When he induced a ground ball up the middle that nutmegged his legs, Mookie Betts was in perfect position to hoover it, step on second and fire to first for a double play that preserved Ohtani’s goose egg.

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In the next inning, Ohtani’s third home run of the night, and this one was just showing off: a shot to dead center off a 99 mph Trevor Megill fastball, a proper complement to the second off an 89 mph Chad Patrick cutter and the first off a 79 mph Quintana slurve). If it sounds impressive to hit three different pitches off three different pitchers for home runs in one night, it is. To do so throwing six innings, allowing two hits, walking three and striking out 10 is otherworldly.

“We were so focused on just winning the game, doing what needed to be done, I’m not sure we realized how good it really was,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “I didn’t really appreciate it until after. Like, he actually did that?”

Yes. Yes he did. In baseball history, 503 players have hit three home runs in a game, and 1,550 have struck out 10 or more in a game. None, until Friday, had done both. And that’s what Shohei Ohtani does, who he is. For eight years, he has transformed what is possible in baseball, set a truly impossible standard to match, and now, finally, having signed with a franchise capable of giving his talents the largest stage, Ohtani gets to perform when it matters most.

Milwaukee won more games during the regular season than anyone. Regardless of how impotent the Brewers’ offense was this series, they were a very good team, and the Dodgers flayed them. The final game was an exclamation point — and a warning for the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays, whichever survives the back-and-forth American League Championship Series.

Shohei Ohtani awaits. Good luck.

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LOS ANGELES — There havenâ€t been many times during Shohei Ohtaniâ€s eight-year MLB career when the greatness of the undisputed best player in the world has been questioned. But given Ohtaniâ€s struggles at the plate this postseason — he was 6-for-38 entering Game 4 on Friday — questions about his effectiveness now that heâ€s back to pitching and hitting full-time had begun to surface.

When asked this week if pitching has started to affect his prodigious offense, leading to a dip in production, the three-time MVP didnâ€t seem thrilled with the questions, even though, considering his .158 average with two home runs, they had merit. And when Ohtani took batting practice this week in L.A., which he almost never does, it became clear that he felt the need to shake things up.

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In Game 4 of the NLCS, Ohtani had the look of a man with something to prove. And as it turned out, Game 4 — in which the Dodgers defeated the Brewers 5-1 to advance to the World Series — wasnâ€t just about the Dodgers winning the NL pennant. They were well on their way to doing that already, leading the series 3-0.

No, this game was about something more. This was Ohtaniâ€s chance to remind everyone watching that no baseball player in this world or the next is better than him. And he did it in a way that only he could: By putting together one of the greatest postseason performances in MLB history, hitting three home runs and tossing six shutout innings in the Dodgers†sweep-clinching victory over the Brewers.

“He woke up this morning to people calling him out for how poorly he had played in the [NLCS], and 12 hours later, heâ€s standing on the podium as the MVP,†Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “That says everything we need to know about him.â€

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The first task for Ohtani in Game 4 was to continue the Dodgers†trend of elite starting pitching. It was evident from the first frame that Ohtani was locked in on the mound, as his stuff looked electric against the middle of the Brewers†lineup.

After walking leadoff man Brice Turang, the Dodgers†right-hander and designated hitter blew a 100-mph fastball past Jackson Chourio for his first strikeout. He then struck out the next batter, Christian Yelich, on a 100-mph fastball painted on the outside corner. Finally, Ohtani ended the frame by getting William Contreras to swing through a sweeper for strikeout number three.

And then, having set the tone on the mound, it was time for Ohtani to make his presence felt at the plate. His first big swing of the night came in leading off the bottom of the first, as he unloaded on a hanging 3-2 curveball from José Quintana, depositing it deep into the right-field bleachers and giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. With that, Ohtani became the first pitcher in MLB history to hit a leadoff home run in the postseason.

“I felt like the last couple days, I felt pretty good at the plate,†Ohtani said afterward of his postseason slump. “And just because of the postseason, the sample size, the lack of — it’s just that I think the lack of performance really skews in this short period of time.â€

Having given himself and the Dodgers some breathing room, Ohtani, the pitcher, then settled in. Following his dominance in the first inning, his comfort with his full arsenal was on display in the next few frames. Because while Ohtani has a triple-digit fastball in his back pocket that he can use to blow by hitters, he also relied on his sweeper, cutter and signature splitter to keep Milwaukeeâ€s hitters off-balance.

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On the night, the Dodgers†starter induced 19 swing-and-misses, including five with his splitter. All five of those splitter whiffs came on strikeouts. It was arguably the best that pitch has looked during Ohtaniâ€s time as a Dodger.

“The Phillies [outing], he had a couple good ones in there,†Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said of the splitter. “But when he threw that first one to Contreras, [we] kind of knew — all right, we can start leaning on this, get them off the fastball. I think it just opened up everything else.â€

Having drawn a walk in the bottom of the second, Ohtani came back to the plate in the fourth with his confidence growing. Brewers rookie Chad Patrick was one of the best relievers in baseball this postseason, and he threw four quality innings in this contest, but even he couldnâ€t escape the greatness of Ohtani.

On an 89.3-mph cutter from Patrick, the Dodgers†superstar crushed a titanic, 469-foot blast off the roof of the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium, and this time, he took a little extra time to admire the swing that sent the home crowd into a complete frenzy.

A historic night deserves a historic homer, and Ohtaniâ€s fourth-inning blast was exactly that. It was just the third time in the history of Dodger Stadium that a player had hit a home run over the right-field pavilion, the others being Kyle Schwarber and Willie Stargell, who accomplished the feat twice in his career. When we look back on this night, that second home run will likely be the most memorable.

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“The one that went out of the stadium kind of took everybodyâ€s breath away,†shortstop Mookie Betts said afterward. “Other than that, itâ€s just Shohei being Shohei.â€

With Ohtani’s two moon shots having loudly announced him as a force to be reckoned with, it was a reminder that his struggling through a series is more good fortune for the other team than anything else — and fortune that can change at any time. Just a day prior, Brewers manager Pat Murphy had acknowledged as much.

“Shohei’s in a little spell here where he’s not barrelling balls like he has,†Murphy said after Game 3. “But he’s still for us a tremendously dangerous, dangerous hitter. You can’t forget that. These great ones, they can turn it on like that.â€

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Back on the mound in the top of the fifth, Ohtani cruised through a Brewers lineup that had no answers for his electric stuff. And he showed that he was feeling it, giving a yell and fist pump after striking out both Caleb Durbin and Blake Perkins to end the frame. Then he came back out and struck out the first two batters in the sixth inning.

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He finished his night going six shutout innings, surrendering just two hits and three walks while striking out 10. It was Ohtaniâ€s first start with 10 or more strikeouts since June 27, 2023.

“I just don’t know how he handles the expectations, because a lot of times, when you have expectations like he has, they’re just unattainable, and you just never realize them,†Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Certainly the way he was struggling this postseason, and not to let it affect him and keep his psyche [and] his confidence the same is really impressive.â€

Said Betts: “You could call it surprising, I guess. I donâ€t know. Itâ€s kind of like expectation — for only him.â€

Ohtani’s night on the mound ended after he surrendered two baserunners to begin the seventh frame. But he wasn’t quite finished at the plate. With Alex Vesia having gotten out of the top of the seventh unscathed, Ohtani came back up in the bottom of the inning with the Dodgers holding a comfortable 4-0 lead.

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Unlike on his first two homers, this time, against All-Star closer Trevor Megill, Ohtani fell behind in the count 1-2. No matter. He drove a 98.9-mph fastball 427 feet into the left-field seats to put the finishing touches on his incredible, unforgettable night.

“There were times during the postseason where Teo [Hernández] and Mookie picked me up,†Ohtani said afterward. “And this time around, it was my turn to be able to perform.â€

Said Murphy after his team was eliminated: “We were part of tonight — an iconic, maybe the best individual performance ever in a postseason game. I don’t think anybody can argue with that. A guy punches out 10 and hits three homers.â€

Indeed, if Ohtani had just hit three home runs in Game 4, that would have been an amazing accomplishment. If he had merely struck out 10 batters over six shutout innings, that would have been an incredible performance. But what makes Ohtani the undisputed best player walking the face of the Earth — and the NLCS MVP — is that he can do both.

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Not only that, but his ability to rise to the occasion in the biggest moments, in addition to his unbelievable talent, separates him from the pack.

“What he did on the mound, what he did at the bat, he created a lot of memories for a lot of people [tonight],” Roberts said. “So for us to have a game-clinching — to do it in a game-clinching game at home, wins the NLCS MVP, pretty special. I’m just happy to be able to go along for the ride.â€

Said third baseman Max Muncy: “I feel truly blessed to be able to be on the field for that performance tonight.â€

The MLB postseason has a way of lending itself to big moments, and on Friday at Dodger Stadium, in an NL-pennant clinching game, baseballâ€s biggest star shined the brightest. From now on, when the question is raised about the best single-game performance ever, it will not only be an easy one to answer but also something that will likely never happen again:

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The Ohtani Game.

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Shohei Ohtani delivered one of the greatest performances in baseball history as defending champions the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers to reach the World Series.

Japan’s Ohtani smashed three huge home runs and struck out 10 Brewers batters in a comprehensive 5-1 victory as the Dodgers swept the series 4-0.

The 31-year-old’s trifecta of home runs and 10 strikeouts in the same game is a Major League Baseball post-season record, highlighting a rare talent of excelling with bat and ball.

Ohtani also became the first pitcher since the Boston Braves’ Jim Tobin in 1942 to hit three home runs in the same game.

“It was really fun on both sides of the ball today,” said Ohtani, who was awarded the Most Valuable Player award for his heroics.

“I’m taking this trophy and let’s get four more wins. We won it as a team and this is really a team effort. I hope everybody in LA and Japan and all over the world could enjoy a really good sake [Japanese rice wine].”

Ohtani’s entered the game at the Dodger Stadium on the back of an eight-game home run drought, but led from the front as he struck out three batters in the opening frame.

He then starred with the bat in a performance which included a crushing 446 foot home run and a monster 469 foot hit which bounced out of the stadium.

It marked another historic showing from Ohtani, who last year became the first player ever to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same season.

“That was probably the greatest post-season performance of all time,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

“There’s a reason why he’s the greatest player on the planet. It’s kind of whatever you don’t expect, expect him to do it.

“This is just a performance that I’ve just never seen. No-one’s ever seen something like this. I’m still in awe right now of Shohei.”

The Dodgers’ comfortable victory sets up a World Series showdown against the Toronto Blue Jays or Seattle Mariners, with the latter 3-2 up in the best-of-seven series.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani has propelled the Los Angeles Dodgers back to the World Series with a two-way performance for the ages.

Ohtani hit three mammoth homers and struck out 10 while pitching into the seventh inning, and the Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers out of the NL Championship Series with a 5-1 victory in Game 4 on Friday night.

The Dodgers will have a chance to be baseballâ€s first repeat World Series champions in a quarter-century after this mind-blowing night for the three-time MVP Ohtani, who emphatically ended a quiet postseason by his lofty standards. Ohtani was named the NLCS MVP essentially on the strength of this one unforgettable game.

“It was really fun on both sides of the ball today,†Ohtani said through his interpreter. “As a representative (of the team), Iâ€m taking this trophy, and letâ€s get four more wins.â€

After striking out three in the top of the first inning of Game 4, Ohtani hit the first leadoff homer by a pitcher in major league history off Brewers starter José Quintana.

Ohtani followed with a 469-foot blast in the fourth, clearing a pavilion roof in right-center.

Ohtani added a third solo shot in the seventh, becoming the 12th player in major league history to hit three homers in a playoff game. His three homers traveled a combined 1,342 feet.

Ohtani (2-0) also thoroughly dominated the Brewers in his second career postseason mound start, allowing two hits in his first double-digit strikeout game in a Dodgers uniform.

“Sometimes youâ€ve got to check yourself and touch him to make sure heâ€s not just made of steel,†said Freddie Freeman, last seasonâ€s World Series MVP. “Absolutely incredible. Biggest stage, and he goes out and does something like that. Itâ€ll probably be remembered as the Shohei Ohtani game.â€

After the Brewers†first two batters reached in the seventh, he left the mound to a stadium-shaking ovation — and after Alex Vesia escaped the jam, Ohtani celebrated by hitting his third homer in the bottom half.

The powerhouse Dodgers are the first team to win back-to-back pennants since Philadelphia in 2009. Los Angeles is back in the World Series for the fifth time in nine seasons, and it will attempt to become baseballâ€s first repeat champs since the New York Yankees won three straight World Series from 1998 to 2000.

“That was special,†Freeman said. “Weâ€ve just been playing really good baseball for a while now, and the inevitable kind of happened today — Shohei. Oh my God. Iâ€m still speechless.â€

After capping a 9-1 rampage through the NL playoffs with this singular performance by Ohtani, the Dodgers are headed to the World Series for the 23rd time in franchise history, including 14 pennants since moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Only the Yankees, last yearâ€s opponent, have made more appearances in the Fall Classic (41).

Los Angeles will have a week off before the World Series begins next Friday, either in Toronto or at Dodger Stadium against Seattle. The Mariners beat the Blue Jays 6-2 earlier Friday to take a 3-2 lead in the ALCS, which continues Sunday at Rogers Centre.

The Dodgers had never swept an NLCS in 16 previous appearances, but they became only the fifth team to sweep this series while thoroughly dominating a 97-win Milwaukee club. Los Angeles is the first team to sweep a best-of-seven postseason series since 2022, and the first to sweep an NLCS since Washington in 2019.

“Iâ€ll tell you, before this season started, they said the Dodgers are ruining baseball,†Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts shouted to the crowd during the on-field celebration. “Letâ€s get four more wins and really ruin baseball!â€

The NL Central champion Brewers were eliminated by the Dodgers for the third time during their current stretch of seven playoff appearances in eight years. Even after setting a franchise record for wins this season, Milwaukee is still waiting for its first World Series appearance since 1982.

“We were part of tonight an iconic, maybe the best individual performance ever in a postseason game,†Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said. “I donâ€t think anybody can argue with that. A guy punches out 10 and hits three homers.â€

The Brewers had never been swept in a playoff series longer than a best-of-three, but their bats fell silent in the NLCS against the Dodgers†brilliant starting rotation. Los Angeles†four starters combined to pitch 28 2/3 innings with two earned runs allowed and 35 strikeouts.

The Dodgers added two more runs in the first after Ohtaniâ€s tone-setting homer, with Mookie Betts and Will Smith both singling and scoring.

Jackson Chourio doubled leading off the fourth for Milwaukeeâ€s first hit, but Ohtani stranded him with a groundout and two strikeouts.

Struggling Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen allowed two more baserunners in the eighth, and Caleb Durbin scored when Brice Turang beat out his potential double-play grounder before Anthony Banda ended the inning.

Roki Sasaki pitched the ninth in the latest successful relief outing for the Dodgers†unlikely closer.

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Two days before perhaps the greatest game in baseball history, Shohei Ohtani took one of the best rounds of batting practice anyone in attendance had seen.

It started with a swing-and-a-miss, Ohtani goofing around after his walk-up song blared through the Dodger Stadium speakers and his teammates gathered in the dugout with anxious anticipation.

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Then came some nondescript line drives, Ohtani getting into the real work of trying to fix a swing that had abandoned him for much of this postseason.

Finally, one ball went over the fence. Then another. Then another. In 32 swings, Ohtani hit 14 home runs. Many of them were moonshots. One even clanged off the roof of the right-field pavilion.

“He didn’t disappoint,†Max Muncy later recounted. “He hit a ball out of the stadium.â€

On that off-day workout between Games 2 and 3 of the National League Championship Series, Ohtani looked like a man on a mission.

Over his previous seven games, going back to the start of the NL Division Series, he had two hits in 25 at-bats. He had recorded 12 strikeouts and plenty more puzzling swing decisions. And he seemed, at least in the estimation of some around the team, unusually perturbed as public criticisms of his play started to mount.

There were questions about his out-of-sync swing mechanics. Second-guessing of his poor quality of at-bats. Mostly, speculation centered on whether the physical toll of his two-way duties was starting to impact his potentness at the plate.

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“All those things,†manager Dave Roberts said, “I think were fuel to his fire.â€

Thus, the soon-to-be four-time MVP decided it was time to change something up.

On the teamâ€s flight home from Milwaukee the previous night, Ohtani informed the clubâ€s hitting coaches he wanted to take batting practice on the field — a break from his normal routine that signaled his urgency to get back on track.

When he arrived at the ballpark, he joked about his slump with teammates and brushed it off in a pre-workout news conference.

What came next was his memorable BP session.

Then, two days later, a tour de force performance that will be talked about forever.

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In a 5-1 defeat of the Milwaukee Brewers that completed an NLCS sweep and gave the Dodgers their 26th pennant in franchise history — plus a return trip to the World Series to defend last yearâ€s championship — Ohtani put on a show of unbelievable proportions.

Three home runs as a hitter. Six-plus scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts as a pitcher. And one stadium-shaking, mind-bending, unprecedented moment after the next.

“That was probably the greatest postseason performance of all time,†Roberts said.

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“He pulled the ultimate unicorn move tonight,†teammate Kiké Hernández concurred.

In the first inning, Ohtani struck out three batters, then walked up to the plate and took José Quintana deep with a 446-foot blast deep into the right-field pavilion — becoming the first pitcher in MLB history (regular season or playoffs) to lead a game off with a home run.

In the fourth, he escaped his biggest threat by stranding a leadoff double with consecutive punchouts that had him fist-pumping off the mound, then returned to the dish and hit a ball straight out of the stadium — clearing the roof of the right-field pavilion with a titanic drive of 469 feet.

He finished his pitching outing with his only hint of frustration, exiting with no outs in the seventh after a leadoff walk and ground-ball single. But then, he turned a spectacular night into the unthinkable, becoming just the 12th player in postseason history with a three-homer game by lining an opposite-field shot to the left-field seats.

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“He woke up this morning with people questioning him,†said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, during an alcohol-soaked celebration in the clubhouse afterward. “And 12 hours later, heâ€s standing on the podium as the NLCS MVP.â€

It was the kind of game the baseball world dreamed about when the two-way phenom first arrived from Japan. It fulfilled the prophecy that has accompanied his near-mythical standing in a sport that had gone a century since its last two-way superstar.

“The limitations of the human brain, we can’t comprehend just how special this is and how unique,†Friedman added.

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Ohtaniâ€s take?

“This time around, it was my turn to be able to perform,†he said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I think just looking back over the course of the entire postseason, I haven’t performed to the expectation.â€

Expectations, of course, are nothing new to Ohtani.

When he first arrived in the majors with a 100-mph fastball and a majestic swing from the left side of the plate, the comparisons to Babe Ruth were already underway.

At first, his transition to the majors came with some early growing pains, and the first of his two career Tommy John surgeries. But over the last five years, he has blossomed into the definitive face of the game.

All that had been missing, in a resume chock-full of MVPs and All-Star selections and records so unattainable even the Great Bambino never reached them, was a signature performance as a two-way player in October. A game in which he dominated on the mound, thrilled at the plate, and single-handedly took control in a postseason environment.

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That it came on Friday, amid one of the worst hitting slumps of his career, surprised no one with the Dodgers.

Friedman said he could sense something special, noting that “you can only contain Shohei for so long.â€

His teammates were also awaiting a breakout, voiced by Muncyâ€s post-Game 3 prediction to “expect the incredible.â€

By that point, the Dodgers had already seen Ohtaniâ€s batting practice session. They had felt the dissatisfaction that was stirring within him.

“There was a lot of talk that he was scuffling at the plate, he doesn’t swing the bat well when he’s pitching,†Roberts said. “So, today when he took the mound, you could see the focus, the intent.â€

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“Itâ€s kind of like an expectation for him,†Mookie Betts echoed. “For only him.â€

Ohtaniâ€s start on the mound — his first pitching performance since that NLDS opener that began his cold spell with the bat — began with shaky command and a leadoff walk to Brice Turang.

But then, the overpowering right-hander recorded three straight strikeouts, two with 100-mph fastballs and a third with a swing-and-miss sweeper.

Shohei Ohtani pitches during Game 4 of the NLCS against the Brewers. Ohtani struck out 10 over six scoreless innings for the Dodgers. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

When his first home run followed barely five minutes later, “it was kind of like, ‘All right, itâ€s gonna be that kind of night,â€â€ Muncy recalled thinking. “Letâ€s have fun.â€

The most fun was had on Ohtaniâ€s next home run in the fourth inning, when he hit one even farther than his off-day BP bomb.

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The moment he connected on the swing, drilling an inside cutter from Brewers reliever Chad Patrick, mouths dropped in the Dodgers dugout. As the ball kept sailing, players put their hands to their face with looks of disbelief.

“That ball is no less than 500 feet,†Muncy proclaimed. “It didn’t land on the roof. It went over the roof.â€

Added Betts, who got an up-close view from on-deck: “I think that took everybodyâ€s breath away.â€

In the Dodgers†executive suite, Friedmanâ€s amazement was summed up in a Slack message he sent in a chat to the rest of the front office.

“This is the greatest four innings ever played in postseason history,†it read.

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From there, it would only keep getting better.

By the fourth inning, Ohtani went in full cruise control upon finding a feel for his splitter, which induced a whiff all five times the Brewers tried to swing at it. From the fourth to the sixth, he retired nine batters in a row, and six of them on strikeouts. A crowd of 52,883 roared with every pitch.

“He got his split going, and he was able to do whatever he wanted,†pitching coach Mark Prior said. “It just opens up everything else.â€

After Ohtani left the mound — and got an assist from left-handed reliever Alex Vesia, who stranded both of the runners he left behind — he returned to the plate one last time in the seventh and lasered a third home run that by that point was almost expected.

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“No one even questioned it,†Muncy joked.

“Just so that people donâ€t say he only pulls homers, he went oppo really far too,†Hernández also deadpanned.

Dodgers president Stan Kasten watched that one from his office, reacting in private with “something completely unprintable.â€

Friedman, meanwhile, went back to his Slack channel.

“Thereâ€s no question it was the greatest postseason performance ever,” he said.

By nightâ€s end, Ohtani had been named MVP of the series — busting out of his slump and straight into October history.

Dodgers players and coaches celebrate after sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

And now, the already unstoppable Dodgers will enter the World Series with an aura of invincibility. They have a star-studded rotation, which set a league championship series record with a 0.63 ERA. A 9-1 record this postseason, which now includes the first NLCS sweep in club history. And, at long last, the confidence of seeing Ohtani dominate in a way that only he can.

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“I can’t wait for when I’m a little bit older and my kids are asking about, ‘What’s the greatest thing you’ve ever seen in baseball?’†Muncy said. “I can’t wait to pull up this game today.â€

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One minute he was burning through the top of the first inning with three flaming strikeouts.

Roar!

The next minute — literally — he was slugging through the bottom of the first by driving a ball 446 feet into the back of the right-field pavilion.

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Roar! Roar!

Three innings later he was doing it again, striking out two batters in the top of the fourth inning before driving a ball 469 feet over the roof of the same right-field pavilion.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Then in the seventh inning after he had left the mound after six scoreless, 10-strikeout innings, he hammered history again, driving a ball 427 feet over the center-field fence to complete a three-homer night.

Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!

Shohei Ohtani, do you have any idea how you sound?

Dodger fans, do you realize what youâ€re watching here? Los Angeles, can you understand the singular greatness that plays here? Fall Classic, are you ready for another dose of Sho-time?

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Ohtani and the Dodgers are back on baseballâ€s grandest stage, arguably the best player in baseball history concocting arguably the best single-game performance in postseason history, leading the defending champions back to the World Series with a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series.

“That was probably the greatest postseason performance of all time,†said Dodger manager Dave Roberts.

The final score was 5-1, but, really, it was over at 1-0, Ohtaniâ€s thunderous leadoff homer after his thundering three strikeouts igniting a dancing Dodger Stadium crowd and squelching the Brewers before the first inning was even 10 minutes old.

How far did that first home-run actually travel? Back, back, back into forever, it was the first leadoff homer by a pitcher in baseball history, regular season or postseason, a feat unmatched by even the legendary Babe Ruth.

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The unicorn Ohtani basically created the same wizardry again in the fourth inning and added a third longball in the seventh in carrying the Dodgers to their second consecutive World Series and fifth in nine years while further cementing their status as one of baseballâ€s historic dynasties.

“This is really a team effort, so I hope everybody in L.A.and Japan and all over the world can enjoy a really good saki,†said Ohtani through his interpreter after accepting the NLCS MVP award while standing on the league championship stage.

Drink up. The milestones are staggering.

The Dodgers are attempting to become the first back-to-back champions in 25 years, since the 1999-2000 Yankees.

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Beginning Oct. 24 against either the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays, the Dodgers will enter this World Series with something none of those past great teams — or any teams ever — possessed.

All together now… Ohhhhhtani!

“It was really fun on both sides of the ball today,†said Ohtani in his only understatement of the evening.

And to think, before the game he was slumping, two-for-11 in the NLCS, batting .158 for the postseason, swinging so wildly that he actually emerged from his usual indoor batting cage fortress to take batting practice on the field during Wednesdayâ€s workout.

Facing nagging questions before the workout about whether the strain of pitching was affecting his hitting, he denied any correlation.

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Don’t believe it.

“I don’t necessarily think that the pitching has affected my hitting performance,†he said at the time. “Just on the pitching side, as long as I control what I can control, I feel pretty good about putting up results. On the hitting side, just the stance, the mechanics, that’s something that I do — it’s a constant work in progress. I don’t necessarily think so. It’s hard to say.â€

Everyone should have known something was up during that special batting practice when Ohtani drove a ball off the right-field roof. He was clearly embarrassed by his performance and vowed to silence the critics.

“I was expecting nothing short of incredible, and he definitely surpassed that,†said teammate Max Muncy. “Unbelievable. Wow.â€

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His pitching was never in question — he was the winning pitcher with six strong innings in the division series opener against the Philadelphia Phillies — but he came out firing anyway Friday in the top of the first when he struck out two Brewers on 100-mph fastballs and another on an 88-mph breaking ball.

In the bottom of the first, he finally shut everybody up when he connected on a full-count slurve from the Brewers†lefty starter Jose Quintana and drove it into oblivion.

The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani celebrates striking out the Milwaukee Brewers’ Jake Bauers in the fourth inning during Game 4 of the NLCS. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“Yeah, yep. I think there was a lot of talk that he was scuffling at the plate, he doesn’t swing the bat well when he’s pitching,†said Roberts. “And all those things I think were fuel to his fire.â€

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Nearly the same scene repeated itself in the fourth inning, two strikeouts followed by a deafening home run against Chad Patrick.

By then, he was so overpowering in so many ways, in the sixth inning fans started a cheer with a timing likely never before heard at a baseball game.

They chanted, “MVP…MVP…MVP while Ohtani was on the mound.

When Ohtani finally left the game in the seventh after giving up a walk and a single, organist Dieter Ruehle played, “Jesus Christ Superstar†while the stadium shook with a prolonged standing ovation.

But he wasnâ€t done yet.

“It’s kind of, whatever you don’t expect, expect him to do it,†said Roberts.

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After finishing six two-hit innings on the mound, he came out of the dugout again in the seventh. For most great pitchers, theyâ€d only emerge for a curtain call. But this being Ohtani, he was still in the game, and for pitcher Trevor Megill, it was curtains.

The fastball disappeared into the crowd and what eventually emerged was surely the greatest postseason stat line in baseball history.

Three home runs at the plate, six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts on the mound, in an NLCS game that sent his team to the World Series.

“There wasnâ€t one person in the dugout that didnâ€t think he was going to hit a home run,†said Muncy. “He hits the second one, and weâ€re like, is this the single greatest game anyone has ever played? At the same time, it was like, you know heâ€s going to hit a third one. No one even questioned it.â€

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Afterward the carefully soft-spoken Ohtani actually came close to saying “I told you so,†but demurred. He is unfailingly polite. He is terribly boring But he burns. Watching him play, you can tell, he burns.

“This time around it was my turn to be able to perform,†Ohtani said. “And I think just looking back over the course of the entire postseason, I haven’t performed to the expectation, but I think today we saw what the left-handed hitters could do.â€

Frankly, we saw what we thought nobody  could ever do.

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Four wins from his second World Series championship in two Dodger seasons.

Ohhhhhtani.

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LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani had himself quite the first inning against the Brewers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

His three strikeouts in the top half were impressive. His leadoff home run in the bottom half was historic.

And then, for good measure, he homered again in the fourth.

In providing his own early run support in the potential clincher, Ohtani became the first pitcher in MLB history to hit a leadoff home run — in either the regular season or the postseason. It was also the first home run by any Dodgers pitcher in postseason history.

The last postseason homer by a pitcher came when the Brewers and Dodgers faced off in the 2018 NLCS, with Brandon Woodruff taking Clayton Kershaw deep in Game 1.

Despite all the firsts, Ohtani’s solo shot off Brewers starter Jose Quintana still had a bit of a familiar feel to it. That’s because it was exactly one year ago to the day that Ohtani hit a leadoff home run … off Quintana (then with the Mets) … in Game 4 of the NLCS. Per Elias, Ohtani is the fourth player to homer off the same pitcher on the same calendar day in multiple postseasons, joining Justin Turner (off Max Scherzer, Oct. 7, 2016 and 2019), Manny Ramirez (off Cole Hamels, Oct. 15, 2008 and 2009) and Dusty Baker (off Steve Carlton, Oct. 8, 1977 and 1983).

Ohtani entered Friday just 3-for-29 (.103) since the start of the NLDS. He had not homered since his two-homer game in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series on Sept. 30.

Ohtani put an end to that drought with his third career postseason leadoff home run (which traveled a Statcast-projected 446 feet). That’s tied with Derek Jeter and Jimmy Rollins for the second most in MLB history, trailing only Kyle Schwarber (five).

Ohtani’s second blast traveled even farther, coming in at 469 feet and clearing the roof of the Right Field Pavilion. It made him the first pitcher in history with a multihomer postseason game.

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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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LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani showed a bit of pulse at the plate when he led off Game 3 of the National League Championship Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers by lining a triple into the right field corner. He scored moments later on a Mookie Betts double.

Ohtani—the Dodgers’ 10-year, $700 million man—came into the game with one hit in the best-of-seven series against the listless Milwaukee Brewers, who now trail 3-0 after losing, 3-1, at Dodger Stadium Thursday night. Manager Dave Roberts was so concerned about Ohtani’s hitting that he moved him to the back of the NLCS pitching rotation.

Now he has Ohtani in place to close out the series with a mound start in Game 4 on Friday. After a 1-for-4 late afternoon ballgame with two strikeouts at the plate, he’s 2-for-11 in the series with no homers, five whiffs and a .641 OPS. But according to Roberts, he’s working his butt off trying to snap out of the slump.

At the same time, Ohtani’s preparing for a chance to clinch the team’s second consecutive NL pennant, the precursor of repeating as World Series champions.

How does Ohtani manage it? Well, he has 700 million reasons.

“He’s a unicorn,” Roberts said about the two-way Japanese player. “I don’t know how he manages it. Every minute of the day is accounted for.”

Before the series began, Roberts even went as far as saying the Dodgers can’t repeat as World Series champs unless Ohtani snaps out of his offensive funk. But here they are, one win away from putting themselves in position to compete against either Toronto or Seattle.

“He’s a big part of what we’re doing,” Roberts said. “We’re pitching very well. We’re playing great defense. Obviously Shohei is not in the form that we expect. But we have a long way to go.”

The supposition is that the workload for the 31-year-old Ohtani has caught up with him, even though he has made only one pitching start in the playoffs. In Game 1 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies, Ohtani threw six innings of three-run, three-hit ball with nine strikeouts in a 5-3 win.

Ohtani’s offensive numbers began to slip after he returned to pitching on June 16 after undergoing Sept. 2023 elbow surgery. His batting average dipped 18 points and his OPS slightly declined as the regular season ended. Still, he finished with 55 home runs, third among all players in the regular season.

The playoff drop off his been more severe. He opened just fine with two homers in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Cincinnati Reds. In the two-game sweep, he hit .333 (3-for-9) with the two homers and four RBIs.

But between a four-game victory over the Phillies in the NLDS   and this NLCS, he’s fallen off the map. He’s gone 3-for-29(.103) with no homers, a pair of RBIs, 14 strikeouts and five walks, three of them intentional.

Ohtani, though, doesn’t believe pitching has anything to do with his extended slump at the plate.

“I don’t necessarily think that the pitching has affected my hitting performance,” he said through his interpreter. ”Just on the pitching side, as long as I control what I can control, I feel pretty good about putting up results. On the hitting side, just the stance, the mechanics, that’s something that I do—it’s a constant work in progress.”

A left-handed hitter and a right-handed pitcher, Ohtani has seen a steady diet of left-handed pitching thrown at him. When the Brewers started left-handed reliever Aaron Ashby Thursday, Ohtani surprisingly fell behind in the count before launching the triple, which had an exit velocity of 82 mph off Ohtani’s bat.

“He’s one of the best hitters in the game,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “He [has not been] hitting the way he can. We’re not doing anything very special except we’re pitching him very carefully. Any time we can bring in a lefty to face him, that’s what we’ll do. He’s not barreling the ball like he does, but to us he’s still a dangerous, dangerous hitter.”

To Murphy’s point, Ohtani is a .264 lifetime hitter against left-handed pitching, .282 overall. But while his strategy is working well negating Ohtani, the Brewers have their own problems. They’ve scored three runs and amassed just nine hits in three games against Dodgers pitching.

If Ohtani continues that trend on the mound Friday, it won’t matter how he hits. The Brewers will be finished, and the Dodgers will be on to the World Series.

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Shohei Ohtani has done next to nothing in the National League Championship Series. The Dodgers could sweep their way into the World Series on Friday, with Ohtani as a footnote in the NLCS story, but baseballâ€s best player has a flair for the dramatic.

Bring on the latest Babe Ruth comparison!

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Baseballâ€s contemporary two-way superstar can do something Friday that baseballâ€s original two-way superstar never did.

Ruth started three postseason games as a pitcher, never hitting a home run in those games. Ohtani starts his second postseason game as a pitcher Friday, looking for his first postseason home run as a pitcher.

He could hit a home run and be the winning pitcher Friday, because why not?

“I feel like Shohei is a superhero character,†Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas said.

In the division series, Ohtani had one hit in 18 at-bats, with nine strikeouts. After the Dodgers clinched, this was catcher Will Smith: “He didnâ€t do much this series. I expect next series for him to come out and hit like five homers. Thatâ€s just who he is.â€

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In this series, Ohtani has two hits in 11 at-bats, with five strikeouts. Over the NLDS and NLCS, he is batting .103 with no home runs, and he has struck out in 48% of his at-bats.

He has not hit five home runs in this series, as Smith had optimistically anticipated.

“Iâ€m hoping he will tomorrow,†Smith said Thursday.

If a player has a rough week or two in June and changes up his routine, you might hear about it for a couple of minutes on the pregame show. Ohtani had a rough week or two in October and decided to take batting practice on the field instead of in the indoor cages Wednesday, and it became MAJOR BREAKING INTERNATIONAL NEWS.

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Not just for fans, the ones that have made his jersey baseballâ€s best seller, and the ones set to flock to the grand opening of a Tokyo pop-up gallery Friday, featuring vinyl albums that pay homage to the walk-up songs and anthems of Ohtani and other major league stars.

Ohtaniâ€s teammates came out to watch that rare outdoor batting practice. The sound guys cranked up an extra dose of Michael Bublé. And, because it was Ohtani, he hit a ball off the roof of the right-field pavilion.

So, no, the Dodgers arenâ€t worried. And, no, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts isnâ€t about to move Ohtani down in the lineup.

“Obviously, Shohei’s not performing the way he would like or we expect,†Roberts said. “But I just know how big of a part he is to this thing.

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“We’ve got a long way to go. But I just like the work he’s putting in. And I’ll bet on him all day long.â€

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani runs the bases on a leadoff triple against the Brewers in the first inning of Game 3 of the NLCS on Thursday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

For Ohtaniâ€s hitting, pitching has been his kryptonite this season. In his 15 starts, including the one in the NLDS, he is batting .207, and he has struck out in 43% of his at-bats.

“I don’t necessarily think that the pitching has affected my hitting performance,†Ohtani said Wednesday. “Just on the pitching side, as long as I control what I can control, I feel pretty good about putting up results. On the hitting side, just the stance, the mechanics, thatâ€s something that I do. Itâ€s a constant work in progress.â€

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There was some progress Thursday, when Ohtani tripled to lead off the first inning. On the next pitch, Mookie Betts doubled him home.

“Itâ€s kind of like the Bulls playing without Michael Jordan sometimes,†Betts told TBS after the game. “So we get him going and then itâ€s really going to be hard to beat. You see what happens immediately. As soon as he gets a hit, good things happen. But heâ€s going to be there.

“Heâ€s going to be there when the time is right. We all trust and believe in Shohei.â€

Before the NLCS, Roberts was blunt about Ohtaniâ€s offensive struggles.

“Weâ€re not gonna win the World Series with that sort of performance,†Roberts said.

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That sort of performance has continued, and the Dodgers are undefeated since then. That makes it easier to believe in Ohtani, and in what he might deliver on Friday.

“Iâ€m expecting nothing short of incredible,†infielder Max Muncy said.

“All in all, Iâ€m expecting Shohei to pitch a great game, and whatever he does offensively is just kind of icing on the cake at that point. Itâ€s a tough thing to pitch and hit in the same game, especially in a postseason game. Heâ€s going to be fine.â€

The Ruth comparison only goes so far. When he pitched in the postseason, he was primarily a pitcher, twice batting ninth. He made 145 pitches in his first postseason start, a 14-inning complete-game victory.

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That is about all we can say Ohtani will not do. The Dodgers are so deep that, Roberts†fear notwithstanding, they could win the World Series with a slumping Ohtani. They did that last year, in fact.

However, with one mighty swing, Fridayâ€s storyline could be less about what he did not do and more about what Ruth could not do. Champagne showers are in the forecast.

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