Even amidst a monumental 18-inning World Series game overflowing with statistical superlatives, Shohei Ohtani once again managed to tower above it all.
His extraordinary performance in Game 3 saw him achieve more extra-base hits than any player in World Series history, slugging two home runs and two doubles within the first seven innings.
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Following this four-hit barrage, Ohtani then reached base an unprecedented five consecutive times via walks – a feat unmatched in any major league game.
What makes his latest mind-blowing achievements even more remarkable is the context: he was due to pitch the very next day.
After the Dodgers’ epic 6-5 victory, sealed by Freddie Freeman’s walk-off homer in the 18th, a smiling Ohtani remarked through his interpreter, “I want to go to sleep as soon as possible so I can get ready.”
As Tuesday morning dawned, Dodgers supporters were left to dream of successive titles, with Ohtani having proven a thorough nightmare for the Toronto Blue Jays’ pitching staff.
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The 18-inning game matched the longest in World Series history, also at Los Angeles in 2018 against the Boston Red Sox. Monday’s contest lasted 6 hours, 39 minutes, the second-longest World Series game by time.
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.
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“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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
