Why didn’t Shohei Ohtani win World Series MVP? Yoshinobu Yamamoto wins award over Dodgers’ superstar originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
I hope baseball fans were tuned in because Game 7 was an absolute classic.
The managed to pull off a miracle and steal Game 7 and the World Series from the on Saturday.
Despite being down 3-2 in the series and having to win two games in a row on the road, the Dodgers still were able to get the job done.
With many expecting Shohei Ohtani to be in the running for the World Series MVP, one of his teammates came in and stole it with an epic series himself.
Why didn’t Shohei Ohtani win World Series MVP?
Both Japanese superstars had incredible series, but the award can only be given to one player.
How did pitching impact the result?
Even with the advantage of being available to pitch and hit, Ohtani couldn’t beat out Yamamoto for the award.
Ohtani, pitching-wise, didn’t have a strong performance in Game 4 of the series, allowing 4 runs and 6 hits in 6 innings. The Dodgers went on to lose the game.
He then started Saturday night’s Game 7, where he pitched just 2 1/3 innings, letting up 3 runs and 5 hits.
Yamamoto, on the other hand, started and was credited with two wins before Game 7, letting up a combined 9 hits and 2 runs in 15 innings.
He was then called to make an appearance late in Game 7, just 24 hours after pitching a 6-inning gem in Game 6.
What solidified an already good series for Yamamoto was when he entered the 9th inning of Game 7 in a jam. The Blue Jays had runners on first and second with just one out, only needing a run to clinch the title.
Yamamato further put himself and the Dodgers into more of a dangerous jam, but somehow got out of a bases-loaded situation with just one out, miraculously sending the game into extra innings.
In the 10th inning, Yamamoto had a quick 1-2-3 inning.
The 11th inning came around, and he faced another very difficult situation. The Blue Jays had runners on first and third with one out, yet he turned a double play to end the game and survive a classic.
How did batting impact the result?
Ohtani clearly has an edge here since he plays both sides, while Yamamoto only pitches, but Yamamoto outperformed Ohtani by a lot in the pitching department with how well he pitched the entire series.
Ohtani finished the series with a batting average of .333, 9 hits, 3 home runs, 5 RBIs and 6 runs scored in the 7-game series.
By no means are these poor stats, but at the end of the day, the Dodgers wouldn’t have been in the position to play a Game 7, let alone win it, without Yamamoto.
Yamamoto was credited with three out of the four wins in the series for the Dodgers, and the clutch plays he made in Game 7 will get more credit in the history book over the solid stats Ohtani had all series long in the batter’s box.
