LOS ANGELES — What do you say about the game that has everything? History and high drama so good it needed a record-tying extra nine innings and 6 hours, 39 minutes to sort itself out.
There were heroes aplenty and there was the G.O.A.T. – lots of him. Shohei Ohtani, greatest of all time, all over the bases, all game long.
Game 4’s starting pitcher continued to set all kinds of history at the plate in Game 3 on Monday, helping the Dodgers secure an 18-inning, 6-5 victory to take a 2-1 lead in their World Series matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Next Ohtani will pitch – and hit, if the Blue Jays are brave enough to pitch to him – as the Dodgers continue their quest Tuesday for a second consecutive world championship and their third since 2020.
On Monday, Ohtani had already raked two home runs and two doubles by the time Toronto intentionally walked him with one out in the ninth inning, and then again with two out in the 11th and in the 13th. The free pass in the ninth would normally have been unthinkable, this time of year. But this time it was an obvious move; duh, it would be dumb to let him rip another extra-base hit off of another of your pitchers.
Truly, Toronto probably ought to have walked Ohtani in the seventh, before he squared the game, 5-5, with a 401-foot home run to left field off righty Seranthony Dominguez.
But the Blue Jays didn’t.
“We were trying to pitch around him,” Manager John Schneider said, “… after that you just kind of take the bat out of his hands.”
So Ohtani’s fourth extra-base hit tied the score and tied him for the most in a World Series game. Only Frank Isbell had as many, back in … 1906. Isbell’s four doubles in Game 5 lifted the Chicago White Sox to an 8-6 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
Ohtani’s 12 total bases also go down as a Dodgers’ World Series record – and his seventh and eighth postseason home runs tied him for the most in franchise history. Also, his reaching base nine times? Three more than any other player in any other World Series game – and tied for the record for any MLB game.
His was also just the fifth multi-homer game in Dodgers’ World Series history – and his third, personally, of these playoffs. That’s something no other major leaguer before him has done – just like no other big leaguer had reached base nine times in one World Series game before Ohtani did it Tuesday.
Stop a second and savor that. Soak it in. You’ll be telling his his story for a long time.
Because this man is worth the price of admission – and the $80 parking fee too.
“There’s no more adjectives you can describe Shoehei, a once-in-a-10-generational player,” said Freddie Freeman, Monday’s final hero for homering in the 18th to end the contest that tied the Dodgers’ previous record for longest World Series game.
“He’s a freak,” said reliever Will Klein, the 10th Dodgers pitcher who threw a career-high four scoreless innings for the win. “Being on a team with him is a great honor.”
And when Ohtani takes the mound Tuesday, he’ll be chasing probably the greatest big league baseball game of all time – his three-home run, 10-strikeout hitting/pitching night in the Dodgers’ closeout victory in a National League Championship Series sweep over the Milwaukee Brewers on Oct. 17.
Put together, Ohtani’s past two games at Dodger Stadium look like this: Home run, walk, home run, home run, double, home run, double, home run, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk – the first four of the final five walks were all intentional passes, which, naturally, set an MLB record.
Jordanesque. Tiger Mania-manic-ificent. Just silly. A super-duper-star at his most superb.
But go ahead, jilted Jays fans, tell yourselves you don’t need him.
That’s how the nice Canadian fans serenaded Ohtani – who seriously considered leaving the Angels for Toronto in free agency a couple of years ago before opting instead for Dodger Blue – with a “We Don’t Need You!” chant during the Dodgers’ Game 1 loss in Toronto.
Ohtani laughed it off, of course, because they were being silly too.
Because who couldn’t use a unicorn who’s making a habit of providing answers to questions we’d never even thought about asking, like: Was that the greatest single baseball game ever by a single player?
Who would wouldn’t rather have this phenom on their side than the other side?
Who wouldn’t appreciate everything the pride of Oshu, Japan, has brought to our city, and to Southern California. Ohtani is a do-everything talent, who does it all with a smile – and with the occasional, satisfying bat flip.
He will take the mound Tuesday for his first World Series start after making his debut in the Fall Classic last year as solely a hitter, because he was still recovering still from 2023 surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
Since picking pitching back up this June 16, Ohtani started 14 games and posted a 2.87 ERA.
In his first postseason pitching appearance, Ohtani got the win in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies. And then came Game 4 against the Brewers, his first 100-pitch performance since returning from surgery – and his just his latest start before Game 4 on Tuesday, whatever mind-bending history he’s got in store for us then.
“He was on base eight or nine times tonight, running the bases,” Roberts said, “… [and] he’s taking the mound tomorrow. He’ll be ready.”
“I want,” Ohtani said on the Fox broadcast, “to go to sleep as soon as possible.”