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Even in the midst of a brilliant 18th inning world Series A game full of statistical exaggeration, shohei ohtani Once again managed to rise above all this.
His extraordinary performance in Game 3 helped him achieve more extra-base hits than any player in World Series history, hitting two home runs and two doubles within the first seven innings.
After this four hit barrage, Ohtani He then reached base an unprecedented five consecutive times via walk – a feat unmatched in any major league game.
What makes his latest astonishing feat even more remarkable is the context: he was due to take the pitch the very next day.
After the Dodgers’ epic 6–5 victory sealed by Freddy Freeman’s walk-off homer in the 18th, a smiling Ohtani commented 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 dreaming of winning back-to-back titles, but for Ohtani it turned out to be a complete nightmare. toronto blue jays‘Pitching staff.
The 18-inning game matches the longest game in World Series history, also in Los Angeles against the Boston Red Sox in 2018. Monday’s contest lasted 6 hours, 39 minutes, the second-longest World Series game in terms of time.
exactly 10 days later hit three homers and struck out 10 milwaukee brewers Already regarded by many as the greatest one-game performance in baseball history to clinch a National League pennant, Ohtani gave himself some competition for that distinction when he reached base in all nine of his plate appearances in his next game at Chavez Ravine.
“I hope we don’t lose sight of, you know, our starting pitcher got on base nine times tonight,” Freeman said. “Absolutely incredible. When you’re that hot…like Shohei was tonight, I mean, (moving him) is the right move.
“You don’t want Shohei to beat you. Let other guys try to beat you after his first four at-bats. It took a very long time, but (we) finally did it.”
Ohtani tied a 119-year-old record by achieving four extra-base hits. When the Jays effectively took the bat out of his hands and forbade him from pitching anymore, 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’ll take the bat out of his hand.”
When asked if the Blue Jays, who handled Ohtani at the end of Game 3, should be expected to advance to the World Series, Schneider answered unequivocally: “Yes.”
When Freeman finally blasted his second historic walk-off homer in a World Series game at Dodger Stadium, Ohtani jumped onto the field with his teammates and then ran to the bullpen for a jubilant celebration with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was pitching his 19th inning just two days after pitching a complete-game win in Toronto.
“The most important thing is that we won,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “And what I accomplished today is in the context of this game, and what matters most is that we turn the page and play the next game.”
Freeman’s latest clutch homer crossed the fence a little more than 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 playing 6 hours, 39 minutes could take a toll on his pitching — or Ohtani could continue to perform practically supernatural feats with grace and style.
Ohtani led off the first in Game 3 with a ground-rule double to right field. He followed with a solo homer to right field in the third inning off the Toronto starter max shazerAnd he added an RBI double in the fifth off reliever Mason Fluharty.
Ohtani then hit a 401-foot homer off Seranthani Dominguez 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, 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 each time the ploy worked, Ohtani’s teammates couldn’t get him home.
Ohtani is the first player to be intentionally walked four times in a postseason game, just one short of the overall major league record for intentional walks set by Andre Dawson in May 1990.
With a man on first, the Blue Jays pitched to Ohtani in the 17th – but with difficulty, as Brandon Little threw four pitches comfortably out of the zone.
On August 9, 1942, Ohtani became the first player to reach base nine times after giving up five hits and four walks for Stan Hack’s Cubs in an 18-inning game, breaking the records accomplished by Max Carey in 1922 and Johnny Burnett in 1932.
After becoming the first player in MLB history with three multihomer games in a postseason, Ohtani is closing in on Randy Arozarena’s MLB record of 10 homers in a postseason.
Only one other player in baseball history had four extra-base hits in a World Series game: Frank Isbell had four doubles for the Chicago White Sox against the Chicago Cubs in Game 5 in 1906.
Ohtani also became the first hitter to do so Multiple games with at least 12 total bases In the same postseason. The only other player to play two such postseason games in his career was Babe Ruth.
Ohtani has six hits and five RBI in the first three games of the World Series against Toronto, the city where fans booed “We don’t need you!” Ohtani was in while the Blue Jays won Game 1. Ohtani also homered There was a delay in that resounding defeat.
Ohtani hit two homers in the Dodgers’ first game of the postseason against Cincinnati, but did not homer 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.