Disregard everything Shohei Ohtani has accomplished up to this point, which encompasses multiple MVP honors, a championship victory, and the only 50-50 season in Major League Baseball. We just witnessed “The Ohtani Spectacle.”
In spite of a rather unremarkable showing during the initial trio of contests in the series, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ prized player was awarded the NLCS MVP title on Friday following an exceptional individual performance unparalleled in the annals of baseball, and perhaps, all team-based sports.
With his squad already enjoying a 3-0 advantage in the series, Ohtani reached the zenith of his capabilities as a dual-threat athlete in Game 4, launching three home runs at the plate and recording 10 strikeouts across six innings of shutout pitching. The term “unprecedented” barely scratches the surface in describing his exploits on a frenzied night at Chavez Ravine, culminating in a 5-1 triumph for the Dodgers.
It all commenced with a first inning that, in isolation, may have been the most impressive single inning ever executed by a player. Ohtani mounted the pitcher’s mound for his second postseason start and navigated around a leadoff walk by notching three consecutive strikeouts against the most formidable portion of the Brewers’ batting order.
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Jackson Chourio? He succumbed to a swing on a 100.3-mph fastball. Christian Yelich? Immobilized by a 100.2-mph fastball. William Conteras? Eliminated on three pitches, the final one being a deceptive, 87.6-mph sweeper.
Distinct from every other starting pitcher in MLB, Ohtani’s duties didn’t conclude after delivering a scoreless first inning. He proceeded to equip his batting helmet and smack a leadoff home run off Brewers’ counterpart, José Quintana.
And by “smack,” we signify that he propelled the ball a distance of 446 feet at a velocity of 115.6 mph deep into the right-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium.
Three innings subsequent, Ohtani surpassed that home run by obliterating a cutter thrown by Brewers’ reliever Chad Patrick, propelling the ball beyond the confines of the right-field pavilion.
That home run? Measuring 469 feet at a speed of 116.9 mph, sending the ball out of Dodger Stadium entirely. Meanwhile, he persisted in holding the Brewers scoreless.
Then arrived home run No. 3.
Confronting Brewers’ right-hander Trevor Megill, Ohtani hammered a ball at 113.6 mph to the opposite field, extending his team’s lead to 5-0.
In the meantime, on the pitching rubber, Ohtani continued to dominate the Brewers.
He concluded his performance with 10 strikeouts, three walks, two hits conceded, and no runs allowed against one of MLB’s most tenacious lineups. He showcased a repertoire of seven different pitches, according to Baseball Savant, and peaked at that 100.3-mph fastball against Chourio. Even in isolation, that constitutes a performance of star caliber.
Here’s a perspective. In Game 3, Tyler Glasnow recorded eight strikeouts, permitting three hits and a solitary run across 5 2/3 innings. It was, by a significant margin, the least impressive outing by a Dodgers’ starting pitcher in this series, trailing behind Blake Snell’s eight innings of one-hit baseball, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s complete game, and Ohtani’s two-way mastery.
Ohtani’s stint on the mound concluded anticlimactically, with a walk and a single granted to initiate the seventh inning, but he departed to a standing ovation, whereupon Dodgers’ left-hander Alex Vesia maintained the Brewers’ scoreless status. And one half-inning afterward, Ohtani blasted his third home run.
In totality, Ohtani struck the three hardest-hit balls of the night, launched the three farthest-traveling balls of the night, delivered the 11 fastest pitches of the night, and topped all pitchers in swing-and-misses. No other player in the chronicles of baseball is capable of accomplishing all of that in a single game, and we may never witness such a feat again.
Ohtani wasn’t experiencing his finest postseason leading up to Game 4, but that didn’t deter the Brewers from treating him as a Barry Bonds-esque menace throughout the NLCS. They deployed left-handed pitchers against him at every opportunity, attempting to prevent him from finding his rhythm.
There existed a rationale for that approach, as we all observed on Friday.
