LOS ANGELES — Sometimes all it takes is one game.
Shohei Ohtani awoke on Friday morning in an offensive slump that had spanned two postseason rounds. His team was one win away from a return trip to the World Series, but he had contributed little at the plate in the first three games of the NL Championship Series.
By the end of the night, Ohtani was standing at center stage at Dodger Stadium, holding the NLCS MVP trophy after his team swept the Brewers with a 5-1 victory and urging Dodgers fans everywhere to raise a glass to consecutive National League pennants.
“We won it as a team, and this was really a team effort,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton. “So I hope everybody in L.A. and Japan and all over the world could enjoy a really good sake.”
Ohtani made it a grand finale to remember with an unreal performance on both sides of the ball. He hit three home runs — including one that soared out of Dodger Stadium — and struck out 10 across six-plus scoreless innings as the starting pitcher.
Leading into Game 4, Ohtani was 3-for-29 (.103) with one extra-base hit in his past seven games. He had not pitched in nearly two weeks, since tossing a quality start in NLDS Game 1 in Philadelphia. But he was able to put it all together on Friday for a performance that was so magnificent that his slump was no longer consequential.
Last year, Ohtani’s jaw-dropping game in Miami in which he created the 50-50 club became his signature offensive showing as a Dodger. This year, he reached new heights under the lights with perhaps his best all-around game as a two-way player.
“That was probably the greatest postseason performance of all time,” manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s been a lot of postseason games. And there’s a reason why he’s the greatest player on the planet.”
The greatest show in baseball had finally arrived in the postseason. Just in time for a return trip to the Fall Classic.
Ohtani started his evening strong by striking out a trio following a leadoff walk in the top of the first — two on triple-digit heat, making him the first Dodgers starter with multiple strikeouts on 100-plus mph pitches in a postseason career since pitch tracking began in 2008.
He then followed that up with a moonshot to right field off Jose Quintana in the bottom of the first — his first since his multihomer showing in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series — that wasn’t even his most majestic of the game. That honor would go to his Statcast-projected 469-foot blast off Chad Patrick that cleared the pavilion roof in right field in the fourth inning.
“That’s every baseball player’s dream when you’re growing up, is to be a hitter and a pitcher and be able to do multiple things on a baseball field,” Patrick said. “Kudos to him, he’s the best player in the world.”
Ohtani completed the home run trifecta with another solo blast to left-center off Trevor Megill in the bottom of the seventh, a half-inning after he walked off the mound to a standing ovation from a packed Dodger Stadium.
While Ohtani did not record an out in the seventh, Alex Vesia was able to strand both inherited runners. He held the Brewers scoreless on two hits and three walks, notching double-digit strikeouts for the first time as a Dodger.
Ohtani generated 19 whiffs, the second most he’s gotten this year behind his 23 in NLDS Game 1. Brewers hitters missed on all five swings they took at his splitter.
“I think early on, his command was a little off,” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “He leaned a little bit on his cutter. And then he got his split going. And he was able to do whatever he wanted once he got that going.”
Utter dominance, on both sides of the ball. It was the second time in Ohtani’s big league career, including the postseason, that he had struck out at least 10 batters while going deep at least twice in a game. No other Major Leaguer has done it more than once.
Ohtani also became the first pitcher with 10 or more strikeouts and no runs allowed in a postseason pennant-clinching game. He’s the first to go deep three times in a postseason clincher since Kiké Hernández in Game 5 of the 2017 NLCS.
“I unfortunately played left field that time and didn’t get to punch all those people that he punched out tonight,” Hernández said. “My homers were just right here. And his homers went really, really far.”
There was very little concern around the Dodgers about Ohtani’s slump at the plate. They believed that it was only a matter of time before things would turn for their two-way superstar.
After all, Ohtani is rarely contained for long.
“He gets put in these situations where you expect the incredible,” Max Muncy said, “and very rarely does he disappoint. For him, he’s just out there playing the game. He doesn’t care about the noise. It’s really fun to watch.”
