Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers champion are already historic
Dodgers has a 8-0 mark, the longest winning streak at the start of the season for a reigning champion
Los Angeles – In addition to their ability to launch, hit and challenge the limits of the imagination, Shohei Ohtani has demonstrated another unique quality during his time in the big leagues: the ability to take advantage of the moment. Or, perhaps, that the moment finds it.
And so, on Wednesday night, with Los Angeles Dodgers seeking to stay undefeated, the board tied in the fall of the novena and more than 50,000 foot fans, with the Ohtani bobbleheads for those who lined up with hours in advance, Ohtani approached the batting box, and his teammates waited greatness.
“This is going to end right here,” said the third base of the Dodgers, Max Muncy.
“We knew it,” said opening pitcher Blake Snell. “It’s what it does.”
The validation came instantly. Ohtani remained behind a speed change by Raisel Iglesias in the first launch near the outer corner and connected it to the central garden, 110 meters away, for a gold home run, which drove the Dodgers to a 6-5 victory, tracing over the wobble Atlanta Braves.
“I don’t think someone doubted to connect a gold home run there,” said the Dodgers utility, Tommy Edman. “It’s just a matter of where I would connect it.”
The dodgers have a mark of 8-0, surpassing the New York Yankees of 1933 of Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth With the longest winning streak at the beginning of a season for a reigning champion. The Braves, meanwhile, have a mark of 0-7, a record from which no team has recovered to reach the playoffs. And Ohtani, with three homers and an OPS of 1,126 this season, does not stop finding opportunities.
“It’s quite good, right?” Said the gardener of the Dodgers, Teoscar Hernández. “It’s Shohei. He’s going to do that. He’s going to do things better than that.”
On August 23, Ohtani reached the 40-40 club with a Grand Slam to leave the opponent. Five days later, the Dodgers gave their Bobblehead doll for the second time – in which their now famous dog, Decoy, was in charge of the first ceremonial launch – and Ohtani opened the account with a homer. On September 19, Ohtani assured his first classification to the postseason and inaugurated the 50-50 unprecedented club with one of the best performances in a single game in the history of baseball, with six hits, three home runs, two stolen bases and 10 promoted races. Just two weeks later, he connected a homer in his first playoff game.
When Ohtani appeared on Wednesday, he had what he described as a simple approach.
“I was looking for a good release,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “If I didn’t get a good throw, I wanted a ball base.”
He got a good release. And, of course, he sent it to the central garden.
“You feel that something special is going to do,” said the Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts. “And I like how it does not press. He is in the Strike area, and when he does, there is simply no one better.”
The Dodgers began their long -awaited season with a couple of easy victories over the Chicago Cubs in Japan, although Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman did not play. They returned home, brought the iconic rapper Ice Cube to present the World Series trophy one afternoon, received their champions rings the next night and swept a series of three games against the Detroit Tigers. Then the Braves arrived, and the Dodgers also swept them, although Freeman, with an ankle injury caused by a slip in the shower, did not participate.
The Dodgers already add two victories for Walk-Off and six for comeback this season.
Wednesday’s effort left Roberts “a little stunned.”
A disastrous defensive start, with two wrong launches of Muncy as a central axis, ruined the beginning of Snell and put Los Angeles below 5-0 after the first and a half entry. But the Dodgers continued to approach. They lost for only two races in the eighth entrance and put corridors in second and third with two outs. Muncy reached the dish with an average batting of .083. He had used the publicized Bat Torpedo in his first three appearances to the plate, he did not like how he altered the plane of his swing, took his usual bat for a duel against Churches and connected the double of the tie between the right and central garden.
An entrance later, Ohtani ended the game.
“In general, not only tonight, there is very good vibes on the team,” Ohtani said after connecting his fourth hit to leave the opponent. “I think that is allowing us to overcome these games and win.”
The start of 8-0 of the Dodgers has allowed them to stay just ahead of the San Diego Padres (7-0) and the San Francisco Giants (5-1) in the west division of the National League. If we add to this the Arizona Diamondbacks (4-2) and the Colorado Rockies (1-4), this is the first time in the division era that a whole division has combined at least 25 wins and no more than seven losses, according to AM850 Research. The openings of the Dodgers and the parents only mark the fifth season in the history of the major leagues with several teams starting with a 7-0 or better brand, and the first since 2003.
The Dodgers traced a 2-1 deficit in the series to overcome parents in the divisional series of the National League last year and then got their first full season championship since 1988.
That fight has not yielded.
“It seems that this clubhouse retains a bit of the attitude we had last year, that we never stayed off and we are resilient, and we have maintained it this season,” Muncy said. “It has been fun to see them. The boys do not give up. Bad things have happened, and no one has really been discouraged or defeated. Everyone simply say: ‘Well, here we go, in the next post, we go for all!’.
