Dodgers stars impressed with Ohtani’s historic performance
Dodgers players reacted to Shohei Ohtani’s historic performance in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t even know what was more important than celebrating, whether the ticket to the World Series or that they had witnessed one of the Most impressive performances by a player in playoff history and of the Major Leagues in general.
The Dodgers were still shouting and celebrating the two-time National League championshipafter completing the clean sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in classy fashion with a 5-1 victory on Friday night.
Even louder, they cheered Shohei Ohtani, who pitched six complete innings of two-hit ball, 10 strikeouts and reaching the seventh inning with only one hit allowed.
On offense, he became the first pitcher to hit three home runs, strike out a dozen and throw six scoreless innings.
“We’ve all seen greatness here,” Teoscar Hernandez said. “When you think you’ve seen everything from Ohtani, you can still see more. There’s no limit to it. It was the greatest game a human has ever had.”
“Today I feel lucky that I shared a team with him, that someday I will tell my family what he was able to do tonight.”
Ohtani also became the first starting pitcher to hit a home run in the postseason first in his team’s batting order.
“I was really focused, first and foremost, on my starting pitching to make sure I kept my team in the game,” Ohtani said after the game. “On the hitting side, looking at the entire team, I knew I hadn’t lived up to expectations and teammates like Teo (Hernández) and Mookie (Betts) lifted my spirits.”
“I’m just happy that I was able to perform and help my team,” he added. “I just found a better balance.”
Ohtani considered that the pitching plan helped and that from days before, even when he went out to batting practice with the rest of his teammates in the Dodger Stadium; something he rarely does in public, he began to feel better.
Others of his classmates said that sometimes they have to touch him to realize that Shohei Ohtani is real.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” he said. former National League and World Series MVP most recently, Freddie Freeman. “Sometimes he touched it to make sure it’s not made of steel.”
“On the biggest stage, everyone put pressure on him because they said he wasn’t hitting. And he goes out and does what he did,” he added. “Today he hit more home runs than he allowed hits as a pitcher. This will be remembered as ‘the Shohei Ohtani Day‘”.
In the history of the Major Leagues, including the regular season and playoffs, 503 players have hit three home runs in a game.
Since the mound was moved to its current distance in 1893, 1,550 players have struck out 10 batters.
Ohtani is now the only player to accomplish both in the same game.
“That was probably the best postseason performance of all time,” manager Dave Roberts agreed. “There is a reason why he is the best player on the planet and we already saw why.”
