Was this destiny, or the mere re-awakening of a sleeping giant? Had he gone 2-for-the-National League Championship Series entering Game 4 only to set Dodger Stadium and the world up for a display any world's fair including last century's gaudy boondoggles in New York would have been proud to hoist?
Don't ask. You'll drive yourself mad trying to answer, because any answer might be right and any might be wrong. Just remember that Shohei Ohtani did what he did to win Game 4 on both sides of the ball.
On side one he was Bob Gibson without the glare and stare, throwing six innings of 2-hit, 10-punchout, shutout ball, before he ran into a spot opening the seventh ticklish enough for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to lift him with two on, nobody out, and Alex Vesia warm and good in the bullpen.
On side two, Ohtani was . . . oh, David Ortiz, Reggie Jackson, and Babe Ruth, all at once. If there's such a thing as a postseason series sweep you could call dramatic, Ohtani made sure this one was it.
The vanquished Brewers who'd only managed to muster up a single run in each of the four games could do little enough other than watch and appreciate what was being made on their dollar. Even as they could only mourn that, whatever they were doing to keep Ohtani on his best behavior prior to Game 4, it failed them miserably enough.
"We're watching something we've never seen before," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who probably still couldn't believe the manner in which his team's ticket to the World Series was stamped Friday night. The scoreboard said 5-1, Dodgers. The margin was 4 runs; the Dodgers out-hit the Brewers by four. But . . .
There have been outlier pitchers who've hit home runs in postseason play. As Jayson Stark exhumes, only two starting pitchers have ever hit two postseason bombs in their whole careers: Hall of Famer Gibson (1964, 1968) and one-time Orioles co-ace Dave McNally (1966, 1974). And, "[s]eeing as how all pitchers not named Ohtani aren't even allowed near a bat rack anymore, that's a record that will never be broken," Stark adds. "Unless Ohtani breaks it!"
Babe Ruth, you say? Well, now. Ruth pitched 166 games lifetime, including the postseason, and never hit two homers in any but one of those games, on June 13, 1921. He also recorded one measly strikeout that day. The Bambino hit 3 homers in a single postseason game twice, Game 4 in the 1926 World Series, and Game 4 in the 1928 Series. Guess how many innings he didn't pitch in either of those games.
It gets even more insane from there. How would you like to name all the pitchers who've hit more home runs at the plate in a game than what they allowed from the mound in the same game? Stark has named the two, Philadelphia's Rick Wise (June 23, 1971) throwing a no-hitter and Detroit's Jesse Doyle (September 28, 1925) in relief, but hung with the loss despite getting eleven outs during his turn.
Yes, it's very fair to say that Ohtani blasted those two right out of the running. What the hell, he began the blasting in the first inning. Top — he shook off a leadoff walk to Brewers second baseman Brice Turang to strike out the side. Then he led off at the plate in the bottom half, worked the count full against Brewers starter Jose Quintana, and hit one into the right field bleachers.
Two base hits and a strikeout later, Tommy Edman singled Mookie Betts home and Teoscar Hernández pushed a ground out to first that enabled Will Smith to score. As things turned out, that was really the only scoring the Dodgers needed on the night. These Brewers may have had the regular season's best record and outlasted the wild-card Cubs in the division series, but they found themselves playing the futility flutes against the Dodgers' big brass.
Bottom of the fourth, the count 3-1: Ohtani launched Brewers reliever Chad Patrick's 3-1 offering to and past the rear end of the right center field bleachers. Speculation that the ball ended up making its way to the Hollywood Freeway wasn't unreasonable.
"My reaction," said Dodger president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, "was just mouth agape. Trying to track it. Not seeing it come down. And saying: did that one just leave the stadium?" All I could see was the ball flying over a Starlux Airlines sign and its roof section. Maybe it ended up somewhere in nearby Glendale, maybe in the back yard that once belonged to Hall of Fame manager/character Casey Stengel.
The sad part was that blast being the only real blemish against Patrick on the evening. He pitched four relief innings and kept all but one of the Dodgers from getting any cute ideas against him. If the Brewers now ponder the what-ifs if Patrick could have started, you can't exactly say they're wrong.
Bottom of the seventh, Trevor Megill relieving Patrick and striking Andy Pages out to open. Megill, who'd posted a 2.49 regular-season ERA and a .209 opponents' batting average against him. Pitched respectably in the earlier rounds this postseason, too. Now he had Ohtani in the hole 1-2. The next launch had to settle for landing a few rows up the left field bleachers.
Well, what did you expect? You thought Ohtani would hit a third bomb into satellite orbit? The man's only human, after all.
Here are the guys I feel sorry for other than the Brewers, who ran entirely out of fuel at the worst possible time after such a magnificent season: the Mariners. They finally fought back hard against the Blue Jays who'd threatened to sweep them away in their own Seattle playpen, en route an American League Championship Series fall.
Then, they had an eighth inning to remember Friday: Cal Raleigh leading off with a Game 5-tying home run; then, after back-to-back walks and a hit batsman, prodigal Eugenio Suaárez hitting an opposite-field grand slam four rows up the right field seats. Guaranteeing a Game 6 back in Toronto, where they'd swept the Jays out of Games 1 and 2.
Cal who? Eugenio what? Not even their late-hour of power could erase the magnitude and the impact of the Shoh in Los Angeles.
Go ahead. Review every great single-game postseason performance. Then tell me if they were better than Friday night in Chavez Ravine. Tell me Reggie Jackson seeing only three pitches and hitting every one of them onto or near the el train behind Yankee Stadium in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series was a better performance. Now, tell me how many innings he pitched at all in that game.
Tell me Don Larsen's perfecto in the 1956 World Series and Roy Halladay's no-no in the 2010 National League division series were better performances. Now, tell me how many home runs they also hit in those games.
I don't remember Bill Mazeroski, Kirk Gibson, Joe Carter, David Ortiz, and David Freese pitching even in the bullpen in their Big Postseason Games. Nor do I remember Howard Ehmke, Carl Erskine, Sandy Koufax, or Moe Drabowsky dialing the Delta Quadrant at the plate during their postseason pitching virtuosities.
Bob Gibson punched out 10 and hit one out in the decisive Game 7 of the 1967 World Series. He did the same thing in Game 4 of the 1968 Series. In between was his 17-punchout jewel in Game 1 of the '68 Series without hitting one into the seats. None of them equal 10+K/3 HR in the same game, either.
(Who the eff is Moe Drabowsky, you say? He the eff is the guy who relieved Dave McNally in Game 1, 1966 World Series, and pitched 6.2 innings of spotless, 11-strikeout, 1-hit, shutout relief the rest of the way, launching the Orioles on their surprising sweep of the last-standing Koufax-Drysdale Dodgers. At the plate, alas, Drabowsky went 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout.)
I don't want to leave either the Mariners or the Blue Jays hexed or vexed as they get ready to resume ALCS hostilities. But remember that the Dodgers won the first three NLCS games without Ohtani doing much at the plate. They're dangerous enough without him. Friday night was a staggering reminder of how dangerous they are when he is on. Whomever wins the American League pennant has a lot of studying to do.
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