NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani perked up when he heard his name.
“I told him,” Dodgers backup catcher Austin Barnes said after Ohtani’s three-run moonshot iced an 8-0 victory over the Mets in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, “hit the ball over the fence.”
“Not bad advice,” Ohtani said.
Barnes clapped his hands three times. “Like, ‘Today, man, over the fence.’”
Ohtani beamed as he dressed to leave the ballpark, two victories away from the World Series.
“Good coaching,” Ohtani said.
The game is not that easy for Ohtani. But sometimes he can make it look so, as he did in the eighth inning Wednesday, hitting a ball that looked capable of landing in Flushing Bay if the second deck of Citi Field had not gotten in the way.
Shohei Ohtani has not recorded a hit in 22 at-bats with no one on base but has seven hits in nine at-bats with runners aboard. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
The home run ushered a procession of Mets fans to the exits, extended Ohtani’s bizarre postseason splits and eased the tension for manager Dave Roberts. The Dodgers arrived in Queens this week hoping to sneak through three consecutive games while using starting pitchers unable to last deep into games. With one swing, Ohtani boosted the lead and protected the bullpen. Roberts did not have to use high-leverage relievers Evan Phillips and Daniel Hudson. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting in Game 4, the team should have Phillips and Hudson plus Blake Treinen and Michael Kopech, who combined for two scoreless innings Wednesday, lined up.
“Those things matter,” Roberts said.
This is Ohtani’s first time in the postseason. He has competed under a microscope for much of his professional career, but never before have American audiences studied his at-bats at such a granular level. He contributed two hits in a Game 1 victory and walked twice in a Game 2 defeat. Yet he had made the game seem so simple in the season’s final months — whenever he saw a pitch, he hit it with great force — that every out he made appeared a portent of a lengthy slump.
Roberts has suggested that Ohtani was swinging too often at pitches outside the strike zone. He looked lost against Mets starter Sean Mananea in Game 2. Tuesday, before the Dodgers worked out at Citi Field, Ohtani fended off questions about his confidence and approach. He did not believe he was wilting beneath the postseason glare. He did not consider himself in the midst of a dreadful stretch.
“I do feel OK at the plate,” Ohtani said through his interpreter, Will Ireton. “I do feel like I (can) recall back to the times when I (felt) good and perhaps incorporate that into it.”
Part of the concern stemmed from an odd disparity in his splits. Ohtani has not recorded a hit in 22 at-bats with no one on base, yet he has seven hits in nine at-bats with runners aboard. The difference might matter less for most sluggers, but Ohtani leads off the Dodgers lineup. He used his legs to steal 59 bases during the regular season. He has stolen none in October.
Ohtani insisted Tuesday that this brief lull in his production would not alter his intentions as a hitter. “Regardless of however they are pitching to me, my plan is to stay with the same approach as much as possible and not really be too focused on how they attack me,” he said.
Ohtani made good on that promise in Game 3. He grounded out on the first pitch he saw, a 95 mph fastball from Mets starter Luis Severino. Two innings later, with Severino unable to find the zone, Ohtani took a walk. In the sixth, after Kiké Hernández’s two-run homer, Ohtani flailed as Mets reliever Reed Garrett’s 0-2 cutter dove toward his cleats.
All those at-bats occurred with the bases empty. Ohtani’s fourth did not. He followed a walk from catcher Will Smith and a two-out single from Hernández. Mets reliever Tylor Megill tried to sneak an 0-1 cutter for an inside strike. Ohtani waffled the ball into right field. A collective gasp overtook the 43,883 fans packed inside the ballpark. The statistics do not do the homer justice: 115.9 mph off the bat, at an estimated distance of 397 feet. The ball hooked near the pole, close enough to merit a replay review.
“I don’t know you would even overturn that,” said third baseman Max Muncy, who reached base in five plate appearances and added a solo shot in the ninth. “The ball was 100 feet over the foul pole. The foul pole’s not tall enough for that one.”
The home run changed the calculus for Robert’s endgame. He had used Treinen, one of his relief aces, to face the bottom of the Mets lineup in the seventh. As the eighth inning began, with the Dodgers up four, Hudson loosened up in the bullpen. If the score remained the same, Treinen would return for the eighth. If the Dodgers added a run, Hudson would pitch. Adding three runs? That allowed Roberts to send rookie Ben Casparius for the final two innings. “The more the runs we score, that makes it easier,” Treinen said.
The bullpen figures to be close to full strength for Game 4. The Dodgers are trying to run this gauntlet without Mets hitters Francisco Lindor, Mark Vientos and Pete Alonso receiving repeated looks at the same relievers. Thus far, Roberts has succeeded. “The more we can hide guys, keep them from going in, it’s probably ideal,” Hudson said.
Ohtani left the ballpark without speaking to reporters. He did not need to say much. “It was important,” Roberts said, “for Shohei to build some confidence.” His team holds the high ground. His swing silenced a ballpark and saved his bullpen. It also offered a reminder. Even amid this relative downturn in his hitting, Ohtani can inspire awe. That, of course, is not shocking.
(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani: Elsa / Getty Images)
