Shohei Ohtani puts on a two-way show for the ages with 3 homers and 10 strikeouts as the Dodgers advance

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When Shohei Ohtani’s third home run rolled off his bat and toward the left-field bleachers, the few fans still seated at Dodger Stadium stood up frantically, as if every seat in the sold-out building had received a shock.

At the plate and on the mound, Ohtani was nothing short of electrifying in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series as he conjured up one of the greatest single-game performances in the history of baseball – perhaps even all of sports.

The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar delivered the 13th three-homer game in postseason annals on Friday night, connecting in the first, fourth and seventh innings for three epic solo shots traveling a combined distance of 1,342 feet.

He was equally brilliant on the mound, throwing a scoreless two-hitter in the seventh inning with 10 strikeouts and masterful variety in his 100 pitches.

Ohtani also did it all at an extraordinarily important moment for his team: the Dodgers game. 5-1 victory against the Milwaukee Brewers returned the defending champions to the World Series with a four-game sweep of the majors’ best regular-season team.

“It was probably the greatest postseason performance ever,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s been a lot of playoff games. And there’s a reason why he’s the greatest player on the planet. What he did on the mound, what he did at bat, he created a lot of memories for a lot of people.”

After the noisy post-match celebration of the The Dodgers’ second consecutive NL pennant since joining the clubOhtani tried to deflect some of the attention to his teammates.

“There were times during the playoffs when Teo (Teoscar Hernández) and Mookie (Betts) came for me, and this time it was my turn to be able to play,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “And I think looking back throughout the playoffs, I didn’t live up to expectations, but I think today we saw what left-handed hitters could do.”

One left-handed hitter in particular carried the Dodgers to the World Series — and Ohtani, who reached base four times in four plate appearances, even identified the perfect capper for his historic night.

“It’s really a team effort, so I hope everyone in Los Angeles, Japan and all over the world can enjoy really good sake,” said Ohtani, a connoisseur of the famous Japanese rice wine, as the crowd roared.

Ohtani won the NLCS MVP award almost solely because of this iconic play. He was 2 for 11 with a triple and three walks in the first three games of the series.

He had suffered a slump in October compared to his lofty standards, going 6-for-38 in the playoffs and an eight-game drought after hitting a franchise-record 55 in the regular season.

That’s the nature of Ohtani’s limitless talent, though: He can transform into a sports superhero seemingly at any moment, and the mound was his phone booth in Game 4.

“The way he battled in the playoffs, and not letting that affect him and keeping his psyche, his confidence, the same, is really impressive,” Roberts said. “So we knew he was going to come out of it at some point. And what better night to do it while he was pitching too.”

After Ohtani struck out three Brewers in the top of the first inning, he hit the first home run by a pitcher in major league history in the bottom half – and his night of incredible feats was only beginning.

His second home run was a breathtaking 469-foot drive that cleared the roof of the pavilion in right center – a place where few home runs land – after leaving his bat at 116.9 mph.

His seventh-inning shot sailed into the left-center bleachers and crushed the Brewers, who had finally chased him off the mound by bringing in two runners in the top of the inning, only to remain scoreless anyway when reliever Alex Vesia escaped the jam.

The three-time MVP is the first player with a three-game home run in the postseason since Chris Taylor did it for the Dodgers in October 2021. Kiké Hernández, Ohtani’s current teammate, also accomplished the feat for Los Angeles during the 2017 NLCS.

Ohtani became the third pitcher and first in 87 years to hit three homers in a game in which he was a starting pitcher, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The others were Jim Tobin for the Boston Braves on May 13, 1942 and Guy Hecker for Louisville on August 15, 1886.

Ohtani, who hadn’t gone deep since scoring two in Los Angeles’ playoff opener against Cincinnati, is the first Dodgers player to win two multi-homer games in a single postseason. He also became the first player to hit two homers in a game with an exit velocity of 116 mph or more since Statcast began tracking in 2015.

And the right-hander was exceptional on the mound as well.

He issued two walks early, but didn’t allow a hit until Jackson Chourio led off the fourth with a ground-rules double. Ohtani blocked it with a grounder and two strikeouts.

He got two more punchouts in the fifth and sixth, with Dodgers fans rising to cheers each time he returned to the dugout to trade his glove for a bat.

Although his two-way role requires extensive off-field work to stay ready for both jobs, Ohtani had only pitched two games in the last 30 days before Game 4, thanks to the Dodgers’ schedule permutations.

In his last regular season start, Ohtani threw six scoreless innings on five-hit ball against Arizona on September 23, throwing a record 91 pitches. In his MLB postseason debut on October 4, he allowed three runs in six innings with nine strikeouts. to achieve victory in Los Angeles’ 5-3 victory at Philadelphia in Game 1 of the Division Series.

Ohtani also had the motivation to compete with his fellow Dodgers starters, who have been phenomenal on the mound since the playoff race got serious.

The Dodgers rotation held hitters in September to an MLB-high .173 average for a single month. Since the start of the postseason, Los Angeles’ four starting pitchers — Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani — have allowed just 10 earned runs while pitching 64 1/3 innings with 81 strikeouts in their 10 postseason games.

Ohtani and the Dodgers earned a bye week before the World Series begins next Friday, either at Rogers Center in Toronto against the Blue Jays or at Chavez Ravine against the Seattle Mariners.

This club has had some lengthy layoffs over the past few postseasons, but Ohtani acknowledged he could use a break — and the Dodgers will spend at least the next two days basking in the brilliance they witnessed in punching their ticket to the Fall Classic.

“I see that as a positive in terms of rest ability, both as a position player and as a pitcher,” Ohtani said. “We had a few days off, but we played very meaningful and very stressful matches.”

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