Shohei Ohtani’s unprecedented night takes the Dodgers back to the World Series

Two days before perhaps the greatest game in baseball history, Shohei Ohtani participated in one of the best batting practice sessions anyone in attendance had seen.

It started with a swing-and-a-miss, with Ohtani having fun after his walk song blared through the speakers at Dodger Stadium and his teammates gathering in the dugout with anxious anticipation.

Then came some nondescript line drives, with Ohtani getting down to the real work of trying to repair a swing that had deserted him for much of this postseason.

Finally, a ball went over the fence. Then another. Then another. In 32 swings, Ohtani hit 14 home runs. Many of them were moonshots. One of them even resonated on the roof of the right pavilion.

“He did not disappoint,” Max Muncy later recalled. “He hit a ball out of the stadium.”

Indeed, during that practice between Games 2 and 3 of the National League Championship Series, Ohtani looked like a man on a mission.

In his previous seven games, dating back to the start of the NL Division Series, he had two hits in 25 at-bats. He had recorded 12 strikeouts and many more confusing swing decisions. And he seemed, at least in the opinion of some around the team, unusually disturbed as public criticism of his play began to mount.

There were questions about his swing mechanics being out of sync. Questioning his poor batting quality. Most speculation centered on whether the physical toll of his two-way duties were starting to impact his power at the plate.

“All those things,” manager Dave Roberts said, “I think fueled his fire.”

So, the future four-time MVP decided it was time to change something.

On the team’s flight home from Milwaukee the night before, Ohtani informed the club’s hitting coaches that he wanted to take batting practice in the field — a break from his normal routine that signaled his urgency to get back on track.

When he arrived at the stadium, he joked about his bad patch with his teammates and brushed it off in a press conference before practice.

What followed was her memorable BP session.

Then, two days later, a tour de force that will be talked about forever.

In a 5-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers that completed an NLCS sweep and gave the Dodgers their 26th pennant in franchise history — plus a return trip to the World Series to defend last year’s championship — Ohtani put on a spectacle of incredible proportions.

Three home runs as a hitter. Six-plus scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts as a pitcher. And one shocking, mind-blowing, unprecedented moment after the next.

“It was probably the greatest playoff performance ever,” Roberts said.

“He made the ultimate unicorn move tonight,” admitted teammate Kiké Hernández.

In the first inning, Ohtani struck out three batters, then walked to the plate and took José Quintana deep with a 446-foot blast deep into the right field pavilion – becoming the first pitcher in MLB history (regular season or postseason) to lead off a game with a home run.

In the fourth, he evaded his biggest threat by hitting a double with back-to-back punches that had him pumping his fist off the mound, then returned to the dish and hit a ball straight out of the ballpark – clearing the roof of the right-field pavilion with a titanic 469-foot drive.

He finished his outing with his only hint of frustration, going out with no outs in the seventh after a leadoff walk and a groundout single. But then he turned a spectacular night into the unthinkable, becoming the 12th player in postseason history with a three-homer game by lining an opposite-field shot into the left-field seats.

“He woke up this morning to people questioning him,” Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, said during an alcohol-soaked celebration in the clubhouse. “And 12 hours later, he stands on the podium as the NLCS MVP.”

It was the kind of game the baseball world dreamed of when the two-way phenomenon first arrived from Japan. It fulfilled the prophecy that accompanied his near-mythical position in a sport that had been a century since its last two-way superstar.

“Because of the limitations of the human brain, we cannot understand how special and unique this is,” Friedman added.

Ohtani’s point of view?

“This time it was my turn to get to play,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I think looking back throughout the playoffs, I didn’t live up to expectations.”

Of course, expectations are nothing new for Ohtani.

When he first arrived in the majors with a 100 mph fastball and a majestic swing from the left side of the plate, comparisons to Babe Ruth were already being made.

Early on, his transition to the majors came with some early growing pains and the first of his two career Tommy John surgeries. But over the past five years, he has become the definitive face of the game.

All that was missing, in a resume filled with MVPs and All-Star selections and records so unattainable that even the Great Bambino never achieved them, was an iconic performance as a two-way player in October. A game in which he dominated on the mound, delighted at the plate and single-handedly took control in a post-season environment.

That it happened Friday, in the midst of one of the worst slumps of his career, surprised no one at the Dodgers.

Friedman said he could feel something special, noting that “you can only hold Shohei for so long.”

His teammates also expected a breakthrough, expressed by Muncy’s prediction after Game 3 to “expect the incredible.”

At this point, the Dodgers had already seen Ohtani’s batting practice session. They had sensed the dissatisfaction bubbling within him.

“There was a lot of talk about him fighting at the plate, not swinging the bat well when he pitched,” Roberts said. “So today when he took the mound, you could see the focus, the intent.”

“It’s kind of like an expectation for him,” Mookie Betts echoed. “For him only.”

Ohtani’s start on the mound — his first pitching performance since the NLDS opener that began his cold spell with the bat — began with shaky command and a leadoff walk to Brice Turang.

But then the powerful right-hander recorded three straight outs, two with 100 mph fastballs and a third with a swing-and-miss sweeper.

When his first home run followed just five minutes later, “it was kind of like, ‘All right, this is going to be that kind of night,'” Muncy recalled thinking. “Let’s have fun.”

The funniest part was Ohtani’s next home run in the fourth inning, when he hit one even further than his BP bomb from the off day.

The moment he connected on the swing, drilling an inside cutter from Brewers reliever Chad Patrick, the mouth dropped into the Dodgers dugout. As the ball continued to sail, players raised their hands to their faces in disbelief.

“This bullet is no less than 500 feet,” Muncy proclaimed. “He didn’t land on the roof. He went over the roof.”

Added Betts, who had a close-up view from the bridge: “I think it took everyone’s breath away.”

In the Dodgers’ executive suite, Friedman’s astonishment was summed up in a Slack message he sent during a conversation with the rest of the front office.

“These are the best four rounds ever played in playoff history,” it read.

From there, the situation would only get better.

In the fourth inning, Ohtani went into full cruise control after finding feel for his splitter, resulting in a whiff all five times the Brewers tried to hit him. From the fourth through the sixth, he struck out nine straight batters, including six on strikeouts. A crowd of 52,883 roared with every pitch.

“He was successful in his separation and he was able to do what he wanted,” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “It opens up everything else.”

After Ohtani left the mound — and got an assist from left-handed reliever Alex Vesia, who stranded the two runners he had left behind — he returned to the plate one last time in the seventh and hit a third laser home run that, at that point, was almost expected.

“No one even questioned it,” Muncy joked.

“Just so people don’t say he’s just hitting home runs, he’s also gone really deep in opposition,” Hernández also deadpanned.

Dodgers president Stan Kasten watched this one from his office, privately reacting with “something completely unprintable.”

Friedman, meanwhile, returned to his Slack channel.

“There’s no doubt it was the best playoff performance ever,” he said.

By the end of the night, Ohtani had been named series MVP – coming out of his bad patch and going straight into October history.

And now the Dodgers, already unstoppable, will enter the World Series with an aura of invincibility. They have a star-studded rotation, which set a league Championship Series record with a 0.63 ERA. A 9-1 playoff record, which now includes the first NLCS sweep in club history. And, finally, the confidence of seeing Ohtani dominate in a way only he can.

“I can’t wait until I’m a little older and my kids ask me, ‘What’s the greatest thing you’ve ever seen in baseball?’” Muncy said. “I can’t wait to play this match today.”