"Ohtani smashed the record for most times on base in a playoff game (previously six; now nine), and it was his power, and Toronto's healthy fear of it, that can be blamed for so many people waking up bleary-eyed this morning-if they got any sleep at all. His night was not only one for the books; it's changed the dynamic for the rest of the series."
"Ohtani's first hit proved his only harmless one: Leading off against Max Scherzer in the bottom of the first, he rocketed a ball that just barely stayed fair down into the right field corner, where it hopped over the short fence for a double. The next three Dodgers couldn't drive him in, but facing Scherzer again in the third with a 1-0 lead, Shohei did it himself, smashing a high fastball much higher and farther to that very same corner."
"You can pick whatever verb you want here-belted, blasted, devoured, obliterated-but on the very first pitch, Seranthony Domínguez served up 98 mph of Grade-A cheese, and Ohtani's appetite proved limitless. This dong tied the game at 5-5, which was the score that burned into the retinas of everybody who endured the 11 innings still to come. The highlights stopped after that, as Ohtani went on to take five walks (four of them, officially, intentional) in his final five plate appearances."
Shohei Ohtani reached base nine times in Game 3 of the World Series, breaking the playoff record for times on base. He opened with a leadoff double off Max Scherzer, then drove in a run with another deep hit in the third. He added a left-center run-scoring hit in the fifth and crushed a first-pitch 98-mph home run that tied the game 5-5. After the homer he drew five walks, four intentional, in his final five plate appearances. The performance shifted momentum and forced Toronto to alter its pitching strategy.
Read at Defector
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]