LOS ANGELES — For six seasons, the baseball world has wondered what it would be like to see Shohei Ohtani, one of the most exciting baseball players of this generation, in the MLB playoffs.
The San Diego Padres made a difficult decision.
The Los Angeles Dodgers slugger ignited the offense with a thunderous three-run homer that led his team to a 7-5 victory over their rivals in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. He proved in his playoff debut that his 10-year, $700 million contract was worth every penny.
Otani said, “I was able to feel the power of the stadium even before the game started, and it was a lot of fun.”
The first inning was a familiar sight for Dodgers fans in recent postseason appearances. That starting pitcher, this time Kanobo Yamamoto, shined before the sun set on Southern California. The Padres scored three points with Manny Machado’s home run at the top of the frame, but the Dodgers were unable to respond in their first at-bat.
All about the Dodgers: The latest Los Angeles Dodgers news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates, and more.
However, all those struggles changed in the bottom of the second inning. In the most meaningful at-bat of his career to date, Ohtani carried Dylan Cease to the right-field seats and batted as the raucous Dodger Stadium crowd watched as the ball sailed over the right-field wall to tie the game. I threw it and shouted.
No, the swing didn’t win the game. Los Angeles fell further into the red in the next inning, but another offseason signing paid off in a big way. Teoscar Hernandez, an underrated player before spring training, hit a two-run single in the fourth inning to give Los Angeles the lead, which they held for the rest of the game.
A new acquisition was exactly what the Dodgers needed when they were faltering far too often.
In the first game of this series alone, the Dodgers scored seven points. Last season, when the Dodgers were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the offense scored just six points in three games and their star players were nowhere to be found. In 2022, when San Diego won three straight and lost, they only scored seven points in the three losses.
Just when it looked like it was going to be another tough October in Los Angeles, Ohtani was there to change the narrative.
Manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani’s home run, “That gave us some momentum back and energized us.” “From pitch one, the fans were just going crazy and going crazy. I felt that energy, and I think Shohei feeds off of that. But it was just a huge hit.”
Although Hernandez hit the go-ahead hit, he was not given credit for leading his team to victory. He left all of that to the leadoff batter.
“(Ohtani) is the guy who’s going to lead us through all of this, and we’re going to follow suit and try to stay at the same level and play,” Hernandez said.
Ohtani said he was very happy to hit a home run from a pitcher like Schiess, especially after being solid against the Dodgers this season. He started the two games against Los Angeles, pitching 10 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits and four runs, with 10 strikeouts, but did not allow a single hit over the fence to a Dodgers batter.
Padres manager Mike Shildt said Schiess’ first at-bat, when he got Ohtani to fly out in the first inning, was very good. But he said he threw a four-seam fastball at the top of the strike zone where they didn’t want to, and Ohtani made him pay for it.
“The rest is execution, right? Against really good players, you have to do better,” Shildt said. “We were just going through something and he was able to pick up the bat.”
Although this was his first MLB postseason game, Ohtani is no stranger to bright lights. He won a title while playing in Japan, and who can forget his performance for Japan at the 2023 World Baseball Classic? Who will be chosen as tournament MVP?
The slugger said it was difficult to compare his past experiences to his current situation, but he knew the intensity was up a notch.
“I thought it was pretty exciting,” Ohtani said.
That excitement certainly eased the burden on Yamamoto, who gave up three points in the first inning and allowed two more in the second before being pulled.
Yamamoto said he’s grateful the offense picked him up. Los Angeles’ bullpen has also been significantly strengthened. San Diego scored five runs on five hits through the first three innings, but failed to score again, allowing only two more hits and striking out seven in the final six frames.
The fellow Japanese star said he plans to go back to square one to figure out what went wrong. If this series goes to four or five games, as some predict, he will likely be asked to pitch again. He added that he simply fell behind early in his at-bats, but there may have been other factors at play. Roberts said the Padres seemed to understand what Yamamoto was communicating.
“On the second base side, I think there was something wrong with his glove and gave him some pitches, so there are some things we’re going to dig into. So we’re going to clean that up.” said. “It’s our responsibility to clean it up and not reveal what pitches are being thrown. Internally, we’ll clean it up.”
Still, Saturday was all about Otani. There was special attention not only on Saturday being his first MLB playoff game, but also because he was coming off the hottest stretch of the season. Since that day in Miami, when he became the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, he has batted .628 with six home runs and 20 RBIs. If there is a runner in scoring position, it is almost certain that Ohtani will bring the runner home.
It was unclear whether Ohtani would be able to continue doing so. He acknowledged that it will be difficult for him to feel comfortable playing in the first game of the playoffs, coming back from the layoff given to the top two seeds in each league and clearly not contributing to Los Angeles the past two seasons.
But those games were the reason Ohtani chose to spend the next 10 years with the Dodgers. He was looking forward to being in a “high-intensity environment,” and if he can perform like he did in Game 1, he might be able to return the Dodgers to glory.
“He definitely has that switch, switching between being excited and focused instead of being nervous and pressured and trying too hard,” Roberts said. “I’ve never seen a player succeed as consistently as he does in the moments that matter most. It’s really impressive. I don’t know how he does it.”