Shohei Ohtani had the preeminent game of his other-worldly baseball career in the Los Angeles Dodgers' marathon 18-inning win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday.
In Game 3, Ohtani put on a World Series performance that hasn’t been seen in over a century, crushing the ball every time he had the opportunity to hit, finishing with two home runs and two doubles.
Ohtani tied the record for extra-base hits in a World Series game first set when Frank Isbell had four doubles for the Chicago White Sox in Game 5 of the 1906 Fall Classic. Ohtani’s seventh and eighth home runs also pushed him into the post-season lead and tied him for third-most all-time in a single playoff run.
And if it seemed impossible for Ohtani to do any more to help his team win, he’ll toe the rubber for Game 4 on Tuesday looking to seize a dominant 3-1 series lead (8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, Sportsnet and Sportsnet+).
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The two-way superstar may have had three home runs and 10 strikeouts in the Dodgers' NLCS-clinching win over the Milwaukee Brewers, but the combination of his utter dominance at the plate with the World Series stage added yet another layer to his excellence.
Through the first two games of the series, both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ohtani played below their lofty standards. Now the Dodgers' fearsome leadoff man has made a statement, forcing the Blue Jays' hand as they intentionally walked him in four straight at-bats between the ninth and 15th inning.
Even when they finally pitched to Ohtani in the 17th, Brendon Little walked him on four pitches — three of them non-competitive. It was the ninth time he reached base, a post-season record.
Ohtani has surged ahead of Guerrero on the stat sheet while his Dodgers have simultaneously pulled ahead in the series 2-1. Let's evaluate where the pair stands three games into the World Series.
Ohtani's all-time performance
The second pitch Ohtani saw from Max Scherzer Monday was a curveball that spun right into his happy zone, and he walloped it down the right-field line at 113.8 m.p.h., skipping into the seats for a ground rule double. It was Ohtani's hardest-hit ball of the series thus far and a sign of what was to come.
He also came within a decimal point of tying Guerrero’s max exit velocity for the series, but hitting balls hard is second to where they land. And Ohtani both crushed the ball and delivered results in Game 3.
Down in the count after swinging at three of four pitches out of the zone, Ohtani chased a fifth offering off the inside corner — a 95-m.p.h. fastball — and lifted it over the right-field fence for a solo shot, doubling the Dodgers' lead in the third.
Then after the Blue Jays captured the lead with a four-run fourth, it was time for Ohtani to play superhero again. He worked a full count, fouling off two pitches in the zone and taking three balls, before lashing a double into the left-field gap, scoring Kiké Hernandez from first. A Freddie Freeman hit then scored Ohtani.
Ohtani’s first home run was an example of his raw talent, but the rest of the baseballs he annihilated were the result of both exceptional ability and good decision-making as the daunting slugger laid off difficult pitches and took advantage of mistakes. His second home run — off Seranthony Dominguez — didn’t require a discerning plate appearance though, as Ohtani simply mashed a fastball down the middle. His seventh-inning shot tied the game at five, charting the course for the World Series record-setting affair.
Four hard-hit balls in four at-bats was all it took for the Blue Jays to give Ohtani the four-finger treatment for the remainder of the game — minus Little pitching around him late.
Guerrero is quietly good
Before the game started to get loopy with 10 straight scoreless innings, Guerrero sandwiched a walk and a soft, ground-ball single between three fly outs, all on somewhat hittable pitches in the zone that he wasn’t quite able to put a quality swing on.
His two hits snuck through the middle of the infield, one of them weakly hit on a Blake Treinen cutter he chased far outside of the zone.
Guerrero's process has remained strong throughout the series. He's chased only eight of the 35 pitches he's been thrown outside of the zone and two of those swings went for hits. Still, at some point good decisions have to turn into results, particularly when there are days instead of months for the sample to pan out.
Reaching base four times in nine plate appearances is positive. And Guerrero threw a bullet to third to nab old friend Teoscar Hernandez attempting to advance on an infield single. The Blue Jays all-star first baseman scored two runs and made plays on defence, all things that help a team win.
But if the Blue Jays are going to pull one more rabbit out of their hat, Guerrero may need to match Ohtani's loud impact with the kind of play that earned him the ALCS MVP and saw him tie the club's all-time post-season home run record in a single October.
Here are Guerrero and Ohtani's numbers for the full series:
