On a mission to become the greatest baseball player of all time, Shohei Ohtani is headed to his second World Series in as many years since joining the Dodgers.
Despite dominance by Los Angeles, a lot of the talk this postseason had been about Ohtani’s struggles at the plate. After being the best hitter in the regular season, his numbers have been down, and strikeouts have been up, but in the National League Championship Series clincher, the two-way superstar proved why he is the best in the world.
After walking the first batter of the game, Ohtani proceeded to have potentially the greatest individual inning by a single player ever. He struck out the next three batters he faced before leading off the game for the Dodgers with a home run. 1-0 Ohtani.
“It’s like a movie,” said one Japanese reporter after the leadoff homer.
The madness did not stop there as Ohtani went on to direct an Academy Award-winning film.
“There is a lot of talk about him scuffling at the plate, and he doesn’t swing the bat well when he is pitching, and I think that fueled his fire. When he took the mound today, you could see the focus and intent. After that shut down first inning and at-bat, you could see that he was smelling a really good night,” said manager Dave Roberts.
Ohtani homered of the solo variety again in the fourth inning, this time crushing the ball over the bleachers, out of Dodger Stadium. In the seventh, up came Ohtani, and to no surprise, the ball was obliterated into the stands. He continued mowing down the Brewers hitters as well, allowing only two hits in six innings of work, with ten strikeouts.
No starting pitcher has ever led off with a home run or ever hit two home runs in a postseason game. The third ball that Ohtani hit out of the park was just the icing on the cake.
Game 4 of the 2025 NLCS will always be remembered as the Shohei Ohtani game.
“When you have expectations like he does sometimes, they are just unattainable. Certainly, the way he was struggling this postseason to keep his confidence the same is really impressive. We knew that he was going to come through at some point, and what better night than to do it while he is pitching too,” said Roberts.
Ten strikeouts in a closeout game is impressive, and the three home runs are even more mind-numbing, but when one player performs both feats in the same postseason game, it becomes legendary. Ohtani’s remarkable Game 4 locked up the NLCS MVP Award and will go down as the most impressive individual performance in postseason history.
“There have been times during the postseason when Teo and Mookie picked me up, and this time around, it was my time to perform. Over the course of the postseason, I have not performed to expectation, but I think today they saw what I can do,” said Ohtani.
When Ohtani is handed the National League Most Valuable Player Award for this season, he will enter an elite list of names when it comes to dominating a sport. Ohtani will become the second player in MLB history to win 3 consecutive MVPs, trailing only Barry Bonds (4).
This sort of achievement has only occurred 6 times in the major American sports. Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and Larry Bird won 3 straight in the NBA, while Brett Favre is the only NFL player with that many in a row. If he keeps it up, Ohtani’s count should continue to rise, as no one in the NL has been particularly close in recent years.
As the awards and championships stack up, there is almost no doubt that he will be the greatest baseball player of all time when he retires and maybe even the best athlete we have ever seen.
To go from being a disappointment in a seven-game series to the MVP is unfathomable, and something only a player like Ohtani can pull off.
“I’m just really grateful that I’m in this situation and being able to play in this playoff environment,” said Ohtani.
This showing on the biggest stage should skyrocket his confidence to an even higher stratosphere, and there is a decent chance he will not see many pitches in the zone during the World Series, as whoever their opponent is could opt to let him take first base and avoid the headache.
Benjamin Verbrugge is a reporter for News4usonline who studied journalism at CSU Dominguez Hills. “Sports have brought me much joy throughout my life, and I want to give a little back to something that has meant so much to me.” Email Benjamin at benverbrugge8@gmail.com.
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