PHILADELPHIA — Once again, somehow, Shohei Ohtani delivered a baseball first.
Since making his MLB debut in 2018, the two-way Japanese unicorn has clubbed 280 home runs, stolen 165 bases and made 100 starts as a pitcher. Along the way, he has reshaped the sport itself, raising, reraising and then shattering our collective expectations for what a ballplayer can do. He closed out the World Baseball Classic by striking out Mike Trout. He went 50-50. He won a World Series in his first trip to October.
But on Saturday night at the Philadelphia Loud House known as Citizens Bank Park, Ohtani broke new ground yet again by making his first career postseason start on the mound.
Ohtani exited the game after six frames with a line that undersells just how dominant he looked in October outing No. 1: 3 runs, 3 hits, 9 strikeouts and just 1 walk.
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Besides a messy second inning in which all three Philadelphia runs were scored, Ohtani was borderline unhittable. Only two Phillies hitters reached base outside that frame. Neither scored. He stifled the top three bats in Philly’s lineup all night; Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper finished a collective 0-for-9 with five strikeouts against him. Most importantly, Ohtani found a way to recenter himself after that early tumble, keeping the score close until the Dodgers’ offense found a way to claw back into the game.
In fact, Ohtani was replaced by Tyler Glasnow just moments after a Teoscar Hernández three-run blast gave Los Angeles a 5-3 lead in the seventh.
All three of those Phillies runs came in the bottom of the second inning. Third baseman Alec Bohm led off the frame with a well-worked, full-count walk. His 2-1 take on a nasty Ohtani cutter a smidge beyond the zone flipped the plate appearance, the inning and, as it turned out, the game. Working from the stretch, Ohtani’s fastball command appeared to worsen, and the Phillies immediately took advantage, with the hirsute Brandon Marsh cranking a 100-mph middle-middle heater into center field for a single.
Then came the crucial swing of Ohtani’s night: a rocket, two-run RBI triple off J.T. Realmuto’s bat. Once more, Ohtani hucked a triple-digit heater down the pipe. Realmuto didn’t miss it, keeping his hands inside the pitch and driving it into the right-center-field gap. Hernández, the right fielder, took a questionable route to the ball, which rolled all the way to the wall, allowing Marsh to score from first. Two batters later, Harrison Bader lofted a sacrifice fly to deep center, scoring Realmuto.
But then Ohtani struck out Bryson Stott to stop the bleeding and proceeded to retire the next seven Phillies in order. He plunked Bader and surrendered a curling, line-drive single to Stott in the bottom of the fifth, then retired Turner on a soft liner to short and set Schwarber down swinging. Ohtani came back out for the sixth and recorded two more strikeouts before a lengthy top of the seventh by his own offense precipitated a pitching change.
Ohtani’s magnificent showing on the mound should serve as a salve for what has been a brutal night for him at the plate. Ohtani has so far struck out in all four of his plate appearances, something he did only two times this season. Even so, Los Angeles’ deep offense picked up their superstar with a three-spot in the seventh.
In other words, if the score holds, nobody will remember Ohtani’s 0-for-4.
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