Swanson: With Shohei Ohtani heating up, Dodgers are firing on all cylinders
LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers’ pitchers are out here tying postseason records on a club that’s playing complementary ball the Rams would envy. Turning baseball into a game of runs as if it were basketball, the Dodgers have outscored opponents 23-0 over 33 innings … and counting.
They’re giving juggernaut energy at just the right time.
And now, ruh-roh, Shohei Ohtani has joined the chat.
It was inevitable. Really only a matter of time for the founder and only member of baseball’s 50/50 Club.
After going 2 for 18 and striking out 10 times in the National League Division Series against the Padres, Ohtani went 2 for 4 with a walk in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday night, driving in a run and scoring twice in the Dodgers’ 9-0 victory over the New York Mets.
He’s now 16 for his last 19 with runners in scoring position, if you go back to the regular season. And 6 for 8 in the playoffs with any runners on base at all – in this, his first playoffs, remember, after six fruitless seasons down the freeway with the Angels.
“We’re better when we get guys on with Shohei up to bat,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Obviously when guys are in scoring position there might be a little bit more focus.
“But I think right now he’s in a good spot. Like I said that last series, I thought he chased it a little bit, but I think tonight he got back into his hitting zone and some good things happened.”
With no ducks on the pond in this postseason, though, Ohtani is 0 for 16. Fortunately for him, his friends got on base a bunch Sunday, recording nine hits and seven walks.
“I’m just really lucky,” he said through his interpreter on Fox Sports’ broadcast. “The team has been providing a lot of opportunities for me to hit with runners in scoring position, and I’m grateful for that.”
Roberts did what he could to set the table, directing Gavin Lux and Tommy Edman both to sacrifice bunt to push runners into scoring position for Ohtani.
“It’s just playoff baseball,” said Roberts, who had players sacrifice bunt just 10 times during the 162-game regular season. “The postseason is different than the regular season. It’s about kind of 90 feet and … some of that was making sure Shohei had a chance to get up.
“It’s just team baseball. If you can get a guy in scoring position, it just creates a little bit more stress.”
Hard to think of much more stressful in baseball than managing against Ohtani, the good-natured and sweet-swinging menace who looked like he was having a ball smacking the ball all over the park Sunday.
The man wearing cleats airbrushed with the image of his dog, Decoy, drove one laser at 116.5 mph – his 10th-hardest hit as a Dodger – off the wall. It was ruled a single, with an error on Mets right fielder Starling Marte allowing Ohtani to reach second and Edman to score.
Ohtani also slapped a run-scoring single into right field to knock a wild Kodai Senga out of the game in the second inning.
And Ohtani’s lunging, three-quarter swing off the end of the bat in the sixth drifted back to the warning track in center field, even a flyout drawing “oohs” and “ahhs” from an adoring crowd – which might have held its collective breath for a split second when the Japanese superstar went sprawling at second base when he was caught trying to steal on Sunday, thrown out for the first time in 36 attempts and for the first time since July 22.
Or when he just missed getting pegged in the helmet at second base by Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor – Ohtani’s would-be MVP competition – threw home.
Otherwise, Ohtani was living his best life there at the intersection of stress and joy, sparking much more of the latter for his team that no one is dwelling on the fact that he isn’t pitching as he continues to work his way back from elbow surgery that he had before he signed on his record $700 million, 10-year deal with the Dodgers.
Instead, on TV, Fox keeps the countdown going: Ohtani is three batters away … two batters away …
Some people took to social media to complain about the broadcast overdoing it. Everyone else, though, was asking each other: How many batters until Ohtani is up again?
None. He’ll be leading off for the Dodgers again in Game 2 on Monday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, when the Sho goes on.