LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani had one of the best games in World Series history – and that wasn’t even the half of it. Literally – the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t let him swing after the seventh inning.
It took an epic World Series game jam-packed with so much drama and so many momentum changes early that it spilled over into extra innings – and just kept going – to contain Ohtani’s latest feats of strength. With Ohtani seemingly ready for a mid-game promotion to some higher league, the Dodgers finally won Game 3 on Monday night, 6-5, on Freddie Freeman’s walk-off home run in the 18th inning to take a two games to one lead in the best-of-seven series.
The game tied Game 3 of the 2018 World Series between the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox as the longest game in World Series history. That one ended on a walk-off home run by Max Muncy.
There was a seventh-inning stretch – and a 14th-inning stretch. Stadium organist Dieter Ruehle who plays the theme from Gilligan’s Island whenever a game reaches the 3-hour mark (“a 3-hour cruise”) got to play it twice as 605 pitches were thrown over 6 hours and 39 minutes.
After Blake Treinen gave up a run on three consecutive hits in the seventh inning, six Dodgers relievers – Jack Dreyer, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan, Clayton Kershaw, Edgardo Henriquez and Will Klein – pitched 11 scoreless innings. Dave Roberts used 10 pitchers in all, leaving just Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Ohtani as the only ones not called upon. Yamamoto volunteered to pitch and was warming up as Klein – who hadn’t pitched in a game in a month and never more than two innings in any MLB game – persevered through a fourth inning of relief in the 18th.
Game 4 – or does it count as Game 5 now? – is scheduled for Tuesday at 5 p.m. with Ohtani and Shane Bieber expected to pitch – yeah, he does that too.
“I want to go to sleep as soon as possible so I will be ready,” Ohtani said through his interpreter in the on-field interview.
Ohtani focused on his day job Monday and ripped off four extra-base hits – two doubles and two home runs – in his first four at-bats. After that, the Blue Jays took the bat out of his hand, intentionally walking him three times with no one on base, once with a runner on third (in the 13th inning) and once more unintentionally (on four pitches nowhere near the strike zone in the 17th inning). Ohtani is the first player in history to reach base nine times in a World Series game – and the first to be intentionally walked four times in any postseason game.
Instead of holding up four fingers to signal an intentional walk, the Blue Jays might just hold up a calendar turned to November, signaling their intention not to pitch to him again in this series. In the past two games played at Dodger Stadium (Game 4 of the National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers and Game 3 of this World Series), Ohtani has gone 7 for 7 with six walks, five home runs and two doubles. Oh, yeah – he also pitched six scoreless innings and struck out 10 in between some of those at-bats.
The first double Monday went for naught when his teammates left him stranded in the first inning. The home run came in the third inning and made it 2-0 after Teoscar Hernandez had also gone deep in the second against Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer. That prompted a vigorous bat toss from Hernandez, who had just one hit and nine strikeouts in his previous 14 at-bats this postseason and was dropped a spot in the Game 3 lineup by Manager Dave Roberts.
But Freddie Freeman ran into an out at home on an overaggressive send by third-base coach Dino Ebel against strong-armed right fielder Addison Barger to end the third inning and keep the Dodgers from adding to their lead.
Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow needed some help to keep the Blue Jays scoreless through three innings. After a leadoff single by Bo Bichette, Daulton Varsho took a 3-and-0 pitch from Glasnow clearly above the strike zone and started to head to first base. But home plate umpire Mark Wegner called it a strike – eventually.
The delayed call brought Varsho back to the batter’s box but a confused Bichette kept walking away from first base. Glasnow threw to Freeman who tagged the bemused Bichette out.
Glasnow didn’t get any help in the fourth inning. After walking the leadoff hitter, he got Bichette to hit a ground ball to Tommy Edman’s left, possibly a double-play ball. Edman misplayed it and runners were at the corners with no outs.
Varsho flew out to shallow left field but Glasnow hung a first-pitch curveball to Alejandro Kirk, who sent it over the wall in left-center for a three-run home run. Two more singles and a sacrifice fly made it a four-run inning for the Blue Jays and a 4-2 lead.
The Dodgers tied it in the fifth. After a leadoff single by Kiké Hernandez, Ohtani shot a line drive off the wall in left-center for his second double of the night. Hernandez scored from first base and Freeman drove Ohtani in when he hooked a single past Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at first base.
The Dodgers ran into another out in the sixth inning when Teoscar Hernandez tried to go first-to-third on Kiké Hernandez’s infield single. Guerrero gunned him down with a strong throw across the diamond.
Guerrero showed off a different skill to give the Blue Jays another lead in the seventh. He singled with two outs then – after three false starts, running on pitches Bichette fouled off – he scored from first base when Bichette singled down the line and the ball took an odd carom off the side wall (or possibly the ball boy’s chair).
Ohtani matched that in the bottom of the seventh with his second home run of the game and eighth of the postseason, tying Corey Seager (2020) for the franchise record – on the first pitch after Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker went out to the mound to discuss with reliever Seranthony Dominguez how to pitch to Ohtani. One assumes he did not suggest the center-cut fastball that Ohtani sent 401 feet into the pavilion in left-center.
Thanks to 1⅔ innings from Roki Sasaki, the first scoreless relief outing of the postseason from Emmet Sheehan (2⅔ innings), two redeeming plays by Edman – throwing a runner out at third in the ninth inning and home in the 10th – and Clayton Kershaw entering in the 12th inning with the bases loaded to get an out the score remained tied into the bottom of the 13th.
Edman led off with a double and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Miguel Rojas. After Andy Pages popped out for the second out, Blue Jays manager John Schneider intentionally walked Ohtani for the third consecutive time and waved Betts to first as well to load the bases. Freeman flew out to strand them all and keep the drama going.
More to come on this story.