How Blue Jays plan to handle Shohei Ohtani after unstoppable Game 3
Shohei Ohtani may not get many more pitches to hit this World Series.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said his team will continue to intentionally walk the two-way phenom like it did four times in Monday’s 6-5 loss in 18 innings in Game 3 of the World Series.
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Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, Ohtani reached base all five of his non-intentional-walk plate appearances — going 4-for-4 with a walk — and smacked a pair of solo homers, including a game-tying blast off Seranthony Dominguez in the seventh inning to tie the score at 5-5.
Toronto intentionally walked him in each of his next four plate appearances before walking him unintentionally on four pitches in his final at-bat.
“Yeah, mound visit — you know, we’re trying to pitch around him. You trust Seranthony to make pitches to do that. Sometimes for pitchers it’s hard to do that when you’re kind of trying to throw a ball and didn’t put it where you want to put it,” Schneider said. “But he had a great game, he’s great player, but I think after that, you just kind of take the bat out of his hands.”
Shohei Ohtani’s plate appearances in Game 3
| Innings | Result |
|---|---|
| 1st (leadoff, 0-0) | 2B |
| 3rd (1 out, none on, 1-0 LAD) | HR |
| 5th (1 out, runner on first, 4-2 TOR) | RBI double |
| 7th (1 out, none on, 5-4 TOR) | HR |
| 9th (1 out, none on, 5-5) | IBB |
| 11th (2 outs, none on, 5-5) | IBB |
| 13th (2 outs, runner on third, 5-5) | IBB |
| 15th (1 out, none on, 5-5) | IBB |
| 17th (2 outs, 1 on, 5-5) | BB |
Ohtani is providing constant reminders this postseason of why he’s perhaps the greatest baseball player ever, having previously penned arguably the most impressive single-game in MLB history in the Dodgers’ Game 4 NLCS-clinching win over the Brewers.
Schneider showed during the regular season that he would rather face non-MVPs in critical spots by walking the Yankees’ Aaron Judge more than other teams, even if went against conventional wisdom.
And it seems he’s now hit his breaking point with Ohtani.
Toronto pitched to Ohtani in each of his first 14 plate appearances this World Series, walking him just one in a non-intentional manner, before throwing in the towel.
Ohtani notched four extra-base hits to open Monday’s game — two homers and two doubles — with his final two hits helping erase both of Toronto’s leads.
And that’s when Schneider began the walk brigade.
The Dodgers did not have a man on base in three of the instances, and a runner-on-third, two-out jam in the 15th clearly called for Ohtani to be walked.
Toronto actually attempted to retire Ohtani in the 17th with a lefty on the hill and man on second and two outs since righty Mookie Betts waited on deck, but Brendon Little missed the zone with all four pitches.
The Dodgers won the game in the next inning off Freddie Freeman’s homer, showing that even if Ohtani is avoided this Los Angeles lineup is so deep and formidable.
Just don’t expect Ohtani to get the type of chance that Freeman received.
“(Ohtani’s) performance was really good. He’s arguably the best player on the planet, you know. I think you kind of react in real time a little bit. Again, man, they have a really talented lineup. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to just walk him and face Mookie and Freddie,” Schneider said.
“So every situation is different. You got to really execute at a high level against him. I think the first couple games we did. I know he hit the homer off (Braydon Fisher) in Game 1, but I think that we executed pretty well minus today, and he’s a great player and took some really good swings today.”
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