LOS ANGELES (AP) — This time, was just ordinary.
A night after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way superstar treated baseball fans to one of the , he looked just fine on the mound and struggled at the plate.
Ohtani was tagged for four runs and six hits in the Tuesday night to the Toronto Blue Jays, who tied the best-of-seven series at 2. He struck out six and walked one over six innings.
After reaching base a record-tying nine times — including two homers and two doubles — in an 18-inning, 6-5 win in Game 3, Ohtani was hitless with two strikeouts and a walk. The three-time MVP went down swinging against Shane Bieber leading off the third, ending his on-base streak at 11.
“Bieber pitched really well,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “He attacked really at the edge and was able to execute location-wise.”
His historic and exhausting performance Monday appeared to take a toll as he took the mound about 17 hours after saying he wanted to go to sleep as soon as possible. He said he was in bed by about 2 a.m. and felt rested enough for Game 4.
“I was able to get on the mound in pretty good condition,” he said.
He gave up his first homer of the postseason — on an 85 mph sweeper — that put the Blue Jays ahead 2-1 in the third.
Ohtani retired the side in the second and sixth. In between, he struck out the side in the fourth. He was disappointed he couldn’t pitch deeper into the game a day after LA leaned hard on its bullpen.
The Blue Jays broke the game open in a four-run seventh. Their first two runs were charged to Ohtani, who had already left the game.
“Whether it’s during the regular season or the postseason, my goal is to be able to pitch six innings, and the situation, this game, I wanted to go seven,” he said. “And it was regrettable that I wasn’t able to finish that inning.”
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