TORONTO — Once again, the planets have aligned for Shohei Ohtani.
The elements are in place for another climactic finish to the latest chapter of this real-life manga, and baseball might never be the same after this.
World Series.
Game 7.
Ohtani will be the Dodgers’ starting pitcher and designated hitter.
This is his moment.
He dominates the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night at Rogers Center, and he’s to baseball what Michael Jordan is to basketball, what Tom Brady is to football, what Wayne Gretzky is to hockey.
With eight home runs, he’s already tied Corey Seager’s record for the most home runs by a Dodgers player in a single postseason.
Ohtani will now have a chance to pick up his third win of these playoffs, in a game to clinch the World Series.
From denying the Dodgers to sign with the Nippon-Ham Fighters out of high school to denying the Dodgers again to sign with the Angels when he moved to the major leagues, everything Ohtani has done over the last 12 years have set him up for this game.
Now, if he can just win it and maybe homer once or twice.
The Dodgers are planning to deploy Ohtani as a so-called opener not because they’re determined to build his legacy but because doing so represents their most likely route to victory.
Ohtani will be pitching on three days’ rest, but pitching him in relief would present logistical problems.
Under baseball’s current rules, if he pitches in relief and is removed from the game as a pitcher, he would also have to be removed as the designated hitter. That would force him to play in the outfield or be taken out of the game entirely.
Ohtani could close, but, say, his turn to bat comes up while he’s warming up to pitch. A league official said the pitch-clock rules would still apply, meaning Ohtani would have to sprint from the bullpen to the batter’s box in 15 or 18 seconds, depending on whether there are men on base.
Only as a starter could Ohtani remain in the game as a designated hitter after he is taken out as a pitcher.
Considering Ohtani pitched on Tuesday in Game 4 and considering he’s never pitched on three days’ rest for the Dodgers, manager Dave Roberts downplayed what should be expected of him.
“With Shohei, it could be two innings,” Roberts said. “But it could be four innings.”
What about five?
In that scenario, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell could probably combine to pitch the final four innings by themselves. Roberts would be spared from having to turn back to Sasaki, a converted starter who was extremely shaky in Game 6.
The incentive for Ohtani to pitch more innings was greater after Friday night when Sasaki failed to complete the ninth inning and forced Glasnow into the game. The three-pitch appearance, and the warm-up that preceded it, probably ruled out Glasnow from pitching, say, four innings.
Sasaki said he would be ready for Game 7.
“I think it will be a total war tomorrow, so I’ll do my best to hold the opposition in the spots entrusted to me,” Sasaki said in Japanese.
Roberts said only one pitcher would be unavailable: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched six innings in Game 6.
Then again, Walker Buehler wasn’t part of the Dodgers’ plans for their World Series clincher last year. Buehler registered the final three outs.
Yamamoto also wasn’t part of the team’s plans for their 18-inning victory in Game 3. Yamamoto was only two days removed from pitching a complete game, but he nonetheless volunteered to warm up.
He joked that he would rather not do something like that again.
“If I’m told, ‘Go,’ I’ll go, but if possible, I’d like to do my best cheering,” Yamamoto said with a mischievous smile.
Later, when speaking of the intense pressure the teams would face in Game 7, Yamamoto again smiled and cracked, “It will be difficult for the players who play.”
Ohtani will play, and he will have the most to gain.
The universe has conspired to make him a hero again, just as it did in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Ohtani closed for Japan in the championship game, which was against the United States.
The final batter was Mike Trout, whom he struck out.
The at-bat stands as the signature moment of Ohtani’s career. That could change on Saturday night.
The post Hernández: What’s at stake for Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers in a World Series Game 7? appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
