The revolution that Shohei Ohtani, an uncatalogable genius, has subjected baseball to is already echoed in the showcases. in a quarter of a century thanks to the total impact of a guy who would already be one of the best hitters and pitchers of the world, but it does both. An unprecedented prodigy in a sport specialized to the millimeter that responds to the creativity of Japanese culture in the face of the increasingly immediate demands of American quarries. But not even the highest-paid player in the four major US leagues – $700 million in ten years – put an end to that wonderful reality of a sport full of occasional heroes. Those who decided in the greatest agony – by four runs to five – the seventh game at home of the Toronto Blue Jays, who had a shot at returning the trophy to Canada 32 years later.
Ohtani signed his great work in the fourth game of the Championship Series—the step before the final—against the Milwaukee Brewers. Not only did he send the ball out of the field three times, equaling the record for home runs in playoff history, but he added a marvelous performance from the mound by throwing ten strikeouts, that is, eliminating the rival without being able to make contact with the ball. An unprecedented combo in a long century of Major League Baseball and one that decrees the MVP. Because, in addition, he has speed: He already has three awards and, barring a major surprise, he will add the fourth in a few days.
After landing in the MLB with the Los Angeles Angels, after beating the Yankees last year, the last dynasty (1998-2000), the Dodgers took the regular season easy and entered the playoffs from the first round to play the final with home court factor against them. More history for Ohtani, who in the eternal third game – it took 18 innings, double the regulation time, and six hours and 39 minutes – to become the first player to reach base nine times. In a sport in which the best hitters are eliminated two out of three times and in which the norm is to have no more than five at-bats per day. That night he hit two home runs and the Blue Jays avoided him by intentionally sending him to first base five times. It is a common occurrence when there is a player on second and the coach chooses to face the next batter at the risk of turning the previous one into an extra run. But with Ohtani they did it with the bases empty, something that had not happened in the final since 2011.
The Dodgers won that infinite game to go 2-1, but they paid for it. The Blue Jays tied Ohtani’s starting pitcher turn—the rotation usually includes four or five pitchers, one for each day—with an emblematic home run by Vladimir Guerrero junior, which silenced the stadium. The Japanese paid for his fatigue the next day, being eliminated four times he picked up the bat. It was a heroic performance by Trey Yesavage, the first rookie in 25 years he threw 12 strikeouts in the final and the first pitcher to do so in this round without granting a single walk. Toronto had everything in its favor, since 67.4% of the teams that go 3-2 win the final, especially with the last two games at home, but no.
The seventh must have been Canadian. After two good innings pitched by Ohtani, his complementary roster of hitters found the cracks in the third inning, a 3-0 that they managed until reaching 4-3 in the ninth. Two more eliminated and the title was his, but Miguel Rojas arrived, questioned for his poor offensive numbers, to close mouths with the most important home run of his career. It was not the only match point that the champions saved, because in the lower half Toronto responded by loading the bases. It was again Rojas who picked up a complex ball and threw it with precision to home plate so that he catcherWill Smith, put his foot down for a sigh and avoided the local twist: the video arbitration concluded that he did it in time. There was still one eliminated, enough for another hero, Andy Pages, who ran like a man possessed to chase the ball in the air, passing – and, in the process, rescuing – his teammate Kike Hernández, surpassed by the trajectory.
Thus, for the sixth time, a seventh game of the World Series went to extra innings. Another 18? The third hero was Will Smith, the catcher who endured almost seven hours of squatting that day collecting pitches. He took advantage of one too far from Shane Bieber to hit the winning home run. It was because Yoshinobu Yamamoto closed the door on the Blue Jays in the bottom half, as he did in his excellent starts that led to the second – he pitched the entire game and retired the last 20 batters – and the sixth pitch for the Dodgers. Without a single day of rest, an extreme test after releasing the ball 96 times in the orbit of 150 kilometers per hour on Friday, put out the fire of the ninth, walked in the tenth and crushed the last attempt in the eleventh. With Guerrero on third and one out, he gave the first to Barger and eliminated him in a double play with Alejandro Kirk, a fiasco he had incurred 17 times during the season. If he had taken it off the field, his team would be champion, but the Dodgers clung to the throne with everything. Ohtani already has a dynasty.
