In Game 7 of the World Series, one of the most talked about topics in the first innings was the time it took Shohei Ohtani to warm up between one inning and the next.
+ Who is Shohei Ohtani, who has been considered the “Pelé” of baseball
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way star, who plays as a hitter and pitcher, needed a few extra seconds on two occasions when he returned to the mound shortly after participating offensively in the game.
According to the rules, the referee has the autonomy to grant this additional time — but the FOX broadcast insisted on the topic, highlighting it all the time.
Looking back now, it’s almost funny that so much attention was put into it.
An unprecedented scene in MLB
Think about it: a player opens the game as a leadoff hitter, gets a hit in the first inning — and, in the next inning, takes the mound as a starting pitcher in Game 7 of the World Series. That had simply never happened.
And it will most likely never happen to any other athlete other than Ohtani.
The historic scene was there, before our eyes.
Ohtani had a legendary postseason, breaking offensive records alongside names like Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth.
There were eight home runs in the playoffs — tied for the second most in history — and 19 hits on base in the World Series, also a historic second-leader.
In Game 3, he delivered a performance to put on the wall: in the epic 18-inning battle won by the Dodgers, Ohtani recorded two home runs, two doubles and five walks — four of which were intentional.
And the next day, there he was pitching in Game 4.
“Common”? Just for Ohtani
Ohtani’s size distorts the ruler. He does such absurd things so naturally that, at some point, many people started to treat it as routine.
A leadoff batter who is also the starting pitcher for Game 7 of the World Series? In any other era, this would be unthinkable.
That night, even if his performance on the mound wasn’t perfect, the simple fact that he was there was monumental.
In last year’s title, he couldn’t even throw — he was still recovering from elbow surgery. Therefore, this opportunity had a different weight: it was the full return of modern baseball’s greatest phenomenon to the sport’s biggest stage.
If there’s anyone who deserves the rules to be a little more flexible every now and then, it’s Shohei Ohtani. Coincidence or not, the game took place precisely on the day that daylight saving time ended in the USA — the clocks went back one hour.
Time, therefore, was not lacking.
So let Ohtani do it his way. Because athletes like that, most likely, we will never see again.
