Shohei Ohtani isn’t like any other baseball player.
This isn’t about him being a two-way player when healthy or his combination of power and speed that produced the sport’s first 50-homer, 50-steal season.
This is about how he deals with career-defining moments.
What’s at stake for his team. The implications for his legacy. The tens of thousands of people watching in person, and the millions more watching around the world. The responsibility of projecting the virtues of an entire culture.
Other players make an effort to block out such thoughts or use them as fuel to elevate their adrenaline levels. Ohtani called them “ingredients to heighten focus.”
Reflecting on his seventh-inning single that drove in the go-ahead run in a 7-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Thursday that secured the Dodgers their most recent division title, Ohtani described himself as being in a trance-like state.
“I was too focused to where I didn’t really think about being nervous,” he said in Japanese.
Notice what Ohtani said. He wasn’t just focused. He was too focused.
Whatever he was feeling or thinking, the result was predictable. With two men on base and one out, Ohtani singled to right field against left-handed reliever Tanner Scott to drive in Kiké Hernández and move the Dodgers in front, 3-2.
“Really, I only thought about getting a hit,” Ohtani said.
Ohtani also drove in the deciding run the previous day in a 4-3 win over the Padres in which a loss would have diminished the Dodgers’ lead over their second-place rivals to a single game. By virtue of their head-to-head record, the Padres held the tiebreaker over the Dodgers, which means they would have won the division if they finished with the same regular-season record.
“No moment ever seems too big for him,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “When he steps in the box, you feel he’s going to do something special. I say it all the time: He doesn’t disappoint. He’s incredible.”
Which is why the Dodgers can’t be counted out in October. Finally, in his seventh major league season, Ohtani will perform for the first time on the postseason stage.
The Dodgers don’t have the pitching typically required to win a World Series. This alone would eliminate most teams from being serious championship contenders, but how can any team with Ohtani not be a serious contender?
“I think there are some people that when the moment gets big they run from it,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Other guys embrace it and Shohei has embraced these moments better than any player I’ve ever been around.”
In a sport in which exerting greater effort often produces worse results, Ohtani practically hits on command.
That’s what he did on Sunday in a comeback win over the Colorado Rockies. The Dodgers were three outs away from their lead over the Padres being reduced to two games when Ohtani led off the ninth inning with a tying home run. Mookie Betts hit a walk-off homer in the next at-bat.
That’s also what Ohtani did last year when playing for Japan in the World Baseball Classic. His team trailing Mexico in the ninth inning of their semifinal game, Ohtani started the comeback with a leadoff double.
“I had decided I was going to get on base no matter what,” Ohtani said, as if that was a choice.
Japan went on to win the tournament.
“You can obviously see how much he cares about winning,” left-hander Clayton Kershaw said. “It’s really fun to see the energy, especially in bigger games that we’ve seen recently. He really, really wants to [win] and gets excited about the possibility of postseason stuff, which is awesome.”
Over the course of this season, Kershaw was offered a behind-the-scenes view of how Ohtani created his on-field magic.
“Just from watching him, I appreciate how diligent he is,” Kershaw said. “He doesn’t ever look or say or feel like he’s tired. Every day is the same. He does his rehab. He does his warmup, his workout, he hits, he does his stuff, steals bases, hits homers and the next day is the exact same. I just appreciate consistency. I appreciate an attention to detail and a diligence. He does that. He does that really, really well, better than most.”
When closer Michael Kopech forced Kyle Higashioka to pop up for the final out on Wednesday night, Ohtani momentarily let his guard down.
He laughed in the clubhouse as his teammates doused him in cheap sparkling wine and beer. He emptied a bottle of Budweiser on the head of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and poured another down his back.
“It was the best,” Ohtani said. “I’d like to do my best so I can do it again and again.”
The only other time Ohtani dumped alcohol on teammates in the wake of a season-long achievement like this, he was a 22-year-old player on the Nippon-Ham Fighters.
That celebration was nothing like this one.
Not wanting to soak locker room carpets with alcohol, Japanese baseball teams stage their clinching parties off site, usually a couple of hours after the final pitch. Only beer is used, no champagne or sparkling wine. In the case of the 2016 Fighters, they celebrated their victory in the Japan Series in an underground parking lot of a Hiroshima hotel.
The next day, one the country’s major sports newspapers featured a picture of Ohtani with goggles on his forehead, emptying a bottle of Sapporo on a teammate’s head. Literally and figuratively, he towered over everyone around him.
Eight years later, in the world’s most competitive baseball league, Ohtani once again towers over his contemporaries. He figures to increase in stature in the coming weeks. The playoffs are starting.
