Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman was the hero of Game 3 of the World Series, but the Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman’s greatest contribution might have been a postgame encapsulation of teammate Shohei Ohtani.
Not long after Freeman’s walk-off home run gave LA a win in one of the longest World Series games ever played, he spoke glowingly about Ohtani, who had one of the greatest games in World Series history. Ohtani went 4-for-4 and reached base nine times, including four intentional walks, in the Game 3 classic.
“There’s no more adjectives you can (use) to describe Shohei,” Freeman told reporters after the game, per ASAP Sports. “It’s 4-for-4, five walks. … He’s just incredible. We’ve been talking about him since he got here in 2018. We’re still running out of words to describe a once-in-a-10-generational player.”
Here are some of the hardest-to-believe stats from Ohotani’s Game 3 masterpiece.
— Ohtani became the first player in baseball history to be intentionally walked four times in a single game.
“Again, man, the guy’s a great player,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said in his postgame press conference. “There’s certain times where I feel like you feel like, you feel better about someone else beating you. If that someone else is Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman, it still stings. But he had a great game and we’re just going to try to continue to execute.”
In the other dugout, Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts wasn’t surprised by the Blue Jays’ approach.
“No, I get it,” Roberts told reporters. “He’s the best player on the planet, and he was on the heels of a huge offensive night, and John smelled that and wasn’t going to let Shohei beat him at all, obviously, and even when nobody’s on base and putting him on to make the other guys beat him. Respect it and, fortunately, we have other guys behind Shohei that can still do some things.”
— Ohtani is now the only player in baseball history with three multi-homer games in a postseason
It’s hard to believe, but Monday night might not have been his best performance of the postseason. Sure, he hit a pair of home runs — including a game-tying blast in the seventh inning — to earn another first in the history of the sport. But then you remember he also went 3-for-3 with three home runs while pitching six scoreless innings in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series to win the pennant.
— Ohtani has reached base 13 straight times at home, including five home runs
This is kind of just adding stuff up, but let’s just write it out and marvel at the absurdity of Ohtani’s last 13 plate appearances at Dodger Stadium: home run, walk, home run, home run, double, home run, double, home run, intentional walk, intentional walk, intentional walk, intentional walk, walk.
One more bonus stat that adds to that one: Unsurprisingly, as OptaSTATS notes, Ohtani is also the first player in the modern era to have 12 total bases in consecutive home games in the postseason or the regular season.
The craziest part about all of this, though, might be that after putting together one of the greatest offensive games in the history of baseball, Ohtani will now take the mound for Game 4 as LA’s starting pitcher.
“Shohei’s game, I hope we don’t lose sight of getting — our starting pitcher tomorrow got on base nine times tonight,” Freeman said with a laugh.
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