LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit the first leadoff homer by a pitcher in major league history after striking out three batters for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first inning of Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on Friday.
Ohtani was spectacular in both of his dual roles for the defending champion Dodgers, who are attempting to return to the World Series by completing a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Ohtani's 446-foot shot was the first leadoff homer hit by a pitcher in the regular season or postseason.
The three-time MVP issued a leadoff walk to Brice Turang to begin his second career postseason start, but struck out Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich and William Contreras with a mix of 100 mph fastballs and vicious breaking pitches.
After a quick reset at the edge of the Dodgers' dugout, Ohtani stepped to the plate and broke out of a significant hitting slump with his mammoth homer to right field off left-hander José Quintana.
Ohtani paused briefly at the plate to admire his third homer of the postseason and his second leadoff homer, ending his eight-game drought since he hit two in the Wild Card Series opener against Cincinnati.
Before that shot, Ohtani hadn't contributed much to the Dodgers with his bat during their otherwise impressive playoff run to the brink of another World Series.
The Dodgers still had a feeling Ohtani would seize the opportunity to do something special.
“I think this is his opportunity to make his mark on this series, and so we’re going to see his best effort,” manager Dave Roberts said several hours before Game 4. “I feel good that he’s pitching for us, and there’s going to be some serious focus and compete tonight.”
Roberts said Ohtani had “no limitations” on the mound, although the manager went on to describe what he called “soft parameters.”
“He’s built up (and) he can throw seven innings,” Roberts said. “I think that I feel comfortable if it looks right to getting him to 100 pitches."
Before Game 4, Ohtani was in a 6-for-38 drought as the Dodgers' leadoff hitter in the postseason. The fearsome slugger who was third in the majors with 55 homers during the regular season hadn't connected since Sept. 30.
Although Ohtani tripled and scored in the first inning of Game 3 against Milwaukee, that was his only extra-base hit in the last eight games — and just one of his six postseason RBIs came in the past five games.
Ohtani went 2 for 11 with three walks in his first three games against the Brewers.
While his two-way role requires him to do extensive off-field work to stay ready for both jobs, Ohtani probably wouldn't blame his plate struggles on his pitching responsibilities. In fact, he had pitched in only two games over the past 30 days before Game 4, thanks to the permutations of the Dodgers' schedule.
In his last regular-season start, Ohtani pitched six scoreless innings of five-hit ball against Arizona on Sept. 23, throwing a season-high 91 pitches. In his MLB postseason mound debut Oct. 4, he gave up three runs over six innings with nine strikeouts to earn the victory in Los Angeles' 5-3 win at Philadelphia in the Division Series opener.
Ohtani also had the motivation of matching his fellow Dodgers starters, who have been phenomenal on the mound ever since the playoff race got serious.
The Dodgers' rotation held batters in September to an MLB record-low .173 average for a single month. Since the postseason began, Los Angeles' four starting pitchers — Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani — had allowed just 10 earned runs while pitching 58 1/3 innings with 71 strikeouts over those nine games.
What's more, only three Brewers had ever faced Ohtani on the mound heading into Game 4.
“It’s always a little advantage (to the) pitcher when they haven’t seen you before,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said. “But they’re 170 games in. They understand that you’re not facing Shohei, you’re facing the ball.”
Roberts said Roki Sasaki was available out of the bullpen in Game 4 for what would be his first back-to-back appearances since the rookie rejoined the Dodgers' roster as a reliever.
Sasaki has been mostly outstanding since he became the Dodgers' de facto closer, picking up three saves while allowing just two hits and one run in seven innings of relief across six playoff games.
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