Shohei Ohtani, are you for real? Dodger fans, do you realize what you’re watching here? Los Angeles, can you understand the singular greatness that plays here?
One minute he was burning through the top of the first inning with three flaming strikeouts.
Roar!
The next minute — literally — he was slugging through the bottom of the first by driving a ball 446 feet into the back of the right-field pavilion.
Roar! Roar!
Three innings later he was doing it again, striking out two batters in the top of the fourth inning before driving a ball 469 feet underneath the roof of the same right field pavilion.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
Then in the seventh inning after he had left the mound he hammered history again, driving a ball 427 feet over the center-field fence.
Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!
Shohei Ohtani, are you for real?
Dodger fans, do you realize what you’re watching here? Los Angeles, can you understand the singular greatness that plays here? Fall Classic, are you ready for another dose of Sho-time?
Ohtani and the Dodgers are back on baseball’s grandest stage, arguably the best player in baseball history and the defending champions returning together to the World Series Friday night, Ohtani pitching and hitting his star-struck teammates into a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series.
The final score was 5-1, but, really, it was over at 1-0, Ohtani’s thunderous leadoff homer after his thundering three strikeouts igniting a dancing Dodger Stadium crowd and squelching the Brewers before the first inning was even 10 minutes old.
How far did that first home-run actually travel? Back, back, back into forever, it was the first leadoff homer by a pitcher in baseball history, regular season or postseason, even the legendary Babe Ruth never did it.
