The Los Angeles Dodgers take on the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of a National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night in Shohei Ohtani’s second playoff game of his seven-year Major League Baseball profession.
But never Ohtani.
When asked if Ohtani was anxious before the game, he omitted his interpreter and said,” Nope”!
” It’s always been my youth desire to be able to be in an important situation, to play in critical game”, he said. Therefore, I believe the thrill of that is greater than anything else I may possibly experience.
Great games? Ohtani has previously played in the pressure cook. He outlasted the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the 2016 Japan Series while winning the pitch and hitting battle. In Japan, there’s little bigger than that.

Just a year and a half before, he struck out Mike Trout to stop Japan’s win over Team USA at Miami in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. It was a unique global football time involving legends of all time sports.
” If there’s any man I feel that’s going to be able to handle this, it’s definitely Shohei”, Dodgers director Dave Robert said Friday at Dodger Stadium during training for both groups.
The WBC happened during spring training. This day, the quarterfinals are just getting started.
” We did have a year off”, Ohtani said. I visited the rough daily. I only moved my body round, did some phone activities and took about two at-bats per time to make sure that I’m game-ready. I’ll do everything in my power to ensure that my first game is fantastic.
That at-bat may direct off the base of the first against San Diego win right-hander Dylan Cease, who’s had some success against Ohtani, both this year and in 2023 when they were playing for the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels, both.
The left-handed hitting Ohtani is 4-for-15 ( .266 ) with two homers and four RBIs against Cease. Nevertheless, against all kinds of pitching this month, Ohtani had MLB’s first 50/50 time: 54 hitters, 59 grabs, 130 RBIs and a.310 batting normal. When Luis Arráez of the Padres hit.314, he just missed the Triple Crown.
The key to Cease’s victory:
” Certainly he’s a great hitter”, Cease said. You must mix it up and do everything in your power to avoid the game straddling the tray. I mean, I do n’t want to get into too many details or anything, but I’m obviously going to go in with a high level of focus and just attack”.
Ohtani had some success against the Padres this season, hitting .326 ( 15-for-46 ), but with just one homer and seven RBIs in 12 games.
Asked the reason for that minimal success, Padres director Mike Shildt said,” I’m not telling you. He’s a wonderful person. He’s having an ancient time. But we feel good about our program, and the program is just as good as the murder. I feel comfortable we’ll execute]that program ] as well”.

The Dodgers reaffirmed Ohtani’s contract, which is a report 10-year,$ 700 million contract, with the majority of it being postponed because he underwent his next reconstructive appropriate elbow operation this past offseason. The two-way player has n’t pitched all this time, but he is currently throwing bullpens and should be ready to join a sluggish movement next month.
Joe Musgrove, a start, tore the medial ligament in his right elbow during the third round of San Diego’s Wild Card game on Wednesday at Petco, making it known Friday that the Padres will miss the finals and through the rest of the season. He’ll include Tommy John surgery quickly.
Roberts said he feels for Musgrove, having seen first what has been involved in Ohtani’s return.
” It’s a bummer. Joe is not only a great cup, but likewise a great person, a great guy”, Roberts said. And you never want to witness that occurring to people. It’s shocking. It’s prevalent in our sport. So it stinks to be at the one-yard collection in this line and for him to not be a part of it. And I feel for him”.
Yet Ohtani at half-mast has been fine enough for the Dodgers. He builds on an already well-stocked lineup by going at the top of the order ahead of Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts, who will try to play despite a terrible great correct ankle sprain.
The NL West-winning Dodgers with a 98-64 history have been off since the last match of the regular period while the Padres and the three different Wild Card competitors have played for the second consecutive year under the present Wild Card playoff structure.
The Padres defeated the Dodgers in the NLDS in 2022, and the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated them in 2023. They’re trying to avoid that exact death.
As the Dodgers lost six of their seven games, Betts and Freeman combined to hit.163 (8-for-49 ) with a homer and four RBIs in the final two postseason games. They were 1-for-21 with no home runs or RBIs when they only last October vs. Arizona.
Ohtani was n’t part of that equation. But then he adds a “next stage actor to our ballclub”, Roberts said.
” He’s a crazy talented ballplayer. He has a lot of different ways to change the activity. He has the ability to take a base even if he were to wander to base. He can report from second. He may hit a homer. He has demonstrated the ability to use the entire field when necessary to reach someone. He can pull in works. That’s what we’re adding”.