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 will remain Shohei Ohtani’s second postseason game of his seven-year Major League Baseball job.
But no Ohtani.
Ohtani omitted his interpreter and said,” Nope,” when asked if he was anxious before the game.
” It’s always been my youth desire to be able to be in an important situation, to play in critical game”, he said. But, I believe that there is more excitement than anything else I could experience.
Great games? Ohtani has previously played in a pressure cooker. He defeated the Hiroshima Toyo Carp to win the 2016 Japan Series pitching and hitting battle for the Nippon-Ham Fighters. 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 legendary global football time involving legends of the past.
” 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 estimate daily, I thought. 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’m going to do everything in my power to make sure 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 puck swaying over the plate’s center. 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 confined victory, Padres director Mike Shildt said,” I’m not telling you. He’s a wonderful person. He’s having an ancient time. But we feel great about our plan, and the program is just as good as the murder. I feel comfortable we’ll execute]that program ] as well”.

The Dodgers drafted complimentary agent Ohtani on a 10-year,$ 700 million deal, with the majority of it postponed because he had recently had his second reconstructive right elbow surgery. The two-way player has n’t pitched all this time, but he is throwing bullpens and should be ready to join a sluggish movement next month.
Joe Musgrove, a basic, 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 series and for him to never 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 Padres and the three different Wild Card companies have been off since the last game of the standard time for the second consecutive year under the current Wild Card playoff format while the NL West-winning Dodgers with a 98-64 report played.
The Padres defeated the Dodgers in the NLDS in 2022, and the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated them in 2023. They’re trying to avoid that same death.
As the Dodgers lost six of the 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 defeated Arizona in October.
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 approaches to alter the game. 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 reach with the entire area when necessary. He can pull in works. That’s what we’re adding”.