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Another dominant pitching performance – and a three home run game – by the same superstar no less. That’s certainly a way to earn a World Series berth.
Behind a Shohei Ohtani performance for the ages, the Dodgers swept the Brewers in the National League Championship Series on Friday with a 5-1 win in Game 4 and are headed back to the World Series.
Here are my takeaways:
1. Ohtani makes more history in a performance for the ages
A year ago, he became the first Major League Baseball player ever to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in a season. This year, he became the first player ever to hit 50 homers and record 50 strikeouts as a pitcher in a single season.
With Shohei Ohtani, history is never far away. Friday night was no exception, as baseball’s unicorn illustrated what is quite possibly the most extraordinary single-game performance of all time — postseason or not.
Shohei Ohtani had his first three-home run game of his career in the postseason on Friday. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
In the first inning, he struck out three Brewers batters, then stepped to the plate to lead off the game for the Dodgers and destroyed the first home run by a Dodgers pitcher in postseason franchise history. It also marked the first time in MLB history that a pitcher in the game hit a lead-off home run.
He was far from finished on a night he struck out 10 in six scoreless innings as a pitcher and crushed three home runs as a hitter, including a 469-foot blast that went over the right-field pavilion, making it the longest home run at Dodger Stadium this season.
2. Dodgers’ starting pitching historically dominant
Blake Snell faced the minimum over eight innings in Game 1. Yoshinobu Yamamoto tossed the first complete game from any pitcher in the postseason in eight years in Game 2. Tyler Glasnow added 5.2 innings of one-run ball in Game 3.
And in Game 4, Ohtani did a little bit of everything, including more Dodgers brilliance on the mound.
The Dodgers rotation completely overpowered and overmatched the Brewers in the NLCS, compiling a 0.63 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 28.2 innings as a group.
Over the entire postseason, Dodger starters have produced a quality start in nine of their 10 outings and have allowed one or no earned runs seven times.
3. Brewers’ lifeless offense fails to replicate regular season form
In the regular season, the Milwaukee offense consistently pressured opponents by working counts, putting the ball in play and using their speed to create an advantage. The Brewers led the National League in on-base percentage and tied for the NL lead in batting average.
Against the Dodgers’ ace arms, this was not the same Brewers club.
They scored exactly one run in every game and finished with 14 hits total in the series, hitting just .118 with one home run as a group.
4. Star power on one side — and lack of it on the other — evident
The Brewers managed to win more games than any team in baseball this season despite a group of “Average Joes” that were greater than the sum of their parts.
But the lack of power (and star power) was evident against the best pitching and highest payroll in the league.
While Ohtani was compiling one of the all-time great performances, and Mookie Betts was starring at shortstop, and the Dodgers’ procession of nine-figure earners on the mound were earning their keep, a mostly non-descript Brewers lineup looked powerless.
And the standout bats they rely on the most — Christian Yelich, William Contreras, Brice Turang and Jackson Chourio — combined for just four hits in the series, three of which were courtesy of their 21-year-old, Chourio.
Milwaukee made it to the NLCS for the first time since 2018 and far outplayed expectations this year, but the Brewers have to regret not adding more impact bats when they had the opportunity at the deadline.
4.5. What’s next?
The Dodgers are the first defending champions to return to the World Series the following season since the 2009 Phillies, who lost the following year to the Yankees.
No team has repeated as champions since the 1998-2000 Yankees. The Dodgers, who now have a week off as they wait to see whether they’ll face the Mariners or Blue Jays, hope to change that soon.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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