LOS ANGELES — Before Friday, it would have been a tossup as to which pitcher could lay claim to the NLCS MVP. The hitters were just… fine, but the starting pitching one this things, so it would only seem right that one of the rotation would be singled out for the MVP. But who? They ALL pitched great.
Turns out, if one of the pitchers hits three bombs on the night he’s pitching, he wins. Shohei Ohtani went into Friday’s game in the midst of a pretty sustained slump of at least a half a dozen games. However, all that came to a screeching halt on Friday, with a 3-for-3, three-home run night on the evening he pitched six innings of shutout ball. And in one monumentally awesome evening, he leapfrogged over all other contenders for the crown. In addition to the perfect start, Ohtani’s numbers for the series became jaw-dropping over the course of the evening. By the time Andy Pages squeezed the last out of the game, Ohtani had amassed some pretty impressive stats: .357 AVG, 3 HR, 4 RBI, 1.643 OPS. So yeah, pretty good.
At the ceremony, Shohei was typically humble. Speaking through interpreter Will Ireton, he said, “We won this as a team. This was a really a team effort. I hope everyone in LA and in Japan can enjoy a really good sake!”
Whether or not this performance can be bottled like sake and taken into the World Series remains to be seen, but for now, it’s breathtaking. Congrats, Shohei!
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