Buck Martinez had crystal ball working with regards to Ohtani

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Only one of them will be right.

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If Shohei Ohtani's Dodgers were going to be Ohtani the night before, or even the start of the night before, the Jays should have been 3-1 in the hole.

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If he was anything less, you'd like Jace's chances.

FOX analyst, former longtime starter and Atlanta Braves close and Hall of Famer John Smoltz leaned toward Ohtani playing the hero again in his pregame analysis.

Smoltz started by saying Game 4 couldn't top Game 3, but then stopped and noted with a big smile that Game 4 had the greatest show on earth, with the mound shaped like Ohtani.

Further back in the press box, almost certainly without the prime vantage point of the FOX broadcast booth, Buck Martinez in the Sportsnet booth took a completely different tact.

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“On any given night, baseball can humble even the best,” Martinez said, repeating what he said earlier, directly referring to Ohtani.

After about three hours, Martinez seemed to have found a more accurate crystal ball.

Ohtani certainly didn't give in to the Jays' batters, but he was far from the greatest show on earth that night.

Perhaps even expecting him to count nine plate appearances and nine times he reached base the night before in this marathon 18-inning win was asking too much.

And then the fact that he hit the ball ahead of the pitch, another first in World Series history, made it even more difficult for him.

Ohtani would pitch the Dodgers six innings, allowing four Blue Jays runs and striking out four. At the plate, he was 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts.

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Martinez and broadcast partner Dan Shulman seemed to agree from the start that fatigue wouldn't be a factor for Ohtani, who looked good early on, but in hindsight they may have spoken out too soon.

This was not vintage Ohtani, nor did it even remotely resemble it.

It's not like they're competing, but they give Buck Martinez the edge over John Smoltz.

WHO WAS JAY'S ULTIMATE HERO IN THE WORLD SERIES?

A night earlier and perhaps with a different result, the answer to that question could easily have been Eric Lauer, who did such a masterful job of keeping the Jays in this marathon and extending it the way he did.

But it's not a mistake that Shulman and Martinez have been praising and showing a level of appreciation for Chris Bassitt over the past two episodes.

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Bassitt didn't just accept this change in role from starter to hitter, he embraced it. The Sportsnet tandem has repeatedly pointed this out, giving credit where credit is due.

This is yet another example of why a local broadcaster is much preferable to, say, simply airing the American broadcast when the playoffs get to that point.

As good as Joe Davis and Smoltz sound on FOX, they don't have the backstory of a guy who started the series as maybe the fifth or sixth most important pitcher in this Jays bullpen. But Shulman and Martinez have been with this club all year. Bassitt's backstory is common knowledge to them and allows them to give it the proper time it deserves.

Two more clean innings in Game 4 just adds to my value.

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ALSO FROM GAME 4

The more we see Guerrero Jr. answering questions in English without the need for a translator, the dumber it becomes that he and/or Jace insist on having a translator when communicating with local media. Guerrero Jr. has no problem understanding questions when they come from people like David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter. The same should happen when he deals with the Toronto media.

DAN SHULMAN'S LAST WORDS

As nice as it was to see Guerrero Jr. go deep again, and as nice as it was to see Shane Bieber beat Ohtani, Schulman summed up the most important part of Tuesday's win perfectly.

More important than all those individual accomplishments, Schulman said, the Blue Jays' win on Tuesday means the 2025 World Series will end one way or another at Rogers Center in Toronto.

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