After seeing Shohei Ohtani baffle his pitchers during Game 3 of the World Series, the team Toronto Blue Jays made a bold decision: they ended the pitch to baseball's greatest star.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider didn't mince his words after the Dodgers. won 6-5 on Monday in an 18-inning classic during which Ohtani hit two doubles and two home runs in his first four at-bats before Toronto all but gave up trying to get him out.
“He had a great game, he's a great player, but I think after that you just knock the bat out of his hands,” Schneider said after the Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the Fall Classic, which resumes Tuesday in Los Angeles.
When asked if Ohtani would walk until the end World Series had there been a plan, Schneider's answer was a sharp: “Yes.”
This strategy was implemented in real time during Game 3, which became the longest game of the postseason by number of innings, as well as the second longest game of the postseason by time, lasting six hours and 39 minutes.
When Ohtani hit the game-ending homer in the seventh, the Blue Jays walked him intentionally four times and unintentionally walked him once more. The idea was clear: beat the superstar at all costs.
“His game was really good. He's probably the best player on the planet,” Schneider said.
By the time Game 3 ended, Ohtani became the first player to reach base nine times in a postseason game, surpassing the previous mark by three. Ohtani also became the first player in postseason history to hit multiple home runs, multiple doubles and multiple walks in the same game.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts praised the Blue Jays' tactical decision, calling Ohtani “the best player on the planet” and noting that Schneider “smelled it and wasn't going to let Shohei beat him at all.”
“You just don't see that kind of behavior from opposing managers, and that's just the ultimate sign of respect,” Roberts said, highlighting the lengths teams are willing to go to neutralize baseball's most dominant force.
But Ohtani's Jays strategy has a built-in problem – the loaded Dodgers lineup that follows him. Even after deliberately bypassing Ohtani, who is the first player to play three multi-hitters in one postseason, the Blue Jays immediately face two former MVPs, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. In the end, it was Freeman who ended Game 3 with a home run in the 18th inning, marking the first World Series victory since his grand slam to end Game 1 of last year's Fall Classic.
“There are times when I think you feel better when someone else hits you,” Schneider said. “If that someone else is Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman, it still stings. [Ohtani] “We had a great game and we’ll just try to continue to deliver.”
The Blue Jays won't be able to avoid Ohtani in Game 4 as he is set to make his World Series debut in which he will try to put the Dodgers on the brink of repeating the title.
“He spent. He was on base eight, nine times tonight running the bases,” Roberts said. “He's excited. But yeah, he'll take the mound tomorrow. He'll be ready.”
It will be Ohtani's first pitch since he threw six scoreless innings, struck out 10 batters and hit three home runs in the National League Championship Series clincher 11 days ago. performed it sent the sports world into awe.
