Dave Roberts<\/a> while meeting the media after midnight. \u201cEmotional. I\u2019m spent emotionally. We got a ball game later tonight, which is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\nWhen Ohtani returned toward the dugout he was hugged by water-spraying teammates, and for good reason.<\/p>\n
Throughout the night Ohtani once again wrapped Dodger Stadium in his giant arms and shook it down to its ancient roots.<\/p>\n
The win was set up after Tommy Edman made a perfect relay throw to the plate to gun down Davis Schneider in the top of the 10th, then Clayton Kershaw dramatically worked out of a base-loaded inherited jam in the 12th.<\/p>\n
But before Freeman\u2019s homer, Ohtani owned the night.<\/p>\n
He led off the game with a ground-rule double. Then he gave the Dodgers a 2-0 lead with a third-inning homer. Then he closed a 4-2 deficit with a fifth-inning RBI double. Then he tied the game at 5-all with a seventh inning home run.<\/p>\n
Then, his aura became even crazier.<\/p>\n
Four times in a five-inning stretch from the ninth inning to the 15th, Ohtani was intentionally walked \u2014 drawing a fifth walk on four pitches in the 17th. Twice the bases were empty. Once he had to pause at second base to relieve leg cramping. It was nuts.<\/p>\n
Imagine a player so dangerous he is given a base four times with a World Series game on the line. One can\u2019t imagine. That\u2019s Ohtani.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a unicorn,\u201d said Freeman. \u201cThere\u2019s no more adjectives you can use to describe him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Remember 10 days ago when Ohtani had three home runs and struck out 10? Monday night was nearly as impressive because it was in the World Series, his four extra-base hits tying a record that had last been set in 1906.<\/p>\n
And, yeah, he pitches again Tuesday in Game 4, so by the time you comprehend all this, he may have done it again.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur starting pitcher got on base nine times tonight,\u201d said Freeman with wonder.<\/p>\n
Ohtani was so good, he was better than the Dodgers bad, which included bad baserunning, bad fielding, and a bit of questionable managing.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers stranded the winning run on base in the ninth,10th, 11th, and 13th, 14th and 15th inning and 16th\u2026and really should have won it in the 13th.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Roberts surprisingly batted for Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez after a Tommy Edman leadoff double. Miguel Rojas bunted Edman to third, but Alex Call and Freeman couldn\u2019t get him home.<\/p>\n
That was only one of numerous potentially game-changing plays on a night when the Dodgers took a 2-0 lead, fell behind 4-2, tied it up at 4-all, fell behind 5-4, then tied it up again in the seventh. Who\u2019d have thought it would remain tied for the next 11 innings?The Dodgers left 18 men on base. They were two-for-14 with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n
Max Muncy went 0-for-7. Mookie Betts went 1-for-8. Freeman was just 2-for-7.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeird how the game works sometimes, huh?\u201d said Freeman.<\/p>\n
The official time of this one was 6:39, which wasn\u2019t so long that one thought of actor Jason Bateman\u2019s reminder to the crowd during a pregame cheer. He noted that the Dodgers had not clinched a World Series championship at Dodger Stadium since 1963.<\/p>\n
Two wins in the next two days and they\u2019ll finally do it again.<\/p>\n
After Monday\u2019s doubleheader sweep, it\u2019s hard to believe they won\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freddie, meet Freddie. It was excruciating. It was exhausting. It was ecstatic. It was Fred-die, Fred-die, Fred-die, forever.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[217,426,4203,20345,423,10664,48,52,51,5814,20347,20348,47,50,49,1869,20346,422,315,6133,18033],"class_list":{"0":"post-26753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-day","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-freddie-freeman","11":"tag-freeman","12":"tag-game","13":"tag-homer","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-lead","18":"tag-leadoff-home-run","19":"tag-long-world-series-game","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-night","24":"tag-second-base","25":"tag-shohei-ohtani","26":"tag-time","27":"tag-tommy-edman","28":"tag-world-series-title"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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