LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Shohei Ohtani said there\u2019s one place he doesn\u2019t want to hear the \u201cWe don\u2019t need you!\u201d chant \u2014 at home from his family.<\/p>\n
A day before the World Series resumes<\/a> with Game 3 at Dodger Stadium, the two-way Los Angeles superstar smiled and laughed about the derisive chant directed at him late in Toronto\u2019s opening win Friday. Blue Jays fans remain stung he signed with the Dodgers in December 2023 rather than their team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a really great chant, and my wife really appreciated it,\u201d he said Sunday through a translator following the Dodgers\u2019 workout.<\/p>\n Ohtani is hitting .224 in 12 postseason games with six homers, 11 RBIs and one stolen base and is 2 for 8 with a two-run homer and a single in the Series. He is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in his pair of mound starts, striking out 19 and walking four in 12 innings.<\/p>\n \u201cI do feel better at the plate recently,\u201d the 31-year-old three-time MVP said. \u201cI do everything in my power to make sure that I\u2019m prepared as much as possible and being at the plate with the right mentality, but got to give some credit to the other side as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Los Angeles and Toronto are tied at a game apiece in the best-of-seven matchup.<\/p>\n Ohtani will oppose Shane Bieber in Game 4 on Tuesday night with a chance to become the first pitcher to hit a World Series homer in 17 years. He wouldn\u2019t mind if his unprecedented performances will lead to more two-way players.<\/p>\n \u201cI like to encourage kids who are trying the two-way to do it as long as possible, as long as they\u2019re allowed to, as much as their talent level could take them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Growing up in Japan, he looked up to Hideki Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki, Japanese stars who had great success in Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like I could watch a lot of the games on TV, and so it was really those two players,\u201d Ohtani said.<\/p>\n Babe Ruth, the player Ohtani has been compared to, was never a fulltime pitcher and field player at the same time, cutting down his mound appearances in 1918 and \u201919 as he became more of an everyday outfielder and occasional first baseman. Ruth pitched only five times from 1920 through the end of his career in 1935.<\/p>\n Ruth was 3-0 with a 0.87 ERA in three World Series starts for Boston, pitching 29 2\/3 scoreless innings at one stretch and helping win titles in 1916 and \u201918. He was 1 for 10 at the plate in those starts, hitting a tiebreaking two-run triple in Game 4 in 1918 as he allowed two runs over eight innings.<\/p>\n Ohtani entered the Series following a standout performance in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series against Milwaukee, when he homered three times, pitched six shutout innings and struck out 10. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred called it \u201cprobably the greatest game of all time<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s kind of like a super human,\u201d fellow Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow said ahead of his Game 3 outing.<\/p>\n Ohtani is 2 for 16 with a double, one RBI and six strikeouts against Bieber, a former Cy Young Award winner.<\/p>\n Just 13 pitchers have homered in the World Series, including Bob Gibson, who achieved the feat in both 1967 and \u201968. The others were Jim Bagby (1920), Rosy Ryan and Jack Bentley (1924), Jesse Haines (1926), Bucky Walters (1940), Lew Burdette (1958), Mudcat Grant (1965), Jose Santiago (1967), Mickey Lolich (1968), Dave McNally (1969), Ken Holtzman (1974) and Joe Blanton (2008).<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n