Dodgers’ Kiké Hernandez Calls Out Shohei Ohtani’s ‘Lie’ About MVP

Shohei Ohtani tried his bet to downplay his latest accolade.

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Ohtani was named the Most Valuable Player of the National League Championship Series last Friday. He had two hits in his first 14 plate appearances of the series going into Game 4 against the Milwaukee Brewers.

All Ohtani did in the series-clinching game was throw six scoreless innings on the mound and hit three home runs at the plate. With each inning, he piled up one superlative after another.

Among Ohtani’s historic accomplishments Friday:

• He became the 11th player to hit three home runs in a postseason game — the first since former Dodger Chris Taylor did so in Game 5 of the 2021 NLCS

• He became the second pitcher in American or National League history to hit three home runs in a game, and the first since Jim Tobin in May 1942

• He became the first pitcher to lead off a game with a home run 

• He became the first Dodgers pitcher to hit a home run in the postseason

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By the time it was over, the choice for series MVP was obvious. But Ohtani wasn’t having it.

Sometime after he was presented the MVP trophy, Ohtani covered over the engraving with the words “TEAM EFFORT.”

Teammate Kiké Hernández, himself a perennial postseason hero, wasn’t fooled by Ohtani’s false modesty.

“Shohei proceeds to lie and say the MVP was a team effort,” Hernández said (via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). “I was yelling at him that he was full of s— because he’s the one who hit three homers and he was the one who punched out 10 that night.”

Bolstering Hernández’s case, Ohtani’s home runs accounted for three of the five Dodger runs in the 5-1, series-clinching victory. No runners were on base when he hit each of his three home runs.

After the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked if anything can surprise him from Ohtani, who was named MVP of the series.

“How far he hit this one tonight surprised me,” Roberts said of Ohtani’s 469-foot home run that left his bat at 116.9 mph per Statcast. “Probably not the distance, but the velocity of that one was impressive.”

Even Dodgers co-owner Magic Johnson was impressed by Ohtani’s virtuoso performance.

Johnson wrote on his Twitter/X account after the game: “Dodger Nation, Cookie and I just witnessed one of the greatest baseball players that’s ever lived, Shohei Ohtani, hit three HRs and pitch a two hitter with 11 strikeouts in the @Dodgers 5-1 victory over the Brewers tonight to advance to the World Series!

“We’ve seen a baseball player hit three HRs in a Playoff game,” Johnson continued, “and we’ve seen a pitcher throw a two hitter and 11 strikeouts in a Playoff game – but we’ve never seen one player do both like Shohei Ohtani did tonight!”

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