LOS ANGELES — At 11:51 p.m., after the greatest individual World Series performance that this Monday night in Chavez Ravine will not be remembered for, Shohei Ohtani could finally rest.
Lost in the 18 innings, Ohtani had authored a dominant, record-setting offensive performance that forced the Toronto Blue Jays to take the bat out of his hands entirely. He once again did the unthinkable, requiring enough energy after a night on the bases that Ohtani’s body began to break down from cramping. He did not end the night as the game’s hero because his opponents refused to allow it.
The Dodgers had outlasted Toronto, 6-5, in a Game 3 that matched the longest night in World Series history, to take a 2-1 lead in this series. After his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates swarmed Freddie Freeman, the night’s final hero, at home plate, and then celebrated the unlikely protagonist in Will Klein, Ohtani ran into the outfield. His arms were spread and he looked to the heavens in equal parts relief and disbelief at what he and everyone else had just been a part of.
“I want to go to sleep as soon as possible,” Ohtani said at close to midnight through interpreter Will Ireton, “so I can get ready.”
“He was spent,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Ohtani is the Dodgers’ starting pitcher for Game 4, which was set to start 17 hours after the marathon was complete.
“Yeah, he’s taking the mound tomorrow,” Roberts confirmed, even after a night where Ohtani was asked if he had to exit in the 11th due to cramping in his legs. “He’ll be ready.”
His last time on the mound here at Dodger Stadium might have been the greatest game ever played, with three home runs slugged and 10 batters struck out over six scoreless innings on the mound. Monday might be up there for the best game ever played the night before pitching a World Series game.
The night had pushed Ohtani’s limits, while he proved that trying to set limits on what he can accomplish is a futile exercise. He reached base nine times, tying a major-league record that hadn’t been matched since Stan Hack did it in 1942 and smashing the previous best for a World Series game. Before Blue Jays manager John Schneider refused to pitch to him, intentionally walking him a postseason record four times, Ohtani had already slugged two home runs and hit two doubles. He could not be stopped, even when his body tried to stop him.
How does Shohei Ohtani do this? How can Shohei Ohtani continue doing this?
“It’s a special breed,” Max Muncy said. “I don’t know how he does it.”
“Our starting pitcher tomorrow got on base nine times tonight,” Freeman said. He laughed. “Just incredible. … We’re still running out of words to describe a once-in-a-ten-generational player.”
The Dodgers would not have lasted 18 innings without Ohtani. He led off the ballgame with a double off of Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer, his first of nine trips on the bases coming more than six hours before the game would eventually end. He appeared to get jammed when Scherzer threw him a fastball up and in during the third inning, but Ohtani got enough wood on the pitch to muscle it into the visiting bullpen and double the Dodgers’ lead to 2-0.
When Schneider had had enough and put Mason Fluharty on him in the fifth inning with the Blue Jays up 4-2, Ohtani waited out sweeper after sweeper before swatting one out to left center to bring home a run. The Blue Jays took a 5-4 lead in the seventh that was short-lived because reliever Seranthony Domínguez left a fastball over the plate that Ohtani sent into the seats.
SHOHEI OHTANI, YOU ARE RIDICULOUS. #WORLDSERIES pic.twitter.com/nujmHmhC6p
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 28, 2025
It was pure offensive domination, the kind of night few hitters have. None of them pitched, either. Ohtani’s eight home runs this postseason matched the franchise record that Corey Seager set during the team’s formative title run in 2020. All but one of those home runs came within three games; no player in postseason history had ever had three multi-homer games in one postseason, until Ohtani.
“I think after that, you just kind of take the bat out of his hands,” said Schneider, who suggested he likely will try to keep doing that going forward.
Schneider had had enough Monday. He walked Ohtani intentionally each of the next four times he came to the plate after the seventh. When Alex Call preceded Ohtani with a single in the 17th inning and clogged up first base, Ohtani walked on four pitches anyway.
“If I were the manager, I wouldn’t let him swing, either,” Teoscar Hernández said in Spanish. “Especially now.”
He may as well have walked directly from the on-deck circle to first base. Ohtani’s constant walking and movement sapped his energy. When Mookie Betts lined a single in the 11th inning, Ohtani moved awkwardly toward second base before hopping on the bag. The clear discomfort prompted a visit from Roberts and assistant athletic director Yosuke Nakajima. When Ohtani told them it was cramps, they offered to pull him from the game and let him rest ahead of his start. Ohtani declined.
“I think Shohei and his aura and who he is, he would never come out of the game,” Miguel Rojas said. “He wanted to win today and regardless of what happens tomorrow, we got this one and that’s the most important part.”
It took everything from the Dodgers to get here, two wins away from repeating as World Series champions. They used a World Series record 10 pitchers, and had Yoshinobu Yamamoto — two days after throwing a 105-pitch complete game in Game 2 — preparing to be the 11th when Freeman sent a walk-off blast over the center-field wall. Each passing inning only took away from the reserve of arms the Dodgers likely will have behind Ohtani Tuesday when he takes the mound for Game 4.
Just another night where he has the chance to do something that should not be possible.
“Another one in the history books for Shohei,” Betts said. “Another record broken. I’m glad he’s on our team. And he pitches tomorrow. So we’ll see how that goes. I’m sure he’ll set another record or something. As always.”
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