On Monday evening, the Los Angeles Dodgers went up 2-1 in their World Series matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays in an 18 inning epic that finally ended when Freddie Freeman launched a solo home run after the equivalent of two full games had been played. The Dodgers are now just to wins away from hoisting their second straight World Series trophy and could theoretically close the series out without having to go back to Toronto.
While Freeman captured the headlines at the end of the game, the star of the show for the Dodgers on Monday was Shohei Ohtani, who went 4-4 and was also intentionally walked five times, getting him on base an MLB record nine times.
One person who was amazed by what he saw from Ohtani was ESPN sports media personality Pat McAfee, who took to the Pat McAfee Show to break down his thoughts.
“Whenever you think about him getting on base nine times, and then tonight, he's the starting pitcher, I mean this guy is special. This guy is absolutely outrageous. Is this the greatest baseball player of all time?” said McAfee, per his account on X, formerly Twitter.
A huge opportunity for the Dodgers
As McAfee referenced in his show, Shohei Ohtani will indeed be the starting pitcher for the Dodgers in Game 4 of the World Series on Tuesday, and the team would love for him to go as many innings as possible considering the amount of bullpen arms they used during the game against the Blue Jays on Monday.
In that performance, Ohtani was absolutely electric from the plate, eviscerating a Blue Jays' pitching staff that had mostly been dominant this postseason and forcing them to intentionally walk him for his last five plate appearances.
As previously mentioned, the Dodgers are now just two wins away from a second straight World Series. They'll next take the field on Sunday evening at 8:00 PM ET, once again from Los Angeles.
