Dodgers News: Shohei Ohtani Receives Massive Praise From Teammates Following Game 1 Win

Shohei Ohtani had never played in a Major League Baseball postseason game until Saturday night.

Nobody would know that based on his performance alone in a 7-5 victory.

With the Los Angeles Dodgers trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the second inning, Ohtani sent a sold-out Dodger Stadium into a frenzy when he tattooed a three-run home run. In one swing he tied the game and gave the Dodges the momentum swing that they were searching for.

It was only his second at-bat of the postseason but he relieved the home crowd and his teammates of any pressure.

“I mean, you could almost feel it in the stadium,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “Then thankfully we have a guy whose name is Shohei Ohtani and he injected an absolute lightning bolt into the stadium. From then on it was, ‘Alright, we’ve got this. This is not the same as years past. We’re good.’”

Ohtani finished the night 2-for-5 with two runs scored, three runs batted in, and two strikeouts.

“I could really feel the intensity of the stadium before the game began, and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Ohtani said through his interpreter Will Ireton.

Following Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s three-inning performance reminiscent of his major-league debut in Korea against the Padres, five Dodgers relievers combined to keep the Padres scoreless on just two hits over the last six innings.

Historically, the Dodgers have trailed by three runs or more after the first inning in 15 postseason games, but this marked the first occasion they managed to come back and secure a victory.

“I’ll ask you about it. What have we done the last month and a half?” reliever Alex Vesia said of the Dodgers’ bullpen’s performance. “We’ve definitely been prepared for it. We’re pretty darn good. Just take it one inning at a time. That’s all you can do.”

Game 2 of the best-of-five series is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday and the Dodgers will roll with the same lineup backing Jack Flaherty on the mound.

The Game 1 win snapped a six-game postseason losing streak for the Dodgers, a skid that dated back to their Game 1 victory over the Padres in the 2022 NLDS.

Photo Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

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