The Los Angeles Dodgers made it to the World Series via a dominant sweep over the Milwaukee Brewers, but Game 4 of the NLCS was Shohei Ohtani’s night.
The superstar punched out 10 batters across 6+ scoreless innings, and went 3-for-3 at the plate with three home runs, one of which left Dodger Stadium.
Ohtani rightfully earned NLCS MVP honors, but made an edit to the trophy after it was awarded to him.
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Team effort was what what Ohtani put over his name on the NLCS MVP trophy, leaving it in the clubhouse for his teammates to see.
His otherwordly performances on the diamond are already making him one of the most valuable players seen in a long time, but the leadership that he displayed is just as important, especially with four more wins to go.
Utility star Kiké Hernández comedically disagreed with Ohtani’s gesture, noting how brilliant his historic performance was to close out the NLCS.
“Shohei proceeds to lie and say the MVP was a team effort,” Hernández said. “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.”
Ohtani’s performance came at not only the perfect time for his team to close out the series, but for him personally, it was ideal. To that point, the superstar was hitting .158 during the postseason with a pair of home runs and 17 strikeouts.
As Ohtani seems to have inserted himself back on track for the Fall Classic, neither his illustrious NLCS nor the rest of his team’s efforts will mean as much if the season doesn’t end with a World Series. The Blue Jays present a right-handed-heavy pitching roster, and through the regular season, Ohtani has an OPS of 1.076 against rightys.
Perhaps Ohtani will be going for another series MVP award against Toronto, but he of all people knows the team effort that winning a championship will take.
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Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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