We may have witnessed – in Game 4 of the 2025 NLCS – the greatest performance in a major league baseball game by a single player.
Shohei Ohtani won the MVP award (after being introduced as "the greatest baseball player on the planet") largely because of his unprecedented performance in the Dodgers' pennant-winning 5-1 victory on Friday night in Los Angeles, finishing off a dominating sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers (who had won all six of the games the two teams played during the season).
Ohtani pitched six shutout innings, allowing only two hits and walking three. He collected 10 strikeouts. One of those hits and one walk came in the seventh, at which point manager Dave Roberts called upon his bullpen. If Ohtani had called it a night after finishing the sixth, his line would have been: 6-1-0-2-10, 87.
Ohtani also hit three home runs, all of which were crushed more than 425 feet. They were all solo shots, but he couldn't do anything about that. Hey, he also walked. (I almost wanted the Brewers to tie the game, so Ohtani could win the pennant in the bottom of the ninth with his fourth homer of the night. He would have been the inning's second batter.)
Ohtani came into the game hitting only .103 (3-for-29) since the start of the NLDS. I guess he's out of his slump. He also had not pitched in almost two weeks.
Ohtani swung at six pitches in the game: three home runs, two foul balls, and one swing and miss.
So how unique was his performance? ... I'm glad you asked.
Ohtani is the first Dodgers starting pitcher to throw multiple 100.0+ mph strikeouts in a postseason since pitch tracking began in 2008. All other Dodgers starters combined for one such pitch in those 18 seasons. Ohtani had two in the first inning.
Ohtani is the first pitcher in MLB history to hit a leadoff home run (regular season or postseason).*
Ohtani is the second player in major league postseason history to hit three home runs as his team's leadoff batter. George Brett did it against the Yankees in 1978 ALCS Game 3. (They were also all solo shots.)
Ohtani is the first player to strike out a batter and hit a home run in the first inning of a postseason game. (He actually struck out three batters, after walking the leadoff guy.)
Ohtani is the first player with multiple career postseason innings which include two strikeouts as a pitcher and a home run as a batter. Both happened in G4 (1st and 4th innings).
Ohtani is the first pitcher in postseason history with a multi-homer game. (Bob Gibson had 10+ strikeouts and 1 home run in a game on two occasions (1967 World Series Game 7 (9-3-2-3-10) and 1968 World Series Game 4 (9-5-1-2-10).)
Ohtani is the first pitcher in Dodgers history to hit a home run in the postseason. (The last pitch home run in the postseason was Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers off Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 of the in 2018 NLCS.)
Ohtani is the first pitcher with 10+ and no runs allowed in a pennant-clinching game.
Ohtani is the first major league player to have 10+ strikeouts as a pitcher and multiple home runs at the plate in a game (regular season or postseason) twice in his career.Ohtani is the first player in major league history with 3 homers and 10 strikeouts as a pitcher in a game (regular season or postseason).
Ohtani's three home runs, with estimated distance and speed of the ball off the bat:
1st inning: 446 feet, 116.5 mph
4th inning: 469 feet, 116.9 mph (over the pavilion roof in right-center; his teammates were in awe)
7th inning: 427 feet, 113.6 mphOhtani is the first major league player with two 116+ mph home runs in a game in the Statcast Era (since 2015, regular season or postseason). And, as the indefatigable Sarah Langs (who tweeted most of these) pointed out, "HE IS ALSO PITCHING TONIGHT"
Ohtani has hit 8 home runs of 450+ feet at Dodger Stadium in the Statcast Era (since 2015, regular season and postseason). No other major league player has hit more than one. (Of course, he plays there more often than most players. I'd like to know which visiting players have the most plate appearances at Dodger Stadium since the start of 2015.)
Ohtani's first two home runs are the hardest-hit home runs hit by a pitcher in the Statcast Era (since 2015, regular season and postseason).
10-17-25 Ohtani: 116.9 mph (2025 NLCS G4, 2nd of game)
10-17-25 Ohtani: 116.5 mph (2025 NLCS G4, 1st of game)
08-23-23 Ohtani: 115.7 mph
04-04-21 Ohtani: 115.2 mph
09-10-21 Ohtani: 114.7 mph
05-15-23 Ohtani: 114.6 mph
07-21-25 Ohtani: 113.4 mph
06-09-23 Ohtani: 112.9 mph
04-02-17 Madison Bumgarner: 112.5 mph
04-02-17 Bumgarner: 112.1 mphOhtani is the only name on the list of the Dodgers' 18 hardest-hit batted balls in the Statcast Era (since 2015, regular season and postseason). (Every other Dodger in the last decade has had a noodle bat, apparently.)09-02-25 Ohtani: 120.0 mph HR
04-27-24 Ohtani: 119.2 mph 1B
07-27-24 Ohtani: 118.7 mph HR
04-23-24 Ohtani: 118.7 mph HR
09-11-24 Ohtani: 118.1 mph HR
05-05-25 Ohtani: 117.9 mph HR
10-17-25 Ohtani: 117.8 mph HR 2024 NLCS G4
09-30-25 Ohtani: 117.7 mph HR 2025 NLWCS G1
09-02-24 Ohtani: 117.2 mph 1B
08-05-24 Ohtani: 117.1 mph 2B
10-17-25 Ohtani: 116.9 mph HR 2025 NLCS G4 (2nd of game)
09-25-24 Ohtani: 116.8 mph 2B
09-08-24 Ohtani: 116.7 mph HR
07-21-24 Ohtani: 116.7 mph HR
10-17-25 Ohtani: 116.5 mph HR 2025 NLCS G4 (1st of game)
10-13-24 Ohtani: 116.5 mph 1B 2024 NLCS G1
07-01-25 Ohtani: 116.3 mph HR
08-02-24 Ohtani: 116.3 mph HRThe Dodgers pitching staff simply suffocated the Brewers offense. Here are the stats for the four NLCS starters, with pitches, batters faced, and number of swings/misses:G1 Blake Snell 8.0-1-0-0-10, 103 P, 24 BF, 20 S/M
G2 Yoshinobu Yamamoto 9.0-3-1-1- 7, 111 P, 32 BF, 14 S/M
G3 Tyler Glasnow 5.2-3-1-3- 8, 99 P, 23 BF, 13 S/M
G4 Shohei Ohtani 6.0-2-0-3-10, 100 P, 22 BF, 19 S/M28.2 innings, 9 hits, 2 runs, 7 walks, and 35 strikeouts. 0.64 ERA starters' ERA.
The Dodgers allowed a puny .118 opponent batting average (14-for-119) in the NLCS. That's a major league record for the lowest in a postseason series of three or more games. The Brewers slugged .193 and their on-base was .191. Will Smith's .400 batting average was higher than the Brewers' .384 OPS!
Most consecutive games allowing 1 or 0 runs in single postseason:
2025 LAD: 5 (active streak)
1996 ATL: 5
1981 LAD: 5
1990 OAK: 4
1948 CLE: 4
1920 CLE: 4
1907 CHC: 4
Going into the top of the ninth . . .
I got my wish!!
My next wish is for the Mariners to take a big dump on the Blue Jays' fortunes tomorrow, crush the hopes of every single Blue Jays fan, and give me the Mariners/Dodgers I hoped for before the postseason began.
* I do not consider the first batter in the bottom of the first inning to be a "leadoff" hitter. I believe the term "leadoff" is reserved for the first batter of the game, especially when referring to home runs. In other words, the home team can never have a "leadoff" anything, because they don't bat first. We don't take special note of home runs that are hit to start any other inning. You can hear some arcane factoids during a game, but I've yet to hear which active player has the most "leadoff" fifth inning home runs. Maybe I should ignore "leadoff" factoids simply because other people define them differently incorrectly (see, RATS/RISP), but whatever.
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