Oct 17, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) holds the NLCS most valuable player trophy after game four of the NLCS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs against the Milwaukee Brewers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Los Angeles, California – Under a crisp October sky at Dodger Stadium, Shohei Ohtani authored a performance so absurd, so singular, that even his teammates ran out of adjectives.
Six scoreless innings. Ten strikeouts. Three home runs.
When it was over — a 5–1 win to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers and send the Dodgers back to the World Series — Mookie Betts summed it up with the perfect comparison.
“It’s like we’re the Chicago Bulls,” Betts said. “And he’s Michael Jordan.”
Ohtani, who’d been mired in a rare slump heading into Game 4 of the NLCS, chose the biggest stage to remind the baseball world that he’s operating on another plane entirely. His first-inning sequence said it all: a walk, three strikeouts on 100-mph fastballs, then a 446-foot leadoff home run in his first at-bat.
“When the starting pitcher strikes out the side and then goes and hits a home run, you think, ‘Whoa, this is something special,’” Dodgers president Stan Kasten said.
By the time Ohtani launched his third homer — a 113.6 mph laser over center field in the seventh inning — the 52,883 fans in Chavez Ravine were chanting “M-V-P” like it was a foregone conclusion. It might as well have been.
“This is the single best performance I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Max Muncy. “I can’t wait to show my kids one day. That’s history.”
The numbers back it up. According to ESPN Research, Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to hit two home runs as a pitcher in a postseason game — let alone three. He hit more home runs than he allowed hits (two). No pitcher had ever hit a leadoff homer in the postseason before him. No player, ever, had combined 10 strikeouts and three home runs in a single game.
Even his manager struggled to describe it. “That was probably the greatest postseason performance of all time,” Dave Roberts said. “He’s the greatest player on the planet.”
It capped a stunning turnaround for a Dodgers team that looked lost in midseason mediocrity. But since Dave Roberts’ September team meeting in Baltimore, they’ve looked like the juggernaut everyone expected — winning 15 of their last 20 regular-season games and now nine of their first 10 playoff contests.
Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and Ohtani have combined for a 1.40 ERA this postseason, and an 0.63 mark in the NLCS. “The strength of our club was always going to be our starters,” said president Andrew Friedman. “But this? This eclipsed even our expectations.”
Now, the Dodgers stand on the brink of a dynasty. Two straight pennants. A team loaded with stars. And at the center of it all, a two-way phenomenon redefining what’s possible in baseball.
As Kiké Hernández put it simply: “There’s only one person who can do that in the world — and it’s him.”
