LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani has propelled the Los Angeles Dodgers back to the World Series with a two-way performance for the ages.
Ohtani hit three mammoth home runs and pitched two-hit ball into the seventh inning, and the Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers out of the NL Championship Series with a 5-1 victory in Game 4 on Friday night.
The Dodgers will have a chance to be baseball’s first repeat World Series champions in a quarter-century after this mind-blowing night for the three-time MVP Ohtani, who emphatically ended a quiet postseason by his lofty standards.
After striking out three in the top of the first, Ohtani hit the first leadoff homer by a pitcher in major league history off Brewers starter José Quintana.
Ohtani followed with a 469-foot blast in the fourth inning, clearing the left-field pavilion above the bleachers in left field.
Ohtani added a third solo shot in the seventh, becoming the 12th player in major league history to hit three homers in a playoff game. His three homers traveled a combined 1,342 feet.
Ohtani (2-0) also thoroughly dominated the Brewers in his second career postseason mound start, fanning 10 for his first double-digit strikeout game in a Dodgers uniform.
MARINERS 6, BLUE JAYS 2
SEATTLE (AP) — Eugenio Suárez hit a go-ahead grand slam after Cal Raleigh’s tying drive in a five-run eighth inning, giving the Seattle Mariners a 6-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday and a 3-2 lead in the American League Championship Series.
Suárez also homered in the second inning for Seattle’s first run. The Mariners became the first home team to win in the series and moved within a victory of the first World Series trip for a franchise that started play in 1977.
Game 6 is at Toronto on Sunday night.
Raleigh, a switch-hitting catcher who led the major leagues with 60 home runs during the regular season, was hitting right-handed for the first time in the series when he led off the eighth by pulling a 2-0 changeup from loser Brendon Little.
The 348-foot drive rose 155 feet above the field on a high arc and had a 6.7-second hang time before it dropped over the left field wall 348 feet from the plate and tied the score 2-2.
Jorge Polanco and Josh Naylor walked, and Seranthony Domínguez relieved and hit Randy Arozarena with a pitch.
Suárez fouled off a 2-2 fastball, then hit an opposite-field drive to right, and the ball landed several rows into the seats for his fourth slam this season. Suárez, who had put Seattle ahead in the second against Kevin Gausman, entered the game in a 6-for-50 slump.
Seattle’s Bryce Miller was pitching shutout ball when he was removed after allowing Addison Barger’s leadoff single in the fifth, and George Springer hit an RBI double off Matt Brash.
