TORONTO (AP) — Shohei Ohtani was pulled off the mound in after allowing Bo Bichette’s three-run homer in the third inning Saturday night.
It wasn’t what the two-way star hoped for in his final appearance of the season, but a made him a World Series champion for the second time in two seasons with the Dodgers.
Manager Dave Roberts figures there’ll be more hardware coming Ohtani’s way this offseason.
“He’s going to be the MVP in the National League,” Roberts said. “It’s just really special what he’s done. Just a great person and a great competitor.”
Ohtani hit .297 with a career-high 55 home runs and 102 RBIs in the regular season, then went deep eight more times in the playoffs.
As a pitcher, Ohtani made 14 regular-season starts in his return from elbow surgery, going 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA. He was 2-1 with a 4.43 ERA in four postseason starts, two of them in the World Series.
Pitching on three days of rest Saturday, Ohtani was up to 100.9 mph with his fastball but appeared to run out of steam in the third. After hustling to field Nathan Lukes’ sacrifice bunt, Ohtani threw a wild pitch to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts intentionally walked Guerrero after that, and Ohtani’s next pitch, his 51st, was a hanging slider that Bichette hit 442 feet.
It was Bichette’s first homer since Sept. 2, a few days before suffering the left knee injury still hampering him in this Series.
Ohtani allowed three runs and five hits in 2 1/3 innings before he was replaced by left-hander Justin Wrobleski. Ohtani walked two and struck out three.
He had plenty of velocity, throwing three pitches at 100 mph or above, but not a lot of control. He struck out six and walked one in his Game 4 start, when he threw 93 pitches in a 6-2 loss.
Ohtani irked the Blue Jays with lengthy delays before warming up in the first and third innings. He was on base to end the top of the first and made the last out in the top of the third, and each time it took about 4 1/2 minutes before he was ready. Home plate umpire Jordan Baker looked into the dugout waiting for Ohtani before the bottom of the third, and came out to the mound while Ohtani was throwing his warm up pitches. Blue Jays manager John Schneider complained several times.
Earlier, Ohtani became the first pitcher to get a hit in a World Series Game 7 since Jesse Orosco of the New York Mets in 1986. He singled to center off Toronto’s Max Scherzer to begin the game, moved to second on a ground ball and advanced to third on a fly ball but was left stranded when Mookie Betts grounded out.
Ohtani is the first starting pitcher with a hit in a winner-take-all World Series game since 1975, when Bill Lee and Don Gullett each got hits.
With a one-out single in the fifth, Ohtani became the second player in World Series history with multiple hits in a winner-take-all game he pitched in, joining Cardinals right-hander Dizzy Dean (1934). He added a walk in the seventh.
Ohtani’s only prior outing on three days’ rest was on April 21, 2017, when he allowed two hits over seven innings and struck out 11 in a 2-0 win over Kansas City. His start at Boston on April 17 was cut short by a rain delay after two innings and 31 pitches.
Starting Ohtani made more sense than using him in relief. Under a , pitchers who start games in the batting order can remain in the game as a designated hitter after leaving the mound. If Ohtani would start the game only as a DH and then would take the mound, the Dodgers would lose their DH and pitchers would have to bat in that slot if Ohtani was relieved.
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