Shohei Ohtani lit up for the Dodgers in his playoff debut

LOS ANGELES — For six seasons, the baseball world wondered how Shohei Ohtani, one of the most electrifying baseball players of this generation, would look like in the MLB playoffs.

The San Diego Padres found out the hard way.

The Los Angeles Dodgers slugger ignited his offense with a thunderous three-run home run that led his team to a 7-5 victory over their rival in Game 1 of the National League Division Series. He proved in his playoff debut that his 10-year, $700 million contract was worth every penny.

“I could really feel the intensity of the stadium before the game started, and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Ohtani said.

The first inning was a scene Dodger fans have seen often in recent postseason appearances. Its starting pitcher — this time Yoshinobo Yamamoto — lit up before the sun even set in Southern California. A Manny Machado home run knocked in three runs in the top of the frame for the Padres and the Dodgers couldn't answer in their first time up to the plate.

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But in a split second, all those struggles changed. In the most meaningful at-bat of his career thus far, Ohtani singled Dylan Siege into right field, threw his bat and screamed as the crowd at Dodger Stadium watched the ball go over the right field wall and tie the game.

No, the swing did not win the game. Los Angeles went into another deficit in the next inning, but another offseason signing came up big. Teoscar Hernandez, an underrated signing before spring training, hit a two-run single in the fourth inning that gave Los Angeles the lead the rest of the game.

The new acquisitions are exactly what the Dodgers needed when they have been weak so often.

In the first game of this series, the Dodgers scored seven runs. Last season, when the Dodgers were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the offense scored just six runs in three games and the stars were nowhere to be found. In 2022, when San Diego won three in a row to eliminate them, it scored just seven runs in three losses.

Just when it looked like it was going to be another tough October in Los Angeles, Ohtani was there to change the narrative.

“It got the momentum back for us and gave us life,” manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani's home run. “From pitch one, the fans were just engaged, into it. I felt that energy and I think Shohei pulls it off. But it was a huge hit.”

Although Hernandez was the one who hit the go-ahead run, he took no credit for leading the team to victory. He laid it all back to his leadoff hitter.

“(Ohtani) is the guy that's going to guide us through it all, and we're going to follow and try to stay and play at the same level,” Hernandez said.

Ohtani said he's happy to have a home run in a pitcher like Seaz, especially since he's been solid against the Dodgers this season. In two starts against Los Angeles, he pitched 10 ⅔ innings and gave up four runs on eight hits with 10 total strikeouts, but did not allow a Dodgers hitter to get a hit over the fence.

Padres manager Mike Shields said Seage was really good in his first at-bat against Ohtani, when he got him to fly out in the first inning. But he said he put the pitch — a four-seam fastball at the top of the strike zone — in a spot they didn't like, and Ohtani made him pay.

“It's just about execution, isn't it? You have to be more subtle against really good players,” said Shildt. “We got something that was over and he was able to take the bat.”

Although this was his first MLB postseason game, Ohtani is no stranger to the bright lights. He won a title while playing in Japan, and who can forget the performance he had for Japan in the World Baseball Classic in 2023, when he was named tournament MVP?

The slugger said it's hard to compare his current situation to his past experiences, but he knew the intensity had kicked up a notch.

“I thought it was pretty exciting,” Ohtani said.

That excitement certainly took a toll on Yamamoto as he gave up three runs in the first and two more in the second.

Yamamoto said he's grateful the offense picked him up. The bullpen also took big steps for Los Angeles. After San Diego got five runs on five hits in the first three innings, it failed to score again and got just two hits and struck out seven times in the final six frames.

The fellow Japanese star said he was going back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong. If this series ends in four or five games as many expect, he may be called upon to take the mound again. He added that he fell behind early in the at-bat, but something else could play into that; Roberts said it appears the Padres picked up on what Yamamoto was providing.

“There are some things that I think we're going to dig into because I think at second base, they had some things with his glove and some pitches. So we are going to clean it up,” he said. “It's up to us to clean it up and not give any pitches that are going to be thrown. We will clean it up internally.”

Still, Saturday was Ohtani. His first MLB playoff game on Saturday didn't get a lot of attention, but he's coming off the hottest stretch of the season. Since that day in Miami when he became the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season, he has a .628 batting average with six home runs and 20 RBI. If there are runners in scoring position, Ohtani is sure to bring them home.

Whether Ohtani will be able to keep it up remains to be seen. Even he admitted that it's hard to feel comfortable playing the first playoff game when you're coming off a layoff given the top two seeds in every league and that obviously hasn't helped Los Angeles the past two seasons.

But it was because of those games that Ohtani chose to spend the next decade with the Dodgers. He was excited to be in a “high intensity environment” and if he can deliver like he did in Game 1, he might be able to bring the Dodgers back to glory.

“He definitely has that switch, that focus that goes from excitement versus nerves and feeling pressure and trying too hard,” Roberts said. “I've never really seen a guy have the biggest moments come as consistently as he does. It's really impressive. I don't know how he does it.”