Shohei Ohtani defies explanation with his Dodgers heroics

What's it like for Shohei Ohtani to concentrate in the batter's box? Does he feel like the stadium is quiet? Does he feel like he's not thinking?

“I feel like I can concentrate,” he said.

His light-hearted response drew laughter from the Japanese reporters in the interview room at Dodger Stadium.

There continues to be no explanation as to how Ohtani does what he does. In his first-ever postseason game on Saturday, Ohtani played like he did in his record-setting regular season.

He hit a three-run home run in the second inning to erase a three-run deficit.

In the fourth, he hit a broken-bat single to center field, contributing to a three-run surge that put the Dodgers ahead and on their way to a 7-5 victory over the San Diego Padres in Game 1 their National League brought division series.

“You know, Shohei is Shohei,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said. “We expected nothing less than what he showed today. He’s the guy that’s going to lead us through all of this and we’re going to follow him and try to play at the same level as him.”

The Dodgers are largely the same team as last year. Your initial pitch is terrible. Their batsmen are prone to slumps. But they have Ohtani.

Without Ohtani, they may not have made the playoffs this season. With him, they could become World Series champions.

He is the most physically gifted player in baseball and he is the most competitive player in baseball, but what really sets him apart is his ability to calm himself in the batter's box, no matter how excited he can be outside the batter's box.

“Well, I'm clear about what I want to do and I'm going into my plate appearance prepared to a certain extent,” Ohtani said. “I calmly think about what I’ve been preparing for and turn my attention to the pitcher.”

Saturday provided another example.

In the moments before the first pitch, Ohtani appeared ready to take the field. As Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto warmed up, he bounced up and down behind his team's bench with his bat already in hand.

Shohei Ohtani celebrates in the dugout after hitting a three-run home run in the second inning against the Padres on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

When Ohtani faced Padres starter Dylan Cease in the bottom half of the inning, his demeanor completely changed. Suddenly he was the calmest player on the field.

How does he manage this transition?

“I don’t even know,” he said. “When I go to the batter's box, I automatically concentrate.”

His manager was also confused.

“I don’t know how this can happen,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He definitely has that switch.”

In his first at-bat, Ohtani was late on a 99-mph fastball from Cease that flew into left field. On his next turn at the plate, with two outs and two ons, Ohtani was thrown another high fastball by Cease, this time at 97 mph.

Ohtani threw the pitch over the right field wall. The three-run blast tied the game at 3-3.

Ohtani's demeanor changed again as he watched the ball's flight. He screamed and threw his bat violently aside.

By that point, the thought of “here we go again” had begun to permeate the collective consciousness of a team that had been eliminated at this point in the postseason each of the last two seasons.

“I mean, you could almost feel it in the stadium,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “But luckily we have a man called Shohei Ohtani who delivered an absolute thunderbolt into the stadium. From then on it was just, 'Okay, we did this, we're good, it's not the same as previous years.'”

Yamamoto allowed two more runs in the third and final inning of his disastrous start, but the Dodgers responded with four hits in the fourth.

Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run home run to tie the game in the Dodgers' 7-5 victory in the opening game of the National League Division Series. And six scoreless innings from the Dodgers bullpen kept the lead from changing.

Ohtani wasn't just immune to Dodgeritis. He was also the vaccine.

“I think you get more intense at the start of the first game,” Ohtani said. “It took them three runs but I think we created a good flow by catching up quickly in good form.”

In a press conference the day before, Ohtani expressed confidence that the moment wouldn't be too big for him.

When asked if he was nervous, Ohtani didn't wait for interpreter Will Ireton to repeat the question to him in Japanese.

“No,” Ohtani replied in English.

He smiled.

He later explained in Japanese: “I've been practicing for this since I was little. I did that and thought I wanted to play on a stage like this. I think I’m more excited about it (than nervous).”

Twelve years after he turned down an offer to sign with the Dodgers to begin his pro career in Japan, and seven years after he decided to join the downtrodden Angels in the most competitive league in the world, he was finally here .

Ohtani was finally in the major league postseason and he was ready.