Growing up in the Iwate prefecture of Japan, Shohei Ohtani grew up idolizing a former Nippon Ham Fighters ace who made the transition to MLB ahead of the 2012 season— Yu Darvish.
After Darvish’s departure for the Texas Rangers, Ohtani got his chance with the Fighters the following season, the only team in the NPB that allowed the two-way star to showcase his otherworldly talents.
After winning the 2023 World Baseball Classic together as a part of Team Japan and now finding each other as opponents in this year’s NLDS, Ohtani had his chance to succeed off of his former childhood hero, but came up hitless against the four time All Star starter in Game 2.
Darvish got the upper hand against his former team on Sunday, and Ohtani described what it will take for the Dodgers to get the better of him in a winner-take-all Game 5, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.
“He doesn’t rely on one plan,” Ohtani said of Darvish, who threw a seven-pitch mix at the Dodgers in Game 2. “So in that sense, for us as hitters, we have to be able to adjust. That’s what makes him good and crafty as well.”
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Miguel Rojas was a good luck charm for the Dodgers in the regular season, but with a grueling groin injury, Rojas became a liability on defense and on the base paths in the Dodgers’ 6-5 loss in Game 3.
Rojas opened up on him attempting to play through his injury on Tuesday, noting that he hurt both himself and the team by doing so, writes Steve Henson of the Los Angeles Times.
“On that play at second base when I tried to take it myself to the bag, I feel like I reached a little bit for the bag with my left leg, and it was a bad decision,” Rojas said. “I made a bad decision there for the play and for my health. I made a decision there that hurt me and hurt the team at the time. Unfortunately, I have to deal with the consequences now.”
After extending a hitless streak to 22 at-bats that spanned across two postseason runs, Mookie Betts has finally broken out in a big way, smacking home runs in Games 3 and 4, the first time he has hit home runs in two straight games in his postseason career.
Betts downplayed the idea of him having to alter his pregame routine in the hopes of snapping the prolonged streak, noting that getting his first hit of the series was the event that triggered a string of hits to follow, writes Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
“The first one, that was in the midst of the 0-for-whatever, so that was really deflating,” Betts told the MLB on Fox postgame crew. “And then (Tuesday) I got to see one fall. I felt kind of like Steph Curry a little bit. I just needed to see one go in and then I knew I could do it.”