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We know one of the World Series teams thanks to a one-of-a-kind player turning in a one-of-a-kind performance in a clinching game. The other? We need to wait until at least Sunday to find out which team will try to prevent a historic happening while making history of their own.
That ball went so damn far
— Talkin’ Baseball (Bot) (@talkinbaseballbot.bsky.social) 2025-10-18T02:07:13.000Z
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Championship Series Chatter
HISTORIC ONE-MAN SHO
Ohtani’s 3 HRs, 10 K’s Send Dodgers To World Series
Final score: Dodgers 5, Brewers 1
Series: Dodgers win 4-0
Next game: Dodgers vs. ALCS winner in Game 1 of World Series, Oct. 4 (Fox)
It was inevitable. Much like Thanos snapping his fingers, Shohei Ohtani snapped into Mecha Shohei Ohtani. Because of that, the already-steamrolling Los Angeles Dodgers are going back to the World Series to defend their championship. In the most spectacular postseason performance in MLB history, Ohtani tied a record with three homers in a game, while also striking out 10 in six-plus shutout innings as the Dodgers completed a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers with a 5-1 victory in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series at Dodger Stadium. Not only are the Dodgers going for the first repeat since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000, they are going for their third World Series title in six years while making their fifth appearance in the Fall Classic in nine seasons. The Dodgers are also the first defending champion to make it back to the World Series since the 2009 Philadelphia Phillies.
But Game 4 was all about Ohtani. Facing MLB’s best team during the regular season, the Dodgers built a 3-0 series lead with three standout pitching performances. But with his MVP-level hitting, Ohtani one-upped all of them. And he served notice right from the beginning. After walking the leadoff hitter, Ohtani struck out the next three hitters. After scrambling back to the dugout so he could lead off the bottom of the first, Ohtani cranked a 446-foot homer on a 3-2 pitch from Brewers left-handed starter Jose Quintana. The Dodgers added two more runs in the first on Tommy Edman’s run-scoring single and Teoscar Hernández’s RBI groundout. But Ohtani wasn’t done. In the fourth, Ohtani hit a 3-1 cutter from Brewers rookie right-hander Chad Patrick 469 feet over — yes, over — the right-field pavilion that landed in the concourse for a 4-1 lead. With one out in the seventh, Ohtani made it a hat trick of homers by launching a 1-2 pitch from right-handed reliever Trevor Megill to left-center, traveling 427 feet.
The exit velocities on his three homers: 116.5 mph, 116.9 mph, 113.6 mph. That made him the first player in the Statcast era to have two homers in the same game with exit velos of 116 mph or better.
Entering the game, Ohtani was a mere mortal. He was 6-for-38 (.158) with 17 strikeouts in the postseason, including 4-for-33 (.121) with 14 strikeouts since hitting two homers in the first playoff game. But in one game, he reversed that with his three solo homers. To make the pitching performance stand out more, this was Ohtani’s first appearance on the mound since Game 1 of the NL Division Series on Oct. 4. In addition to striking out 10 Brewers, he allowed only two hits and walked three.
The single-game performance was enough to earn Ohtani the NLCS MVP award.
It took historic performances to make the Brewers an afterthought. The Brewers, who compiled the best record in MLB at 97-65, managed just four runs and 14 hits in four games. Still, they held the Dodgers to 15 runs and had chances to score, but couldn’t cash in, something that had been part of their personality during the regular season, but disappeared at the wrong time. A perfect example of that came when they chased Ohtani in the top of the seventh. Christian Yelich walked and William Contreras singled, forcing Ohtani off the mound to a well-deserved standing ovation. Left-hander Alex Vesia then got Andrew Vaughn to pop out and Sal Frelick to hit a grounder up the middle to shortstop Mookie Betts, who stepped on second and threw to first to complete the inning-ending double play.
Shohei Ohtani’s 10 strikeouts and three home runs in chronological order
— Talkin’ Baseball (Bot) (@talkinbaseballbot.bsky.social) 2025-10-18T03:08:57.000Z
Suarez Slam Has Mariners 1 Win From World Series
Final score: Mariners 6, Blue Jays 2
Series: Mariners lead 3-2
Next game: Mariners TBA vs. Blue Jays RHP Trey Yesavage, Sunday, 8:03 p.m. ET at Rogers Centre (FS1)
It wasn’t The Double, which saved baseball in Seattle. But Eugenio Suárez certainly etched his name into the city’s sports lore in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series. Suarez smashed a tiebreaking eighth-inning grand slam, his second homer of the game, to send the Mariners to a 6-2 victory at T-Mobile Park and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. The Mariners are one win away from the franchise’s first appearance in the World Series, a ticket they can punch when the ALCS resumes Sunday in Toronto.
It was a late comeback by the Mariners, who trailed 2-1 entering the eighth inning. But Cal Raleigh, the AL MVP candidate after hitting 60 regular-season homers, led off by hitting a 2-0 sinker from new Jays left-handed reliever Brendon Little for a solo homer to left field, his fourth of the postseason, to tie it 2-2. Little then walked the next two hitters, Jorge Polanco and Josh Naylor, on 3-2 pitches before getting the hook. Right-hander Serathony Dominguez then hit Randy Arozarena with a 2-1 pitch to load the bases for Suarez. A trade-deadline pickup, Suarez then sent a 98.5 mph four-seamer on a 2-2 pitch the opposite way to right that electrified the T-Mobile Park crowd for his go-ahead grand slam.
Until the eighth, the game had been controlled by the pitchers. Jays right-handed starter Kevin Gausman was tagged for a leadoff homer in the bottom of the second by Suarez, but otherwise was very good, allowing three hits and three walks with four strikeouts over 5⅔ innings. Mariners right-handed starter Bryce Miller was surprisingly pulled after allowing a leadoff single to Addison Barger in the fifth inning after just 57 pitches. Right-hander Matt Brash came in and got the next two hitters out, but the move backfired when Brash gave up an RBI double on a 2-0 slider to tie it 1-1. The Jays built on that momentum in the sixth against right-hander Bryan Woo, a starter making his first postseason appearance due to a pectoral injury, as Alejandro Kirk doubled and surprisingly was waved home on Ernie Clement’s one-out single to right. Kirk, a catcher who is one of the slowest runners in MLB, easily scored from second thanks to an off-target throw from right.
That set the stage for the dramatic eighth inning. With little time to react to what just happened, the Jays were set down in order by Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz, putting the Mariners on the verge of joining the other 29 current MLB teams that have made the World Series.
Ohtani By The Numbers
(Apologies in advance if you don’t appreciate a certain Japanese superstar.)
⚾ First pitcher to hit a leadoff homer and first pitcher to have a multihomer game.
⚾ First Dodgers pitcher to have more than one strikeout at 100 mph or more (had two in the first inning).
⚾ Third player in MLB history to have three homers in a game in which they pitched.
Three homers in game pitched, MLB history including playoffs:2025 NLCS G4 Shohei Ohtani5/13/1942 Jim Tobin8/15/1886 Guy Hecker
— (@slangsonsports.bsky.social) 2025-10-18T06:39:16.775Z
⚾ First player in MLB history with three home runs in the same game he struck out at least five.
⚾ More firsts.
Shohei Ohtani:-first player to strike out a batter and hit a home run in the first inning of a postseason game-first player to strike out 3 batters & hit a home run in the same postseason inning -1st player with multiple career postseason innings with 2+ K & a HR (both tn)
— (@slangsonsports.bsky.social) 2025-10-18T04:52:20.361Z
⚾ Just look at these numbers.
Top 3 EVTop 3 distance Top pitch veloMost whiffsSHOHEI IS SO SPECIAL
— (@slangsonsports.bsky.social) 2025-10-18T03:38:01.605Z
Best Moments From Yesterday
He Did What?
A priceless reaction from the Dodgers’ bullpen after Shohei Ohtani’s 469-foot homer.
— Jay Jaffe (@jayjaffe.bsky.social) 2025-10-18T02:01:20.667Z
Missed It By That Much
Dominic Canzone of the Mariners barely missed a game-tying homer in the bottom of the seventh.
That’s Baseball!
We had a 404-foot double play in the NLCS, now we have this in the ALCS.
overhead, great play from Raleigh
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) 2025-10-17T23:19:21.716Z
A Little Juggling
Eugenio Suárez is also available to be booked for birthday parties.
A little juggling act from Eugenio Suarez
— Talkin’ Baseball (Bot) (@talkinbaseballbot.bsky.social) 2025-10-17T22:18:51.000Z
Leapin’ Leo
Mariners second baseman Leo Rivas was fully extended to snare this liner by Ernie Clement of the Jays.
Showing The Love
Dodgers fans gave their two-way superstar some appreciation when day as a pitcher was done in the top of the seventh.
What a performance!Shohei Ohtani leaves to a standing ovation at Dodger Stadium 👏
— MLB (Bot) (@mlbbot.bsky.social) 2025-10-18T02:34:56.000Z
Noteworthy News
Springer Hurt, But Should Be OK
Designated hitter George Springer, an integral piece of the Jays’ lineup from the leadoff position, left Game 5 of the ALCS after being hit on the right knee by a Bryan Woo fastball. Springer tried to talk manager John Schneider out of removing him, including trying to walk it off, but Springer was compromised and acquiesced. Joey Loperfido replaced Springer. Schneider said Springer will have more testing on the knee when the team returns to Toronto, but it appears for now that it is just a bruised knee.
Yesavage Set To Start Game 6 For Jays
Before Game 5, the Jays announced rookie right-hander Trey Yesavage would start Game 6. Now, it will be up to Yesavage to save the Jays’ season. A September call-up who made three-regular season starts, Yesavage will now make his third postseason start. The first two were starkly different. In Game 2 of the AL Division Series vs. the New York Yankees, Yesavage pitched 5⅓ no-hit innings and struck out 11, a postseason franchise record, in a 13-7 win. Then in Game 2 of the ALCS, he was tagged for five runs in four innings in a 10-3 loss. There is no official starter for the Mariners in Game 6, but right-hander Logan Gilbert would seem to be the logical choice. Like Yesavage, Gilbert started Game 2, but only went three innings after pitching in relief three days earlier.
Extra Bases
⚾ Right-hander Nate Pearson agreed to a one-year, $1.35 million contract with the Houston Astros. The Astros plan to deploy Peterson as a starter. Pearson spent 2025 with the Chicago Cubs after coming over at the trade deadline in 2024 from the Blue Jays. In 11 relief appearances this year, he had a 9.20 ERA with 10 walks and seven strikeouts in 14⅔ innings.
⚾ In a series of medical updates involving the St. Louis Cardinals, outfielder Lars Nootbaar (Haglund’s deformities, both heels) catcher Iván Herrera (bone spur, right elbow) and infielder Brendan Donovan (sports hernia). Herrera is expected to be ready for spring training, but the recovery for Nootbaar and Donovan are less clear.
Articles You Should Read
Inside the fiery, foul-mouthed mound visit that led Mad Max to another signature moment — Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic
Max Scherzer, for all of time — Patrick Dubuque, Baseball Prospectus
Will Harper reach elite status again? Dombrowki ponders star’s future — Todd Zolecki, MLB.com
Why are we still looking back at the 1975 World Series? — Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe
Stowers matured his mindset and proceeded to mash in Miami — David Laurila, FanGraphs
Fantasy Baseball Coverage
Top 100 closers for fantasy baseball in 2026 — Rick Graham, Pitcher List
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Walker Jenkins dynasty prospect breakdown — Theo Tollefson, Pitcher List