Shohei Ohtani is mortal after all in Dodgers' Game 4 loss
Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates after hitting a double during the first inning against the Toronto Blue Jays in game three of the World Series at Dodger Stadium on October 27, 2025. Credit: Getty Images
LOS ANGELES — Minutes after Tuesday night’s final out, Shohei Ohtani still wore his full uniform as he was ushered by team officials through the Dodger Stadium runway en route to the interview room.
To get there, Ohtani had to cut right through a parade of fans from the luxury suites behind home plate, and the sight of the 6-3 global superstar, the most recognizable baseball player on the planet, was an unexpected brush with greatness.
For those few moments, a rare treat for the Dodgers faithful, Ohtani was at his most ordinary, fulfilling his media obligations like any other teammate. And in the hours leading up to that interview session, during what became a Dodgers’ 6-2 loss to the Blue Jays that evened this World Series at a game apiece, Ohtani was something less than the supernatural figure who sparkled at Chavez Ravine in his previous two games there.
Just by taking the mound for Game 4, and leading off as the DH, Ohtani already was doing something that had never been done before in the World Series. So his baseline is most people’s ceiling.
Not only that, Ohtani was coming off a legendary night, reaching base a record nine times — including two doubles, two homers and five straight walks — in the Dodgers’ 18-inning, 6-5 win that stretched for 6 hours, 39 minutes.
What Ohtani was trying to do in Tuesday’s Game 4 — actually counted on by the Dodgers, along with the crowd of 52,552 at Chavez Ravine — had never been done before. The physical and mental toll, the World Series stakes, all of it was a lot, even for Ohtani.
Maybe too much. His three-homer, 10-strikeout night in the NLCS clincher, the last time Ohtani took the L.A. mound, proved an impossible act to follow.
Ohtani went 0-for-3, striking out twice, after a first-inning walk extended his on-base streak to 11 consecutive plate appearances. His final pitching line: six innings, six hits, four earned runs, one walk, six strikeouts. The two-run homer Ohtani teed up to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the third inning gave the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead they never relinquished.
“He’s mortal,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But there’s also a lot of energy, obviously, on the pitching exerted. But they made good pitches on him. They really did.”
Frankly, it was shocking to see the Blue Jays neutralize Ohtani, after ducking him for 11 innings in the Game 3 loss.
Ohtani entered Tuesday on a 7-for-7 heater over his previous two games at Dodger Stadium, with five homers and five walks. After Monday’s tying homer in the seventh inning, Jays manager John Schneider issued four straight intentional walks to Ohtani, and on the fifth, none of the pitches came anywhere near the strike zone.
Schneider suggested that he’d continue to deploy that No-Sho strategy moving forward in this series. But that didn’t happen in Game 4, as Toronto starter Shane Bieber had his way with Ohtani, whiffing him in back-to-back at-bats. In the third inning, Ohtani swung through an 89-mph changeup. In the fourth, he froze on an 83-mph knuckle curve.
“I knew that coming into tonight, I didn’t want to give in to anybody, especially not Shohei or the Dodgers in the World Series,” Bieber said. “I think I found myself in positions to attack him. Obviously with runners on and runners in scoring position, it might be a different story. We might have walked him, right? He’s an incredible player, great hitter.”
On Tuesday, however, Ohtani was somewhat less than great, and he only looked more human coming off a string of record-breaking performances this October. It happens, and probably more so after playing baseball for nearly seven hours at a time when most starting pitchers are either in bed or napping on a clubhouse couch.
Ohtani denied there was any lingering exhaustion. He claimed to feel fine. Got to bed at 2 a.m., which was roughly two hours after Monday’s game ended, and slept soundly. Early on, Ohtani appeared to be in optimal condition, and even whiffed Guerrero on three pitches for the second out of the game, getting him to bite on an 87-mph sweeper into the other batter’s box.
The next time up, however, Guerrero ambushed him. In the third inning, after Nathan Lukes’ one-out single, Ohtani went to the sweeper again, but left it at the top of the strike zone, and Guerrero smoked a 395-foot bullet that cleared the leftfield wall. The Fox broadcast showed Sandy Koufax grimacing as Guerrero made loud contact.
“Obviously, looking back in hindsight, it was just a regrettable pitch,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “Something I wish that I could have taken back. It was just a bad spot, that location.”
Still, Ohtani put the Dodgers in position to win, until the Jays opened the seventh with a single and double that knocked him out of the game. Toronto went on to score four runs that inning, and the Dodgers didn’t do much to help out on a night when Ohtani couldn’t carry the team by himself.
“He did fine,” Mookie Betts said. “He gave us chances, we just didn’t come through offensively. That’s really it. He pitched a good game.”
Good enough, really. The only part missing was Ohtani smacking a homer or two, but that’s unrealistic to bank on, even for him. And the Dodgers can’t live by Ohtani’s two-way magic alone.
“Every time he steps up, I expect great things to happen,” Roberts said. “And maybe unfairly.”
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
