Even Shohei Ohtani’s teammates struggle to find the right adjectives to describe him; Ones that express how good he is while emphasizing how unlikely he is to exist in the first place.
After Monday’s third game, when Ohtani became the first player in postseason history to reach base nine times in a World Series game, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman chose the word “unicorn,” one of Ohtani’s most common descriptions. Meanwhile, starting pitcher Blake Snell put things simply and clearly.
“He’s going to do amazing things all the time,” Snell said. “And it will be natural for him.”
However, Game 4 of the World Series proved that even an incredible unicorn can be fallible. On Tuesday, Ohtani allowed more than three runs in a start for the first time since August and didn’t score a hit in the Dodgers’ 6-2 win. A loss to the Toronto Blue Jays tied the series at two games apiece.
That a pedestrian performance like this can be surprising is further evidence of how Ohtani has reset the standards of what a professional baseball player can accomplish. After Tuesday’s game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts admitted that even he could get carried away.
“It’s part of being a fan and seeing great things from great players,” Roberts said. He added: “So every time he comes forward I expect great things to happen, perhaps unfairly.”
Even in Wednesday’s loss, Ohtani’s six strikeouts gave him the record for the most homers in his first three postseason starts (25, surpassing James Paxton’s record of 20 in 2019). The 15 swings and misses he generated from Toronto hitters put his whiff rate — the percentage of pitches that hitters swing at and miss — at 42%, higher than any other pitcher in the 2025 season. His outing came just 18 hours after becoming the first player in 119 years to have four extra-base hits in a World Series game.
Perhaps this serves as a reminder of just how special the 31-year-old is. When he signed with the Los Angeles Angels in 2018, his arrival was expected to create a new generation of two-way players, who would excel as both pitchers and hitters. Instead, his tremendous success has only highlighted the extreme challenges of maintaining his health (Ohtani has missed two full seasons with elbow injuries) and the mental preparation required to face major league players. and Hitters. As a result, Ohtani may have inadvertently killed the two-way player, at least while he was the standard bearer. “[Ohtani] “He came in looking like Babe Ruth at batting and pitching,” Kansas City Royals pitcher Michael Lorenzen — a former doubles player with seven home runs — He told The Athletic in August. “What’s the value of someone who’s just above average at both? I think if someone demonstrated that that was truly valuable, a lot of people would do that.”
But we shouldn’t dismiss Ohtani as a supernatural person because of his seemingly divine talent. Before he signed with the Angels, Ohtani told Sports Illustrated that most of the mental pressure he experienced was not from the pressure of starring at two positions, but from fans and pundits who thought his insistence on hitting and throwing indicated he was either selfish or not serious. Even for those who think Ohtani’s legend is exaggerated, it’s hard to consider him not serious about anything: As a teenager, he covered “dozens” of bowls of rice to try to add size to his slender frame and created elaborate life goals. In spreadsheets. He’s so meticulous about his sleep that he reportedly travels with his own mattress and pillow to ensure he gets his preferred 10 hours a night – and another 2 hours before playtime. When asked how he felt about starting the next day after his historic Game 3 performance, Ohtani simply said: “I want to go to sleep as soon as possible.”
These little bits of “routine” are among the most common ways many of his fans try to explain Ohtani’s greatness. Former Dodgers teammate Chris Taylor remembers Ohtani Minutes pause between Individual sprints and practice swings to try to create game-like visualizations so he can improve his subsequent reps. When asked to explain Ohtani’s uniqueness to a casual observer, Roberts described Ohtani as two specialists rolled into one, able to summon the best from every aspect of himself.
“[These are] “Crazy expectations, probably not something anyone can achieve,” Roberts said before Tuesday’s game. “And then the body and mind working together to perform at the highest level with all eyes on him. I don’t think there’s anything that compares if you’re talking about one human being.”
Whether it’s his charisma as a two-way player or his huge home runs and scorching streak drives, Ohtani has motivated those who follow his career. His jersey was the best-selling jersey across Major League Baseball The third season in a row A. was stimulated A significant increase in Japanese tourism to Los Angeles. Another athlete who excelled in multiple disciplines — NFL Hall of Famer and nine-year MLB veteran Deion Sanders — said it will take decades for another player like Ohtani to arrive.
Until then, the world will need to work on some new words to bring Ohtani to life. After all, unicorns aren’t real, but Ohtani is.