Dodgers and Blue Jays discuss what makes Shohei Ohtani a special player
USA TODAY Sports caught up with members of the Dodgers and Blue Jays ahead of the World Series to discuss the unique talents of Shoehi Ohtani .
Sports Pulse
USA TODAY Sports has live coverage of Dodgers vs. Blue Jays in World Series Game 4.
LOS ANGELES — Just how close did this World Series come to suffering the indignity of a position player pitching in a tied Game 3?
We’ll never totally know thanks to Freddie Freeman’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 18th inning, but a day later, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged there were just two options had the game staggered on to a 19th inning.
It was either Game 2 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto – pitching on one day of rest – or utility infielder Miguel Rojas.
Yamamoto, who pitched a complete game Oct. 25, throwing 105 pitches, was loosening in both the 17th and 18th innings. Bringing their $325 million man in on a day’s rest was the last thing they really wanted.
Perhaps that’s why after Freeman crossed home plate, Game 4 starter and Game 3 9-for-9 on-base hero Shohei Ohtani, Yamamoto, reliever Rōki Sasaki and interpreters Will Ireton and Yoshihiro Sonoda sprinted down the left field line and held their own walk-off celebration, a bobbing mass of pitching heroes thrilled their club survived Game 3 with Ohtani all set for Game 4.
That joy belied Roberts’ churning stomach in the late innings, as rookie Will Klein rendered all other machinations moot with four clutch relief innings.
“If Yamamoto couldn’t have taken the ball in the 19th, it was probably going to be Miguel Rojas. So that’s kind of where we were at,” Roberts said. “(Game 5 starter) Blake Snell just threw a bullpen earlier yesterday, and then Shohei dealing with the cramps that night, last night, wasn’t going to pitch.
“So it was either Yamamoto or Miguel Rojas in a World Series game.”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider had a different route in mind: His Game 4 starter would have been burned to try and salvage Game 3 – even if it took all night.
“Shane Bieber,” Schneider responded, singularly, when asked what his options, plural, were for the 19th inning and beyond.
And what about rookie Trey Yesavage, the Game 1 starter and projected Game 5 starter who was on two days’ rest?
“After Shane, yeah,” he quipped.
Those doomsday scenarios remained under wraps, thanks to Freeman. Oddly enough, the Dodgers’ best position-player pitching option, Kiké Hernández, was out of the game, with Rojas, the team’s best bunter, replacing him to get down a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the 13th.
“You can’t plan for 18 innings,” Roberts said. “You’ve got to plan for certain.”
