It took only three pitches for the next episode to air in Game 5, as after Davis Schneider pulled a first-pitch fastball from Blake Snell over the fence, Guerrero did the same, launching his eighth home run of the post-season.
The shot tied him with Ohtani for the most in October, added to his all-time franchise record and held up as the winning run as the Blue Jays bested the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-1 to take a 3-2 series lead back home to Toronto.
After trading blows over the previous two games, Guerrero has now landed consecutive punches to put his team one win away from a World Series title.
In Game 3, the 26-year-old was solid, but unspectacular, tallying a pair of walks and singles across nine at-bats in the marathon affair. Meanwhile, Ohtani clubbed four extra-base hits — two home runs and two doubles — tying a World Series record.
Guerrero counterpunched against Ohtani directly on Tuesday, getting a hold of a hanging sweeper from the Japanese right-hander and sending it into the Dodger Stadium seats to take an early lead that the Blue Jays never relinquished.
And while Ohtani has outperformed Guerrero in most statistical categories in the World Series, the Blue Jays’ star slugger is having a historic October overall. Through the first 15 games before Wednesday’s Game 5, Guerrero had reached base 37 times, second-most in post-season history to Barry Bonds’ 38. That total comes without the cache that has helped Ohtani to eight intentional walks in the post-season, four of them coming in the 18-inning Game 3.
Here is a comparison of Guerrero and Ohtani’s performances, both in Game 5 and the series.
Their stats from Wednesday night:
Guerrero’s historic post-season
Guerrero’s performance this October has sparked debate over whether it marks the greatest post-season in Blue Jays history or one of the best all-time.
He added to that case nearly as fast as he possibly could on Wednesday. After taking a Snell fastball down-and-in on the first pitch he saw, Guerrero got one in almost the same spot and crushed it into the Dodgers bullpen. His 87.4 m.p.h. swing on the home run was his hardest of the year and the hardest of any hitter this October.
It followed Schneider’s similar blast on the first pitch of the game. The moustachioed fan favourite and Toronto’s franchise player became the first duo in World Series history to hit back-to-back home runs to start a game.
It’s also important to put Guerrero’s post-season into context. His eight home runs tie for second-most in a single post-season, and his .415 average ranks third among players with at least 50 plate appearances. The lone argument that Guerrero’s run isn’t the best in Blue Jays history is that his 1.337 OPS is fourth on MLB’s all-time list, behind Paul Molitor’s in October 1993, when he won World Series MVP and the Blue Jays last won the whole thing.
Ohtani’s human after all
Ohtani, the three-time league MVP, two-time 50-home-run hitter, superhuman who can both pitch and hit with mind-boggling proficiency, has been held hitless for consecutive games in the Fall Classic.
Not only did Trey Yesavage set the record for most strikeouts by a rookie in a World Series game, but he also dominated the Dodgers’ two-way sensation.
Ohtani was off balance in his first at-bat as he took a splitter over the heart of the plate, swung through an inside slider and ultimately chased a fastball outside and sent a dribbler back to Yesavage for an easy out.
Ohtani’s next time at the plate, Toronto’s 22-year-old phenom crossed him up once again with an array of anomalous secondary pitches before striking out the fearsome slugger swinging at a perfectly executed splitter on the corner.
Yesavage handled Ohtani so well that he was trusted to face him a third time. And while the result was a 117.3 m.p.h. line-drive to right field — the hardest hit ball by either Ohtani or Guerrero in the World Series — Addison Barger made a diving grab to keep the superstar hitless.
The same as Game 1, Ohtani grounded out to Guerrero his final time at the plate. The Blue Jays’ first baseman emphatically slapped the bag with his hand after making a diving stop.
Their stats through five games:
