Ohtani excited, not nervous, for first postseason

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani was asked if he felt nervous going into his first postseason game and had an answer before an interpreter could even relay the question.

“Nope,” he said in English.

Ohtani will make his highly anticipated playoff debut on Saturday, when his Los Angeles Dodgers host the division rival San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series. Ohtani, speaking through an interpreter, said, “It’s always been my childhood dream to be able to be in an important game.”

“So I think the excitement of that is greater than anything else that I could possibly feel,” he added.

For six years, Ohtani languished on Los Angeles Angels teams that didn’t play meaningful games even in September. The excitement of being in high-pressure environments as a Dodger has seemed to positively impact his performance. On the night the Dodgers clinched a playoff spot, Ohtani went 6-for-6 with three home runs, 10 RBIs and two stolen bases, becoming the first member of the 50/50 club. He did it in his 866th major league game, at that point the most among active players who had not appeared in the postseason.

Ohtani finished the regular season on a 10-game run that included a .628 batting average and a 1.853 OPS. Throughout September, with the Dodgers being chased by the Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West, Ohtani hit .577/.633/1.308 with runners in scoring position, a situation that gave him trouble early in the year.

Dodgers officials hope that is an indication for how he’ll handle his first postseason. But they have also pointed to his performance in Japan’s title-winning run in last year’s World Baseball Classic, when he posted a 1.345 OPS and recorded the final out with a strikeout of then-teammate Mike Trout, as a sign that high-pressure environments might bring out his best.

“I do think that the postseason is going to be different from the World Baseball Classic, considering that we did have a week off,” Ohtani said. “So I’m doing the best I can to make sure that my first at-bat is really good.”

Ohtani is one of three superstars atop the Dodgers’ lineup. But with Freddie Freeman nursing a sprained right ankle and Mookie Betts finishing the regular season with three hits in 20 at-bats, the focus on Ohtani has only heightened. The Padres could have as many as three lefty relievers in their NLDS roster — Yuki Matsui, Wandy Peralta and, most notably, Tanner Scott — and will deploy them against Ohtani as often as possible. It sounds as if they’ll look to attack him.

“I’m not a guy that likes to run from competition a whole lot,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “We clearly tip our hat and he’s clearly a very exceptional player, but I believe in our guys, too. It’s what competition is about. There may be a time this series where we tell him to go down the road [with an intentional walk] and we take on Mookie and see what that looks like. It will be really situational based. But we feel confident that we have the ability to get Ohtani out.”

Ohtani said he remembers watching the Dodgers win the World Series at the end of the 2020 COVID-shortened season. He was in Seattle at the time, training in an effort to rebound from a disastrous return from his first Tommy John surgery and establish himself as a two-way player in the major leagues.

What followed was one of the most impressive three-year stretches in the sport’s history, leading Ohtani to two MVP awards and a second-place finish. But playoff baseball continually eluded him.

It won’t anymore.

“Overall,” he said, “it’s just really a mixed, complicated feeling not being able to participate in the postseason.”