Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani proves that no moment is too big for him

Shohei Ohtani is not like any other baseball player.

This isn’t about him being a two-way player when healthy, or about his combination of power and speed that produced the sport’s first 50-homer, 50-steal season.

This is about how he deals with career-defining moments.

What is at stake for his team. The impact on his legacy. The tens of thousands of people watching in person and the millions more watching around the world. The responsibility to project the virtues of an entire culture.

Other players try to block out such thoughts or use them as fuel to increase their adrenaline levels. Ohtani called them “ingredients to increase concentration.”

Reflecting on his seventh-inning single that sparked a 7-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Thursday that secured the Dodgers’ most recent division title, Ohtani described himself as being in a trance-like state.

“I was so focused that I didn’t even think about being nervous,” he said in Japanese.

Notice what Ohtani said. He wasn’t just focused. He was to concentrated.

The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting an RBI single and advancing to second on a throwing error by Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. in the seventh inning Thursday at Dodger Stadium.

(Ashley Landis/Associated Press)

Whatever he felt or thought, the outcome was predictable. With two men on base and one out, Ohtani hit a single to right field against left-handed reliever Tanner Scott to bring in Kiké Hernández and give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.

“I was actually just thinking about scoring,” Ohtani said.

Ohtani also drove in the decisive run the previous day in a 4-3 victory over the Padres, in which a loss would have narrowed the Dodgers’ lead over their second-place rivals to a single game. Based on their head-to-head record, the Padres held the tiebreaker over the Dodgers, meaning they would have won the division had they finished with the same regular-season record.

“No moment ever seems too big for him,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “When he steps into the box you feel like he’s going to do something special. I always say it: He doesn’t disappoint. He’s incredible.”

That’s why the Dodgers can’t be counted out in October. Finally, Ohtani will be making his first appearance on the postseason stage in his seventh major league season.

The Dodgers don’t have the pitching normally required to win a World Series. This alone would stop most teams from being serious championship contenders, but how can a team with Ohtani not be a serious contender?

“I think there are some people who run when the moment is big,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Other guys embrace it and Shohei embraced those moments better than any player I’ve ever been around.”

In a sport where greater effort often leads to worse results, Ohtani strikes practically on command.

Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers watches his double during the eighth inning of a win over the Padres on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.

(Ashley Landis/Associated Press)

He did that on Sunday in a comeback win over the Colorado Rockies. The Dodgers were three outs away from cutting their lead over the Padres to two games when Ohtani led off with a tie-breaking home run in the ninth inning. Mookie Betts hit a walk-off home run in the next at-bat.

That’s what Ohtani did last year when he played for Japan in the World Baseball Classic. With his team trailing Mexico in the ninth inning of the semifinal game, Ohtani started the comeback with a leadoff double.

“I had decided that I was definitely going to get on base,” Ohtani said, as if it were a decision.

Japan won the tournament.

“You can obviously see how much he cares about winning,” left-hander Clayton Kershaw said. “It’s really fun to see the energy, especially in bigger games we’ve seen recently. He really, really wants to win and is excited about the possibility of postseason stuff, which is great.”

Over the course of this season, Kershaw got a behind-the-scenes look at Ohtani working his magic on the field.

“Just from watching him, I appreciate how hard-working he is,” Kershaw said. “He never looks, says or feels tired. Every day is the same. He’s doing his rehab. He does his warmups, his workouts, he hits, he does his stuff, steals bases, hits homers and the next day is exactly the same. I just value consistency. I value attention to detail and hard work. That’s what he does. He does it really, really well, better than most.”

When closer Michael Kopech forced Kyle Higashioka to show up for the finale on Wednesday night, Ohtani briefly let his guard down.

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He laughed in the clubhouse as his teammates poured cheap champagne and beer on him. He emptied a bottle of Budweiser over Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s head and poured another down his back.

“It was the best,” Ohtani said. “I want to do my best so I can do it again and again.”

The only other time Ohtani poured alcohol on his teammates after a season’s success like this was as a 22-year-old player with the Nippon-Ham Fighters.

This celebration was nothing like this one.

Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani pours beer in the locker room and celebrates after securing a division title on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.

(Ashley Landis/Associated Press)

To avoid soaking the locker room carpets with alcohol, Japanese baseball teams hold their crucial parties off-site, usually a few hours after the final pitch. Only beer is used, no champagne or sparkling wine. In the case of the 2016 Fighters, they celebrated their victory in the Japan Series in an underground car park of a hotel in Hiroshima.

The next day, one of the country’s biggest sports newspapers published a picture of Ohtani with goggles on his forehead, emptying a bottle of Sapporo onto a teammate’s head. He literally towered over everyone around him.

Eight years later, Ohtani once again towers above his contemporaries in the world’s most competitive baseball league. He expects it to become more important in the coming weeks. The playoffs begin.