The Los Angeles Dodgers are advancing to the National League Championship Series and will face the New York Mets. It also marks the first postseason series win in Shohei Ohtani’s career.
The Dodgers, who were considered underdogs in the NLDS against the Padres, defeated their division rivals in five games.
The Dodgers’ bats got hot at the most important time, and their pitching was lights out for the last 24 innings. The Dodgers didn’t give up a run to the Padres batters in their last 24 innings, and they’ll look to carry that momentum into the next round.
Furthermore, the Dodgers superstar will go to the first-ever Championship Series of his career. Ohtani, the Dodgers’ best player and arguably the best player in all of baseball, will have a chance to win his first pennant and lead his team to the World Series for the first time since 2020.
Here’s how the 30-year-old reacted to winning his first-ever playoff series.
Ohtani didn’t play his best ball in his first postseason appearance, but it was good enough. In five games, Ohtani slashed .200/.273/.350 with a .623 OPS, four hits, one home run, four RBIs, and scored three runs in 20 at-bats.
This is why the two-way superstar came to Los Angeles. Ohtani didn’t come to the Dodgers just to win the NL West division or one series. He came here to win World Series titles, and now they are eight wins away from their first title since 2020.
However, the Dodgers’ seven-game series against the red-hot Mets won’t be easy. This seven-game series will be one for the books. It is two big markets on one of the biggest stages for the NL pennant. It doesn’t get any bigger than this, which is why the Ohtani became a Dodger in the first place.
Although 98 wins in the regular season are nice, 11 wins in October are a thousand times better.
Ohtani and the rest of the team will need to step up big time if they want to play in the Fall Classic. The road goes through Los Angeles if that’s the case, and the journey will continue on Sunday at 5 p.m. PT.
