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Shohei Ohtani has shed his stoic mask in 2026 and his big emotions are EXACTLY what the Los Angeles Dodgers need!
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00:00Let's talk about last night because we got, you guys, the full Shohei Ohtani experience.
00:05Five scoreless innings.
00:07He lowered his ERA to 0.73.
00:11Just the way this game started, paint the picture for you in case you missed it.
00:16First pitch leadoff home run, then got on the mound and struck out the side.
00:21Like, even though he was a little off command-wise, like, compared to all of his other dominating outings this
00:28season,
00:28he put up O's and he lowered his ERA, which is the most important thing.
00:33The most important thing.
00:35And, you know, we haven't been blessed with every one of his outings, him also hitting.
00:40So the fact that we got him in, I think it's the first time this month that he has actually
00:45hit while he's been pitching,
00:46was just exactly what we needed to see last night.
00:50It was perfect.
00:51Everything about it was perfect.
00:53If you blinked, if you went to take out the trash cans, if you forgot something in the car, you
00:59missed that home run.
01:01And from that moment, what I love about Shohei this season,
01:05and the only silver lining from that stressful late April, early May that he had,
01:12is he's showing his emotions a lot more.
01:14Yeah.
01:15And I love him allowing us that access to his stoic, reserved personality that he usually has.
01:24That first home run was electric.
01:25Pahez was sitting there with the sunflower seeds, ready to shower him.
01:28And from that moment forth, he was just locked in.
01:31That first inning, I love that you bring up that it wasn't perfect from a pitching standpoint.
01:35Yeah.
01:3521 pitches is not an ideal first inning.
01:37And, you know, the golden number of 100 pitches getting us to the seventh inning,
01:43that immediately kind of got thrown out.
01:45So I wasn't sitting there worried, but I was sitting there like,
01:48okay, not the perfect first inning as a pitcher.
01:52But then they go back up to bat, and clearly they were locked in from the start.
01:57Hats off to Shohei, and hats off to him and Dave Roberts clearly being on the same page.
02:02And I do not expect much change going forward.
02:06I think Shohei is back.
02:07Yeah, I think what really, my favorite inning, and again, like this was a nail-biter.
02:14Dodger fans might not agree with me here because you're like,
02:16why was this your favorite inning?
02:17I was like literally about to throw up on the edge of my seat.
02:20The fifth inning, okay?
02:22Because that, it wasn't perfect.
02:24And you really saw Shohei's baseball IQ on the mound.
02:30That was runners on first and third, right?
02:31Runners on first and third.
02:31Okay, okay, okay.
02:32And he had to be really smart about what he did in order to keep this a scoreless game.
02:39Okay?
02:40And he had a ball come right back to him.
02:43You got a runner at first.
02:44You got a runner at third.
02:45What he did is he looks at the runner at third, kind of holds him for a second like he's
02:51going to throw him out if he tries to go home, then spins and throws out Castellanos at second
02:58base.
02:58And it saves a run.
03:00And the next big situation, so that was the first, like, that takes, you know, that takes
03:05guts.
03:05You got to be quick about it, too.
03:06It's a quick turn, look, quick, get him out at second, because you don't want to miss
03:11getting an out.
03:12Right.
03:12You don't want to load the bases for Tatis.
03:15So, the next situation, Tatis Jr. is up.
03:19They only have one out, and you're like, okay, this is...
03:22Not great.
03:24He's been slumping, and maybe this is the time where he comes through, and Tatis just
03:29blasts a home run.
03:30I really hope that's not the case.
03:31But you're kind of looking at Otani, and I'm watching, because like you mentioned, Shohei
03:36wears his emotions on his face, okay?
03:37You know exactly how he's feeling.
03:39You know if he's excited, you know if he's frustrated.
03:41It's almost like a cartoon how, like, over-exaggerated he shows his emotions.
03:46I love it so much.
03:47I wish more athletes were like that, because again, this is a game, you guys.
03:51It's their job.
03:52They're getting paid millions of dollars to do this.
03:54But it's entertainment.
03:56Yeah.
03:56It is entertainment for all the fans, and it's so much fun when you see and you feel
04:01the emotion.
04:05And Tatis, first pitch, got him to hit into a double play.
04:11And the emotion on Shohei Otani's face was just absolutely insane.
04:18Like, he just went ham.
04:20It was like, yeah!
04:22Looking at everybody else.
04:24Like, at that point, it was like, okay, we know that was it.
04:28But, like, the way that you held on in that inning, that inning saved the game.
04:32There were so many possibilities for the Padres to capitalize and get a run in.
04:39And this is the rubber match game.
04:40And this is a game that determines who is going to be first in the NLS, because it has
04:45been a neck-and-neck race every single game for the last, really last couple weeks between
04:49the Dodgers and the Padres.
04:50And we've been talking about the rivalry all week.
04:54But that moment, that moment with Shohei Otani in the fifth inning was everything.
04:59It was so special.
04:59It was everything.
05:00It really was.
05:01And it's proof that he's the heartbeat of this team.
05:05Oh, yeah.
05:06Because how you can tell who guys rally around is when something major happens for them.
05:10Are they celebrating from afar, or do they run over and celebrate with him?
05:14Him screaming and throwing his arms.
05:17You see Mookie running the frame.
05:19You see Max Muncy running the frame.
05:20They're all celebrating with him and having his back.
05:23And I love that you bring up the momentum of it all.
05:26Because the biggest difference I saw from last night, as opposed to Game 1, where they
05:30lost 1-0, every time they got some kind of momentum in Game 1, Mookie gets thrown out
05:37stealing.
05:38Freddie gets caught stealing.
05:39Something would immediately crush that momentum.
05:42Whereas last night, it was the exact opposite.
05:45When things looked like they were going south, when you got runners on first and third, twice
05:50Mookie Betts turns a double play.
05:52Twice, Freddie Freeman gets up and fires off two doubles, even though he had a cold streak
05:58for most of the month of May.
06:00I love Shohei Otani.
06:02I love Mookie Betts.
06:03I love Freddie Freeman.
06:04But as a collective, even though this is a team full of superstars, as a collective, when
06:08everything is gelling at the same time, I'm reminded, OK, this is Dodger baseball.
06:14Yeah.
06:14And we have a moment for Freddie.
06:15Because we didn't fully dive into the situation that he was in coming into the Game 2.
06:22I'm like, let's say Game 2.
06:23Right?
06:24Because he was, I think, 0 for 16 heading into that game.
06:28And he was sick.
06:29I think they said he had a fever.
06:30He wasn't feeling well.
06:31So his dad, you guys.
06:33His dad drove him to the game.
06:35His dad drove him to work.
06:37And we know the special moments and relationships that we've seen between Freddie Freeman and
06:42his dad.
06:42The iconic Grand Slam, Statue of Liberty in the postseason a couple years ago immediately
06:51runs to his dad through the netting.
06:53It's just such a, we know what family means to Freddie.
06:57And when his dad was there and he was slumping and then he gets two home runs yesterday, you're
07:04like, OK, that was what we needed to kind of turn things around.
07:10And then that was Game 2.
07:12Game 3, the rubber match game for the Dodgers to win, was that fifth inning with Shohei
07:19Ohtani.
07:19And I want you guys to listen to this because the emotion was everywhere.
07:22Listen to this call.
07:25Ground ball to shore.
07:27That's the second one.
07:28Came to first, two, and five scoreless for Shohei Ohtani.
07:34Wow.
07:34Now he walks the high wire in this one and keeps the Padres off of the board.
07:41Yeah.
07:41Walking the high wire is a good, like, you're like flirting with danger there with like
07:47every single batter he faced.
07:49The craziest thing there, that sounded like a home game.
07:52I had to remind myself because whenever I hear Joe Davis, I assume it's a home game.
07:56Not always.
07:57Well, the cheers in the background.
07:58Yeah, just hearing that crowd pop, oh, yeah, they were in San Diego.
08:03Whoops.
08:04Yeah, no.
08:05But we heard when we talked to Jose Moda, who is obviously on the road with the Dodgers,
08:10a part of the Spanish broadcast for the Dodgers.
08:13He told us that Padres were limiting area codes of where people could buy tickets.
08:21So Dodger fans could not buy and take over Petco Park because we saw that we've seen that
08:28in the past.
08:29They found a way.
08:30Dodger fans run deep.
08:32They travel well.
08:33And obviously, a lot of L.A. people and Dodger fans live down in San Diego.
08:38I went to San Diego State.
08:40There's a lot of L.A. people down there.
08:41And so they take over Petco Park.
08:43And so the Padres, to avoid that, limited where fans could buy tickets from based on
08:51their area code.
08:52They're petty, but not petty enough.
08:54You know what?
08:55Not mad about it.
08:56Because even though they did that, Jose said it still felt kind of like a 50-50 split between
09:02Padres fans and Dodgers fans.
09:04So that was a fun little gift of a series that we got from the Dodgers and the Padres.
09:11And my biggest takeaway from that, because when we were talking about the freeway series
09:15and what we saw with the Dodgers and Angels was, okay, the Dodgers are back.
09:19But then it was like, yeah, but can they keep this going against a real competitive team?
09:23And the real competitive team and the real test are their division rivals.
09:27And one of their biggest rivals right now in the National League, which are the Padres.
09:33Game one, tough.
09:35Tough.
09:36Bats just, once again, could not take advantage of runners in scoring position.
09:39Right.
09:39Game two, Bats woke up.
09:42Again, wasn't a pretty win, but kind of did.
09:45Long day for Sheehan, but the bullpen held their own.
09:49Yeah.
09:49And then also like taking advantage of opportunities.
09:52Offensively, absolutely.
09:53Yeah.
09:53And then game three last night, Otani just absolutely, once again, back to being that
10:01two-way player that we all know and love that is changing the game of baseball.
10:06Like that is just creating his own, his own legacy and his own history within Major League
10:12Baseball.
10:13So I guess now that we've seen, this is the first game this month that he's back to being
10:19like the two-way on days that he is pitching.
10:23Does this need to happen moving forward?
10:25Does he need to be hitting every time he's pitching now moving forward from what we saw
10:29yesterday?
10:30I say yes.
10:31I look ahead at the schedule.
10:33You have a mean Brewers team who the Dodgers, due to timing, won't face their ace or their
10:40second best pitcher.
10:41So you're looking at that series saying, we may not be facing their best, but if we don't
10:45bring it, the Brewers are going to get the best of you.
10:49Yeah.
10:49Then you have the Rockies on paper.
10:51That should not be a difficult series.
10:52Then you've got the Phillies.
10:53Phillies are always in the playoffs for a reason.
10:55Phillies have come alive since the change at the manager position.
11:00The Phillies are going to be no joke.
11:01Then you've got the D-backs, the Angels and the Pirates, the White Sox.
11:05And really for the next 50 or so games until they face the Padres again, 30 or so games
11:10until they face the Padres again, games that should be manageable.
11:13I say that to say, yeah, for the first, yeah, for the first third of the season, they face
11:19the toughest series that they're going to face.
11:21So you let Shohei go out there and swing.
11:23And even if it gets cold again, you would rather, you would rather have him work through
11:28it.
11:28I feel like Dave Roberts had to make a decision because he knew the tough series that were
11:33lying ahead.
11:34Whereas when you have 30 games of teams that on a bad day, you should be able to get through
11:38Shohei, you're cold.
11:40It doesn't matter.
11:40This is what we're doing.
11:41Let's see what we got for the next 30 games.
11:44And this is what the schedule is going to be for the next month and a half.
11:47Yeah.
11:47I think it's really great that they have an off day.
11:50You travel right after the game.
11:51So they should be in Milwaukee.
11:53The last series of this road trip before they're home to play the Rockies and the Phillies, as
11:59you mentioned.
12:01Otani is so hot right now.
12:03He is 13 for his last 24 at-bats.
12:08And let's just relive that moment that started the game yesterday, jumping on the first pitch
12:15of the game.
12:17And here we go.
12:18First pitch from Randy Vasquez.
12:20He's swung on.
12:21Hit in the air to deep right center field.
12:23Merrill is back at the wall.
12:25He will leap in.
12:27And it is gone.
12:29Home run for Otani on the first pitch of the ball game.
12:33I got to tell you, I love a leadoff home run because that just sets the tone.
12:39It does.
12:39For the entire game, especially when you're on the road.
12:42Because again, did you hear those cheers?
12:44Pretty loud.
12:46That sounded pretty close to being a game at Dodger Stadium.
12:50Not as loud, but it's close.
12:52I will say this, of all the sports, if you were to measure what percentage of fans are
13:02in their seats by the time the game starts, the NBA is probably last place, but baseball
13:07is kind of second to last place because they play during the week and that's a huge part
13:11of it.
13:12So whenever there's a leadoff home run, I always do feel for that dad who's dragging his kids
13:17because soccer practice took too long and he's like, Timmy, I told you we need to be
13:23on the road by 345 and they weren't and they missed a Shohei home run because of it.
13:27I'm telling you, we would listen to the first two innings in the car.
13:30We'd listen to Vin.
13:31We'd usually, like my dad was great because we had like one of those premier parking spots.
13:35So it was like park, walk right in.
13:37You're in your seats within 10 minutes.
13:39But yeah, we were getting there in the third inning.
13:40And there's four of four kids and dad and mom.
13:44It's a lot.
13:44To be fair, when we were growing up, baseball games were like four and a half hours.
13:49So you didn't need to be there for all night.
13:51Dude, when we were growing up, when I was covering the Angels, I think they averaged like four
13:55and a half hour games, you guys.
13:57The pitch clock has been the best thing to happen to baseball in the last 10 years besides
14:02Shohei Otani because Shohei Otani is the best thing to happen to baseball in the last decade.
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