Sports
Passan: Ohtani’s Game 4 reminds us of the improbability of his greatness
LOS ANGELES — It’s easy to take Shohei Ohtani for granted. By now, we’ve settled into the rote comfort: He is the best player on the planet, and that’s that. Ohtani’s baseline is everyone else’s peak. He is judged against himself and himself only.
And it’s human nature that when we watch something often enough — even something as mind-bending as a player who’s a full-time starting pitcher and full-time hitter and among the very best at both — it starts to register as normal.
Which is his performance on Friday — the unleashing of the full extent of Ohtani’s magic — was the sort of necessary reminder that one of the greatest athletes in the world, and the most talented baseball player ever, is playing right now, doing unfathomable things, redefining the game in real time. And that even when he starts the day mired in an uncharacteristic slump, Ohtani needs only a single game to launch himself into the annals of history.
Where Ohtani’s performance in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series ranks on the all-time list of games will be debated for years. In the celebration following the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, though, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts stood on the field and said, “That’s the greatest night in baseball history,” and no one cared to argue.
Over the course of 2 hours, 41 minutes, in front of 52,883 fans, with millions watching domestically and tens of millions more in Japan, Ohtani threw six shutout innings and struck out 10 in between hitting three home runs that traveled a combined 1,342 feet, including one that left Dodger Stadium entirely. It was the sort of game that happens in comic books, not real life — and it was a game that completed a championship series sweep and sent Los Angeles to its second consecutive World Series. It was the kind of night that leaves patrons elated they saw it and also just a little ruined because they know they’ll never see anything like it again. Everyone was a prisoner, captive to perhaps the greatest individual game in the quarter-million or so played over the last century and a half.
It was, at very least, one of the finest displays of baseball since the game’s inception, up there with Tony Cloninger hitting two grand slams and throwing a complete game in 1966 or Rick Wise socking two home runs amid his no-hitter on the mound in 1971. And unlike those, this came in the postseason, and in a game to clinch Los Angeles the opportunity to become the first team in a quarter-century to win back-to-back championships.
It wasn’t quite Don Larsen throwing a perfect game — but Larsen went 0-for-2 in that game and needed a Mickey Mantle home run to account for his scoring. It wasn’t Reggie Jackson hammering three home runs, either — because Reggie needed Mike Torrez to throw a complete game that night to make his blasts stand up.
Ohtani is the only player who can do this, the offense and the defense — the mastery of baseball, the distillation of talent into something pure and perfect..
Hours earlier, his day had started by navigating the tricky balance of starting and hitting on the same day. His metronomic routine, such a vital piece of his three MVP seasons (the fourth will be made official in mid-November), is upended completely when he pitches. He budgets for the extra time he needs to spend caring for his arm by sacrificing his attendance at the hitters’ meeting, instead getting the intel he needs from coaches in the batting cage about an hour before the game.
Nobody could tell, when Ohtani arrived in the underground cage Friday, that he was mired in a nasty slump that had stretched from the division series through the third game of the NLCS, a jag of strikeouts and soft contact and poor swing decisions and utter frustration that got so bad earlier in the week he’d taken batting practice outside at Dodger Stadium, something he never — like, really, never — does. He had decided to do so on the plane ride back from Milwaukee, where the Dodgers had humbled the Brewers with the sort of starting pitching never before seen in a league championship series.
Game 4, his teammates were convinced, was going to be a culmination of that extra cage work and the matching of his pitching peers’ dominance.
“You guys asked me yesterday, and I said I was expecting nothing short of incredible today,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “And he proved me wrong. He went beyond incredible.”
After walking the leadoff hitter Brice Turang, Ohtani struck out the next three hitters, popping a pair of 100-mph-plus fastballs and unleashing the most confounding version of his splitter seen all year. He followed by obliterating a slurve from Jose Quintana in the bottom of the inning for a home run, the first time a pitcher ever hit a leadoff homer in the game’s history, regular season or playoffs.
The strikeouts continued — one in the third inning, two more in the fourth, preceding Ohtani’s second home run, which left 50,000 mouths agape. In the stands, they cheered, and in the dugout, they whooped, and in the bullpen, they screamed: “The ball went out of the stadium!” Alex Vesia, the reliever who would come in after Ohtani struck out two more in the fifth and sixth innings, could not conceive that a person could hit a baseball in a game that far. Officially, it went 469 feet. It felt like 1,000.
“At that point, it’s got to be the greatest game ever, right?” said Vesia, who did his part to help keep it so. Ohtani allowed a walk and a hit in the seventh inning, and had Vesia allowed either run to score, the sparkling zero in his pitching line could’ve been an unsightly one or crooked two. When he induced a groundball up the middle that nutmegged his legs, Mookie Betts was in perfect position to hoover it, step on second and fire to first for a double play that preserved Ohtani’s goose egg.
In the next inning, Ohtani’s third home run of the night, and this one was just showing off: a shot to dead center off a 99-mph Trevor Megill fastball, a proper complement to the second off an 89-mph Chad Patrick cutter and the first off a 79-mph Jose Quintana slurve). If it sounds impressive to hit three different pitches off three different pitchers for home runs in one night, it is. To do so throwing six innings, allowing two hits, walking three and striking out 10 is otherworldly.
“We were so focused on just winning the game, doing what needed to be done, I’m not sure we realized how good it really was,” Dodgers catcher Will Smith said. “I didn’t really appreciate it until after. Like, he actually did that?”
Yes. Yes he did. In baseball history, 503 players have hit three home runs in a game, and 1,550 have struck out 10 or more in a game. None, until Friday, had done both. And that’s what Shohei Ohtani does, who he is. For eight years, he has transformed what is possible in baseball, set a truly impossible standard to match, and now, finally, having signed with a franchise capable of giving his talents the largest stage, Ohtani gets to perform when it matters most.
Milwaukee won more games during the regular season than anyone. Regardless of how impotent the Brewers’ offense was this series, they were a very good team, and the Dodgers flayed them. The final game was an exclamation point — and a warning for the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays, whichever survives the back-and-forth American League Championship Series.
Shohei Ohtani awaits. Good luck.
Peshawar Zalmi ended a nine-year wait for Pakistan Super League glory with a composed five-wicket victory over debutants Hyderabad Kingsmen in the PSL 11 final at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday, sparking jubilant reactions from fans across the cricketing world.
All-rounder Aaron Hardie emerged as the star of the night, delivering a match-winning performance with both ball and bat. His four-wicket haul restricted Kingsmen to a modest total, before he anchored the chase with an unbeaten half-century to guide Zalmi home with 28 balls to spare. Chasing 130, Zalmi approached the target with calm authority, sealing the win for the loss of five wickets.
The triumph marked Zalmi’s second PSL title — their first since 2017 — and a significant personal milestone for captain Babar Azam, who lifted his maiden major T20 trophy as skipper. The victory also denied Hyderabad Kingsmen a dream debut season ending, though their impressive run to the final as first-time entrants drew widespread praise.
Fans flooded social media with celebratory reactions after Peshawar Zalmi’s title win, with supporters enjoying the franchise’s second PSL crown and praising a competitive, entertaining season.
Federal Minister for Information Ataullah Tarar was all praise for the match, lauding the “great game of cricket” and the country’s effort in staging another successful season of the PSL.
Amid the wider celebrations, much of the spotlight turned to Babar’s leadership, with fans lauding his composed captaincy and resilience throughout the tournament, hailing the triumph as a long-overdue milestone in his career.
Aaron Hardie backed his four-wicket haul with a blistering half-century to lead Peshawar Zalmi to a five-wicket victory over Hyderabad Kingsmen in an enthralling Pakistan Super League (PSL) 11 final at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday.
The high-reward victory helped Zalmi clinch their second PSL title, ending a nine-year wait as they first got their hands on the prestigious silverware in 2017 under the leadership of West Indies great Darren Sammy. It also marked the first-ever major trophy for star batter Babar Azam as the captain.
Set to chase a modest 130-run target, Zalmi eventually knocked the winning runs comfortably for the loss of five wickets and 28 balls to spare.
The former champions, however, had a contrasting start to the pursuit as they lost Mohammad Haris (six) and captain Babar Azam (duck) in the pulsating first over, bowled by Mohammad Ali.
After the departure of both openers, all-rounder Aaron Hardie and in-form Kusal Mendis (nine) attempted to anchor the run chase with a 26-run partnership, which culminated with the latter’s dismissal in the fourth over.
Left-arm pacer Akif Javed inflicted another blow to Zalmi’s run chase in the subsequent over as he got Michael Bracewell (four) caught behind and brought the total down to 40/4.
Hardie was then joined by Abdul Samad in the middle, and the duo turned the game on its head with sensible batting and put Zalmi within touching distance with an 85-run partnership.
Ali broke the crucial stand in the 15th over by dismissing Samad, who walked back after scoring a valiant 48 off 34 deliveries, laced with three fours and four sixes.
Hardie, on the other hand, batted until the end and walked back after top-scoring with an unbeaten 56 off 39 deliveries, studded with nine boundaries.
Ali was the pick of the bowlers for the Kingsmen, taking three wickets for 38 runs in his four overs, while fellow pacers Hunain Shah and Javed could claim one apiece.Zalmi captain Babar Azam’s decision to field first paid dividends as the 2017 champions booked the debutants for a modest 129 in 18 overs.
Kingsmen got off to a shaky start to their innings as their lost left-handed opener Maaz Sadaqat (11) fell victim to Mohammad Basit in the second over with just 16 runs on the board.
Following his dismissal, Saim Ayub joined Marnus Labuschagne in the middle, and the duo ensured retaining the scoring rate by putting together 35 runs in 19 deliveries before Aaron Hardie got the skipper caught behind in the fifth over.
Labuschagne remained a notable run-getter for the Kingsmen, making a 12-ball 20 with the help of three fours and a six.
Saim, on the other hand, was then involved in a 20-run partnership for the third wicket with in-form wicketkeeper batter Usman Khan (eight), who was trapped lbw by leading wicket-taker of the PSL 11 Sufiyan Muqeem in the seventh over.
Usman’s dismissal triggered a middle-order collapse as the Kingsmen lost three more wickets, out of which two were run-outs, in just eight deliveries, and consequently slipped to 73/6 in 7.5 overs.
Following the collapse, Hassan Khan (12) walked out to bat at No.8 and shared a brief 17-run partnership for the seventh wicket with set batter Saim until being sent back by Hardie in the 10th over.
Saim was then involved in cautious partnerships with Hunain Shah (nine) and Mohammad Ali until eventually being dismissed by Hardie on the first delivery of the 18th over.
The left-handed batter remained the top-scorer for the Kingsmen with a cautious 54 off 50 deliveries, featuring five fours and two sixes.
Hardie struck again in the same over, getting Akif Javed (five) caught behind to round up Zalmi’s dominant performance with the ball.
Hardie was the standout bowler for Zalmi in the PSL 11 final, returning sensational figures of 4/27 in his four overs, followed by Nahid Rana, who bagged two wickets, while Muqeem and Basit chipped in with one scalp apiece.
Peshawar Zalmi captain Babar Azam was dismissed for a duck in the PSL 11 final against Hyderabad Kingsmen at Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday, falling short of Fakhar Zaman’s record for most runs in a single season.
The right-handed batter entered the high-stakes final needing just one run to surpass Zaman’s landmark tally. However, he failed to add to his score and was dismissed without troubling the scorers, missing out on a historic milestone.
Previously, the left-handed batter from the Qalandars held the record in the 2022 edition of the tournament, when he amassed 588 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 152.72, including seven half-centuries and one century.
Babar, meanwhile, has equalled the feat in 11 innings, scoring runs at an outstanding average of 73.50 and a strike rate of 145.90. His season has included two centuries and three half-centuries.
Most runs in a PSL season:
Babar Azam (Peshawar Zalmi) – 588 runs in 2026
Fakhar Zaman (Lahore Qalandars) – 588 runs in 2022
Babar Azam (Peshawar Zalmi) – 569 runs in 2024
Babar Azam (Karachi Kings) – 554 runs in 2021
Mohammad Rizwan (Multan Sultans) – 550 runs in 2023
Mohammad Rizwan (Multan Sultans) – 546 runs in 2022
Kusal Mendis (Peshawar Zalmi) – 541* runs in 2026
Babar Azam (Peshawar Zalmi) – 522 runs in 2023
Mohammad Rizwan (Multan Sultans) – 500 runs in 2021
Moreover, the 31-year-old previously equalled two major records during the ongoing edition of the tournament courtesy of a blistering century against Islamabad United in the Qualifier.
Babar Azam top-scored in the high-stakes fixture with a swashbuckling 103 off just 59 deliveries, decorated with 12 fours and four sixes, helping the table-toppers post a commanding total of 221/7 in their 20 overs.
His 57-ball century in the match marked his second of the ongoing edition, making him only the second batter in the history of the marquee league to register two centuries in a single season, joining Usman Khan, who achieved the feat in PSL 9 for Multan Sultans.
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