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LOS ANGELES — For six seasons, the baseball world wondered what it would be like to see Shohei Ohtani, one of the most electrifying baseball players of this generation, in the MLB playoffs.

The San Diego Padres found out the hard way.

The Los Angeles Dodgers slugger got his offense going with a thunderous three-run home run that gave his team a 7-5 victory over its rival in Game 1 of the National League Divisional Series. In his playoff debut, he proved that his 10-year, $700 million contract is worth every penny.

“I could really feel the intensity of the stadium before the game started and I really enjoyed it,” Ohtani said.

The first inning was a sight Dodger fans have seen many times in recent postseason appearances. His starting pitcher — this time, Yoshinobo Yamamoto — was lit before the sun even set in Southern California. A Manny Machado home run capped three runs in the top of the frame for the Padres, and the Dodgers were unable to answer on their first attempt to the plate.

But all these fights changed at the end of the second. In the most meaningful at-bat attempt of his career to date, Ohtani brought Dylan Cease to right field, threw his bat and roared as the raucous crowd at Dodger Stadium watched the ball fly over the right field wall and decide the game.

No, momentum didn't win the game. Los Angeles fell into deficit again the following inning, but another offseason addition was a big hit. Teoscar Hernandez, an underrated rookie coming out of spring training, hit a two-run single in the fourth inning that gave Los Angeles a lead it held for the rest of the game.

The new acquisitions were exactly what the Dodgers needed when they faltered far too often.

In the first game of this series alone, the Dodgers scored seven runs. Last season, when the Dodgers were defeated by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the offense scored just six runs in three games and the stars were nowhere to be found. In 2022, when San Diego won three straight to eliminate them, it scored just seven runs in three losses.

Just when it seemed like another tough October was about to begin in Los Angeles, Ohtani was there to change the story.

“It just gave us momentum again and gave us life,” manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani’s home run. “From the first pitch, the fans were just there, right in the middle of it. I felt that energy and I think Shohei benefits from it. But that was just a huge success.”

Although it was Hernandez who gave the starting kick, he received no credit for leading the team to victory. He left all that up to his leadoff hitter.

“(Ohtani) is the guy that's going to lead us through all of this and we're going to follow him and try to stay and play at the same level,” Hernandez said.

Ohtani said he was very pleased to see a pitcher like Cease hit the home run, especially since he had a solid performance against the Dodgers this season. In two starts against Los Angeles, he pitched 10 ⅔ innings and gave up four runs on eight hits with a total of 10 strikeouts, but did not allow a Dodgers batter to hit one over the fence.

Padres manager Mike Shildt said Cease had a really good first hit against Ohtani when he got him to fly out in the first inning. But he said he put the pitch — a four-seam fastball at the top of the strike zone — in a spot they didn't like, and Ohtani made him pay for it.

“It’s all about the execution, right? You have to be even better against really good players,” Shildt said. “We just got something out that was over and he was able to put the bat on.”

Although it was his first MLB postseason game, Ohtani is no stranger to dealing with the bright lights. He won a title while playing in Japan, and who could forget the performance he showed for Japan at the World Baseball Classic in 2023 when he was named MVP of the tournament?

The slugger said it was difficult to compare his past experiences with his current situation, but he knew the intensity was increasing once again.

“I thought it was pretty exciting,” Ohtani said.

That excitement certainly took some of the pressure off Yamamoto after he gave up three runs in the first and two more in the second before being pulled.

Yamamoto said he was grateful the offense picked him up. The bullpen has also stepped up for Los Angeles. After scoring five runs on five hits in the first three innings, San Diego again failed to score and managed just two hits and struck out seven times in the final six frames.

The fellow Japanese star said he would go back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong. If this series ends up lasting four or five games, as many people expect, he will likely be asked to take the mound again. He added that he fell behind early in the at-bats, but something else may have contributed; Roberts said it seemed like the Padres understood what Yamamoto was delivering.

“I think there are some things we'll address because I think at second base there were some things with his glove and giving away some pitches. So we’re going to clean this up,” he said. “It's up to us to sort of clean it up and not give away what pitch we're going to throw. We will sort this out internally.”

Nevertheless, Saturday was all about Ohtani. Not only was there special attention that Saturday was his first MLB playoff game, but he was coming off the hottest stretch of the season. Since that day in Miami, when he became the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season, he has had a .628 batting average with six home runs and 20 RBI. If there are runners in scoring position, that's pretty much a guarantee that Ohtani will bring them home.

There was no telling whether Ohtani would be able to continue. He even admitted that it's difficult to feel comfortable with the first playoff game coming off the break. The two best players in each league are taken and clearly haven't helped Los Angeles over the last two seasons.

But those games are why Ohtani decided to spend the next decade with the Dodgers. He was looking forward to being in a “high-intensity environment,” and if he can deliver like he did in Game 1, he might be able to lead the Dodgers back to glory.

“He definitely has that switch, that focus, to being excited instead of nervous and feeling pressured and trying too hard,” Roberts said. “I have truly never seen a man persevere in the biggest moments as consistently as he did. It's really impressive. I don’t know how he does it.”

On By John Fenwick

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