A dominant pitching performance was met with some red-hot bats as the Los Angeles Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the National League Championship Series over the New York Mets.
Ohtani launched a 410 foot moon shot of a three-run home run in the eighth inning to punctuate an 8-0 win in Game 3 of the NLCS at Citi Field in Flushing Meadows on Wednesday night.
After Los Angeles scored a pair of runs in the second inning, Kike Hernandez hit a two-run blast to make it 4-0 in the sixth.
Ohtani then followed suit to make it a 7-0 affair before a solo shot from Max Muncy in the top of the ninth sealed the Mets to a loss on a night where their bats went 4-for-30.
The Mets finished the night with eight runners left on base to the Dodgers’ 10 – but New York went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position while LA went 4-for-13.
Shohei Ohtani’s three-run shot in the eighth sealed an 8-0 win for the Los Angeles Dodgers
A fired-up Walker Buehler struck out Francisco Lindor to leave the bases loaded in the second, and the Dodgers got five stingy innings from their hard-throwing bullpen.
Michael Kopech worked a hitless fifth for the win, and Dodgers pitchers finished with 13 strikeouts.
Mets starter Luis Severino fell behind 2-0 in the second, partly due to some shoddy fielding. He did not permit an earned run but threw 95 pitches and walked four in 4 2/3 innings, taking the loss.
Slumping catcher Will Smith knocked in a run with an infield single, and Tommy Edman had a sacrifice fly that could have been more if not for a sensational catch on the right-center warning track by Tyrone Taylor.
Los Angeles threw consecutive shutouts against San Diego to win their heated Division Series after trailing two games to one. Jack Flaherty and the Dodgers then blanked the Mets 9-0 in the NLCS opener Sunday, extending the team´s scoreless streak to 33 innings – matching a postseason record.
The only recent blip for the pitching staff came Monday, when Lindor hit a leadoff homer and the Mets won 7-3 at Chavez Ravine.
Ohtani entered batting .222 with a homer and five RBIs during his first postseason. The $700 million superstar sparked the offense in Game 1 against the Mets, but hadn’t gone deep since hitting a three-run homer early in the Division Series opener.
When he connected on an 0-1 cutter from Tylor Megill in the eighth, Ohtani pointed toward the Dodgers dugout. The ball was initially called fair, a ruling that stood following a replay review.
Ohtani’s blast, which went 410 feet to right field, put the game firmly out of hand
Luis Severino fell into a 2-0 hole in the second inning from which the Mets didn’t recover
A dejected Mets fan in a Grimace costume reacts in the ninth inning of Mets-Dodgers
Dating to the regular season, Ohtani has 17 hits and 27 RBIs in his past 20 at-bats with runners in scoring position, including seven home runs.
The leadoff hitter is 0 for 22 this postseason with the bases empty. With runners on, he is 7 for 9 with two homers and eight RBIs.
Game 4 is Thursday night in Queens, with $325 million rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto scheduled to start for Los Angeles against New York’s veteran left-hander Jose Quintana.
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