Dave Roberts played with Barry Bonds, watching the seven-time National League most valuable player (MVP) at the height of his powers.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager has seen only one player who compares to Bonds: Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani added to his growing legend on Friday night, blasting a three-run homer to cap a six-run ninth inning in the Dodgers’ improbable 14-11 comeback victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Photo: AFP
“Between him and Barry Bonds, those are the two best players I’ve ever seen,” Roberts said.
“I played with Barry, but what Sho does in the clutch, I’ve never seen anything like what he does in the clutch,” he said.
The Dodgers and Diamondbacks played one of the wildest games of the season in the desert, combining for 25 runs, 26 hits, two blown leads of at least three runs and six homers.
Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images
It all came down to Ohtani.
The Japanese star has shown a knack for coming through in big moments during his eight-year career, first with the Los Angeles Angels, and the past two seasons with the crosstown Dodgers.
One of two players to win MVP in both leagues — twice in the American League, once in the National League — Ohtani came to the plate in the ninth after the Dodgers rallied with three runs to tie it at 11. Ryan Thompson entered the game to face Ohtani with runners on first and second.
Photo: AP
Thompson got ahead of Ohtani 1-2, but left a breaking ball on the inside corner. Ohtani turned on it quickly and sent it deep into the seats in right for his 12th of the season. He tossed his bat and raised his arms in celebration in a similar fashion to what Arizona’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr did after a tying grand slam in the fifth.
“It was a really great game,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “It’s not the kind of game we play a lot, but for us to score a lot, for them to come back, for us to come back again — it was very emotional.”
Ohtani kicked off the crazy night in the desert with a 423-foot double off the center field wall, a 107.9mph shot that would have gone out in most ballparks.
It was not even the hardest hit of the first inning. Arizona’s Ketel Marte hit the first of his two solo homers — exit velocity 113.1 — and Eugenio Suarez followed with a two-run shot.
The Dodgers then took their turn to bash baseballs.
Kike Hernandez hit a leadoff homer in the second inning, Ohtani added a run-scoring double and Los Angeles went up 8-3 after a five-run third.
The Dodgers’ bats went quiet after that — no hits the next four innings — and the Diamondbacks came alive.
Gurriel hit his seventh career grand slam in the fifth inning, and Arizona went up 9-8 on a bases-loaded walk. The Diamondbacks kept hitting, going up 11-8 on consecutive solo homers by Marte and pinch hitter Randal Grichuk in the eighth.
Seemingly in control, Arizona sent out Kevin Ginkel to pitch the ninth.
It did not go so well.
Freddie Freeman opened with a punch single through the shifted left side. Andy Pages, who had three RBIs, followed with a run-scoring double, Hernandez matched him, and Max Muncy hit an RBI single to tie it at 11.
Ginkel was removed after hitting Michael Conforto with a pitch, leaving Thompson to face Ohtani with two on and one out.
Then Ohtani did what he does best.
“Whenever you see Sho put in these spots, you expect the incredible,” Muncy said. “He rarely disappoints, and that’s no different there.”
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