When Shohei Ohtani He’s concentrating on the batter’s box, what is that experience like for him? Do you feel like the stadium is silent? Do you feel like you’re not thinking?
“I feel like I’m concentrating,” he said.
His cheerful response sparked a chorus of laughter among the Japanese reporters in the Dodger Stadium interview room.
There remains no explanation for how Ohtani does what he does. In his first postseason game, Ohtani played Saturday as he did in his record-breaking regular season.
Read more: Plaschke: Take that! Vengeful Dodgers roar in opening postseason victory over reeling Padres
He hit a three-run homer in the second inning to erase a three-run deficit.
He dropped a broken-bat single to center field in the fourth, contributing to a three-run surge that put the Dodgers ahead and on their way to a victory. 7-5 victory over the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of their National League Division Series.
“You know, Shohei is Shohei,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said. “We didn’t expect anything less than what he showed today. “He’s the guy that’s going to guide us through all of this and we’re going to follow him and try to play at the same level as him.”
For the most part, the Dodgers are the same team they were last year. His the starting pitch is terrible. His Hitters are susceptible to crises.. But they have Ohtani.
Without Ohtani, they may not have made the playoffs this season. With him they could be World Series champions.
He’s the most physically talented player in baseball and the most motivated player, but what really separates him from the rest is his ability to calm down in the batter’s box, regardless of how excitable he may be outside of it.
“Well, I’m clear on what I want to do and I’m going to the plate prepared to a certain extent,” Ohtani said. “I calmly think about what I prepared and direct my attention to the pitcher.”
Saturday provided another example.
In the moments before the first pitch, Ohtani appeared ready to run the field. While the Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto While warming up, he jumped behind his team’s bench with the bat already in hand.
When Ohtani faced Padres starter Dylan Cease in the bottom half of the inning, his entire demeanor changed. Suddenly, he was the calmest player on the field.
How do you make that transition?
“I don’t even know,” he said. “When I go to the batter’s box, I automatically focus.”
His manager was also baffled.
“I don’t know how that happens,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He certainly has that switch.”
In his first at-bat, Ohtani was late on a 99 mph fastball from Cease and a fly ball to left field. In his next turn at the plate, with two outs and two men on, Cease threw another high fastball to Ohtani, this time at 97 mph.
Ohtani hit the pitch over the right field wall. The three-run explosion tied the game, 3-3.
Ohtani’s demeanor changed again as he watched the ball fly. He screamed and violently threw his bat aside.
Until that moment, thoughts of here we go again were beginning to enter the collective consciousness of a team that was eliminated at this stage of the postseason in each of the last two seasons.
“I mean, you could almost feel it in the stadium,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “But then, luckily, we have a guy named Shohei Ohtani, and he injected absolute lightning into the stadium. From then on, it was like, ‘Okay, we did it, we’re good, this isn’t the same as previous years.'”
Yamamoto allowed two more runs in the third and final inning of his disastrous start, but the Dodgers responded by scoring four times in the fourth.
Ohtani was not only immune to Dodgeritis. He was also the vaccine.
“At the beginning of the first game, I think you have to tighten up,” Ohtani said. “They did three races, but I think we created a good flow by catching up quickly and in good shape.”
At a press conference the day before, Ohtani seemed confident that the moment wouldn’t be too big for him.
When asked if he was nervous, Ohtani didn’t wait for interpreter Will Ireton to repeat the question in Japanese.
“No,” Ohtani responded in English.
He smiled.
He later explained in Japanese: “I have been practicing since I was little for this. I’ve been doing this thinking I want to play on a stage like this. “I think I’m more looking forward to this (than nervous).”
Twelve years after he turned down an offer to sign with the Dodgers to begin his professional career in Japan and seven years after he chose to break into the most competitive league in the world with the downtrodden Angels, he was finally here.
Ohtani was finally in a major league postseason and he was ready.
Read more: Shohei Ohtani’s three-run homer helps Dodgers edge Padres in Game 1 of NLDS
Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the beginning of each series.
This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.