The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani will start game one of the NLDS versus the Phillies. (Photo by Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images)
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The Philadelphia Phillies must face the unicorn: Shohei Ohtani the batter and the pitcher.
For the first time ever, Ohtani will pitch in the playoffs when he starts for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Phillies in Game 1 of the best-of-five National League Division Series that begins in Philadelphia on Saturday (6:30 p.m. ET, TBS). Ohtani will also become the first player in Major League history to start at least one game as a pitcher and at least one as a non-pitcher in a single postseason.
Ohtani — who took last year off from pitching while recovering from elbow surgery —became the first MLB player with at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season and led the Dodgers to a World Series victory over the New York Yankees in 2024.
The Dodgers eased Ohtani back onto the mound this year. He worked his way up from one-inning stints in June to a six-inning outing in his last start of the regular season on Sept. 23. He finished the year with 62 strikeouts and 2.87 ERA in 47 innings pitched.
So the obvious question is: Will Ohtani have any limitations when he takes the mound against the Phils? “I just think he’s just a normal starting pitcher now,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said.
For Los Angeles, that means Ohtani is cleared to unleash his full six-pitch arsenal, which includes a 100-mph fastball — and that’s potentially horrible news for Phillies batters because this is what they’ll be getting:
Former Phillies general manager and current broadcaster Ruben Amaro said the Phils must game-plan for Ohtani’s elite swing-and-miss stuff by attacking early in the count.
“If I’m facing him, I’m looking for a fastball or something that’s up in the zone,” Amaro said on The Phillies Show that dropped Friday. “I’m going to have to be aggressive on it early, because if you get to two strikes, you’re talking about six different pitches and you can’t eliminate anything, and you’re just looking for the baseball.”
Amaro also said Phillies batters also must “distinguish hittable pitches from non-hittable pitches” to be successful against Ohtani. That’s something Phils batters didn’t do when Ohtani tossed five hitless innings against them on Sept. 16.
But Amaro did point to one advantage the Phils will have versus Ohtani — the Philly crowd, which is one of the loudest in sports. “Lest we forget,” Amaro said, “the Phillie fan really believes they can impact the game, and I’m sure they will be trying.”