World Series Game 3 had quite possibly too much for a normal human to process. Freddie Freeman is a World Series hero again. Shohei Ohtani got on base 9 times. Good baserunning was seemingly an option all game long. And by “all game long”, I mean 18 innings. 18 INNINGS.
This game had it all. Home runs, warning track close calls, incredible defense, insane pitching, Shohei Ohtani, etc. It is without a doubt one of the best games ever played in the history of the sport by two teams. Shohei also found another reason for us to say “Was this the best single game performance of all time?” He seems to do this on a weekly basis but the last two times have been extremely legitimate qualified events to pose this question.
We are truly watching the best player of all time on a daily basis, and it is a shame he is on the Dodgers and it can not be properly enjoyed by most of the country. But we are very much at the point in which the team he plays on no longer matters because he is making the impossible seem very possible every game. Last night, in an 18 inning marathon that lasted 6 hours and 39 minutes, we saw Shohei Ohtani get on base 9 times. I actually can not even type that out without laughing because it should not be real. This can not even be done in video games.
9 times is insane. He had 4 extra base hits and two home runs (including a massive game tying blast in the 8th inning) before extra innings even began. He then proceeded to get walked 5 times in extra innings, including 4 intentional walks. He had to be walked intentionally simply because this game would have ended long before the 18th inning if he had a chance to swing his bat. He had 12 total bases before he even got walked once, let alone 5 times.
It is hard to fathom what he does for this team. Following last week’s 3-HR/6+ shutout inning game, we are forced to ask ourselves if this was the peak of baseball last night. He is just that guy. He has always been that guy. And I don’t see him slowing down anytime soon.
With all that being said, Ohtani was not the hero at the end of the day despite his unreal performance. Freddie Freeman was yet again the hero in extra innings, almost exactly 1 year after his dramatic Walk Off Grand Slam in Game 1 of the Fall Classic last year. In his 9th plate appearance, he clubbed a game winner to deep center field to send his fans home ecstatic. He is now the only player in MLB history to have two career walk off home runs in the World Series.
He may not be lighting the world on fire statistically this postseason, but he just always seems to find himself coming through in the big moments. Whether it’s starting rallies or belting walk-off bombs, Freddie simply just wins.
Freeman’s homer was just the icing on the cake in this wild game. So many weird things happened. We had Vladimir Guerrero Jr. successfully sliding into home plate in a wacky way to grab the lead in the 7th inning. We had Clayton Kershaw bailing his team out of a bases loaded jam deep into extras. We had Tommy Edman put on a defensive masterclass to nail down crucial baserunners in critical moments of the game. We had the Dodgers baserunners running into outs as well. With all that being said, we had a discovery of the greatest coincidence of all time.
What could I be referring to? I am of course referring to Brad Paisley.
Yea. Brad Paisley.
Brad Paisley has now sung the national anthem before four world series games. All four of these games have gone to extra innings, and this includes the only other world series game in MLB history that went 18 innings back in 2018. That’s right. The two longest world series games of all time were 18 innings long and they were both played at Dodger Stadium on a day where Brad Paisley sang the anthem. Also, the last time it happened was last year before Game 1 when, yup you guessed it, Freddie Freeman hit a walkoff home run against an AL East Team to grab the lead in the series.
Who knows if we will ever see this again, but all I know is that if we ever see him sing the anthem again before a Dodger game, place your bets on Freddie Freeman and especially throw some money down on any and all extra inning prop bets.
Like I said, there is quite possibly too much information for us all to digest as fans after this game. It will certainly be remembered in world series lore forever.
The Blue Jays will look to even up the series tonight as Shane Bieber faces off against the man who just got on base 9 times last night. Can Shohei give us the most incredible 24 hour span in sports history? Well, we will just have to tune in tonight and find out.