On Friday, we got a double-barreled dose of the American exceptionalism that MLB promotes wholeheartedly.
A day before the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres opened Game 1 of their NLDS, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto were asked about their feelings ahead of their “first” postseason games.
Ohtani, who came to MLB as a sixth-year pro and a former MVP, was a veteran of 13 major league postseason games between the ages of 19 and 21. In those, he went 2-2 with one save in five games as a pitcher with 29 strikeouts and a 4.38 ERA. During those years, as a part-time DH, Ohtani slashed .262/.311/.381 with one RBI.
Asked if he felt pressure ahead of his first postseason game, Ohtani said, “Nope.”
We entered the weekend with one of six playoff spots set and on Saturday we had three. The Yomiuri Giants clinched the Central League pennant by crushing the Hiroshima Carp, who tied a franchise record for losses in a month with their 19th, with Tomoyuki Sugano earning his 15th win, matching the two-time Sawamura Award winner’s second best season total from 2018.
To keep up the theme from last weekend’s post about how this year’s dead ball affected the fortunes of the Hiroshima Carp, “Better red AND dead,” the Giants joined the SoftBank Hawks as league champions. The Carp, Hawks and Giants are all good at winning without power because of their pitching and defense. When the power switched back on, the Carp faded, while the Giants and Hawks just rolled on.
