Shohei Ohtani Got Walked Intentionally, And Then He Scored The Winning Run Anyway

Okay, Mariners fans, let's talk about something happening down south in LA that should absolutely grab your attention. You know how some players just break the game? Well, Shohei Ohtani is doing that again. The Diamondbacks tried to take the bat out of his hands Tuesday night, intentionally walking him in the seventh with a runner on third. Guess what? It was totally futile. He still ended up scoring the winning run in the Dodgers' 6-5 victory. Talk about a "you can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him" moment!

The .420 Batting Average That Makes Opponents Panic

Look, Ohtani is no stranger to the intentional walk, but it had been 26 games since a team pulled this move on him. That's a long time. Why now? Because he's been absolutely on fire! He already had a double and a two-run triple in the game before that walk. Dude is crushing it. Manager Dave Roberts even said, "You want there to be a tax when you walk Shohei," and boy, did the D-backs pay up. Andy Pages followed with a sacrifice fly, and then Ohtani trotted home on a Mookie Betts RBI single, pushing the Dodgers to a four-run lead. Arizona battled back, scoring three off L.A. relievers Kyle Hurt and Will Klein in the bottom of the inning, but that run Ohtani scored? That was the decider. It's wild to think that even when a team *succeeds* in walking him, he still finds a way to be the difference-maker.

From "Sluggish" To Scorching Hot

The Dodgers had a sluggish offensive night on Monday, losing 4-1, but Tuesday was a different story right from the jump. Ohtani blasted a double to right field to lead off the game, then scored on Freddie Freeman's ninth homer of the season. In the second, Dalton Rushing and Alex Freeland set the table with back-to-back singles, and Ohtani brought them both home with a line drive for his second triple of the season. Freeman put it best, saying, "It’s nice after only scoring one yesterday to get out and get some runs early on the board... Four runs in the first couple innings, you would hope you keep going. But two in the middle innings there was good enough." What's really pushing Ohtani's dominance? Since May 12, the guy is hitting an insane 29-for-69, which is a .420 clip, with 13 extra-base hits. Before that, in 38 games, he was at .233. He credits feeling good hitting-wise the day before a pitching start, not the two rest days Roberts gave him. And it's no coincidence that since May 12, after dropping four straight, the Dodgers have won 15 of 19 games without back-to-back losses. Freeman summed it up: "When he’s on base, when he’s feeling good, it just kind of trickles into everybody else... When the greatest player is going well, usually good things happen for the team.” Speaking of good things, our Mariners just handled the New York Mets, 8-3! That's the kind of energy we need at T-Mobile Park. We gotta keep building on these early season wins and show the league what the Emerald City is all about. Let's keep that momentum rolling into the next one!

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.