Sports
Shaikin: Blue Jays waited too long to walk Shohei Ohtani. Will it cost them a title?
For all the times the Toronto Blue Jays walked Shohei Ohtani, they lost Game 3 of the World Series because of the one time they did not walk him.
They learned their lesson, four times over.
Here’s another Babe Ruth comparison: Ruth played in 41 World Series games. He was intentionally walked twice.
On Monday, in one World Series game, Ohtani was intentionally walked four times.
The situation called for it — no, begged for it — in the seventh inning. The Blue Jays led, 5-4, with one out and the bases empty. Ohtani already had batted three times, with two doubles and a home run.
On a night they would eventually use four pinch-runners, they already had removed two of their four most potent bats in George Springer and Bo Bichette. They needed to win in regulation, and they were eight outs away. As Ohtani stepped to the mound, the Jays held a conference on the mound.
There really wasn’t much to discuss. Their pitcher, Seranthony Domínguez, had held right-handers to a .132 batting average and .451 OPS this season — and left-handers to a .277 average and .816 OPS.
Mookie Betts, who bats right-handed, was on deck. Freddie Freeman, who bats left-handed, would have followed Betts, but he did not have three extra-base hits already.
The Blue Jays did not issue the obvious intentional walk to Ohtani.
“We’re trying to pitch around him,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “You trust Seranthony to make pitches to do that. Sometimes for pitchers it’s hard to do that when you’re kind of trying to throw a ball and didn’t put it where you want to put it.”
To recap: We’re not trying to throw him a strike, but we’re not going to walk him intentionally.
Sure, he might chase a pitch and strike out or make weak contact. But, if you pitch to Ohtani, you might miss your pitch and, if he’s swinging, he might hit a home run.
Domínguez missed, right down the middle. Ohtani’s home run tied the score 5-5.
“After that,” Schneider said, “you just kind of take the bat out of his hands.”
The Blue Jays intentionally walked Ohtani in each of his next four plate appearances, three times with the bases empty and once with a runner on third base.
Shohei Ohtani looks at home plate umpire Mark Wegner as he is intentionally walked in the 13th inning of Game 3 of the World Series against the Blue Jays on Monday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Too late. The Blue Jays and their increasingly patchwork lineup played another 11 innings, without scoring. The Dodgers won in 18 innings, 6-5, and they can close within one victory of the World Series championship on Tuesday.
In all, Ohtani reached base nine times, setting a postseason record. He became the first player in postseason history with multiple home runs, doubles and walks in the same game. And not since Frank Isbell of the 1906 Chicago White Sox had a player put up four extra-base hits in a World Series game.
Ruth had Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig batting behind him, but the two guys batting behind Ohtani could wind up Hall of Famers too: eight-time All-Star Mookie Betts and nine-time All-Star Freddie Freeman, each a former most valuable player.
“There’s certain times where I feel like, you feel like, you feel better about someone else beating you,” Schneider said. “If that someone else is Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman, it still stings.”
Freeman hit the walk-off home run. Schneider said he would continue to walk Ohtani.
He has no choice. Balls fly in warm weather at Dodger Stadium. The marine layer knocked down several potential home runs Monday, but a heat advisory has been issued for Southern California on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the game-time temperature predicted at 87 degrees Tuesday and potentially a little warmer Wednesday.
“I get it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s the best player on the planet, and he was on the heels of a huge offensive night, and John smelled that and wasn’t going to let Shohei beat him at all, obviously, and even when nobody’s on base and putting him on to make the other guys beat him.”
Highlights from the Dodgers’ 6-5 win in 18 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium.
Technically, one of the other guys beat the Blue Jays on Monday. But Freeman would not have had the opportunity to beat them in the 18th inning had the Blue Jays won in nine innings, which they would have had Ohtani not hit that home run in the seventh.
Only after that did the walk-a-thon commence.
“When you’re that hot and you’re hitting balls right-center, left-center like Shohei was tonight, you just knew he was feeling good. So that’s the right move,” Freeman said. “You don’t want Shohei to beat you, and you let other guys try and beat you after his first four at-bats. It took a lot longer, but we finally did it.”
The Angels adopted that strategy in the 2002 World Series. They walked Barry Bonds 13 times in the seven-game series, including three intentional walks in the first five innings of Game 4.
Is Ohtani in line for the full Bonds treatment?
“I think it’s all relative,” said Roberts, a teammate of Bonds with the San Francisco Giants.
“Barry’s the greatest hitter I’ve ever seen, but in this day and age there’s just him or maybe (Aaron) Judge. We’re just fortunate we have Mookie and Freddie behind him. But you just don’t see that type of behavior from opposing managers, and that’s just the ultimate sign of respect.”
Benito Santiago, a five-time All-Star, batted behind Bonds in 2002. No disrespect intended, but Betts and Freeman are more complete offensive threats.
Monday marked the 23rd anniversary of the Angels’ lone World Series championship, won in some measure because they did not let Bonds beat them. The Blue Jays have decided they won’t let Ohtani beat them, but that decision might have come too late.
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LAS VEGAS – Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio were once brothers in arms in the Judgment Day. The two helped the faction run “Monday Night Raw” for several years.
As championships and opportunities came and went, the rift between Balor and Mysterio grew. It came to a head when Balor caused Mysterio to lose the Intercontinental Championship to Penta. Balor leaving the Judgment Day left Mysterio and Liv Morgan as the leaders with JD McDonagh, Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez sticking around.
Finn Balor is introduced before his match against Dominik Mysterio during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
The latter four chose to ride with Mysterio and attacked Balor on one episode of Raw.
The bitter war led to a match Sunday night at WrestleMania 42. To make matters more interesting, Raw General Manager Adam Pearce made the match a street fight hours before the show was set to begin.
Balor had vowed to bring the “Demon” out and he certainly did.
JACOB FATU PUTS DREW MCINTYRE IN THE ‘REAR VIEW’ IN UNSANCTIONED MATCH AT WRESTLEMANIA 42
Finn Balor is introduced before his match against Dominik Mysterio during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Balor made his way to the ring in his “Demon” gear, dripping with red and black paint. Mysterio was in a mask with other Mysterio supporters.
The two then proceeded to beat the crud out of each other.
Mysterio wrapped Balor’s head in between a chair and hit a 619 on him. He tried to pin Balor, but to no avail. At another point, Mysterio tossed Balor through a table set up in the corner.
As many have learned, it’s hard to keep your demons down. Mysterio learned the hard way.
Balor would not give up. Balor clotheslined Mysterio, hit him with a chair multiple times before wrapping his head in between the chair and drop-kicking him into the corner. Balor put Mysterio onto a table and hit the Coup de Grâce for the win.
Dominik Mysterio is introduced before his match against Finn Balor during WrestleMania 42 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nev., on April 19, 2026. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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Balor excised his own demons, while Mysterio is still haunted.
DENVER — What do you know? The once-stampeding Dodgers have been caged by the Colorado Rockies.
With a 9-6 loss Sunday at Coors Field, the two-time defending World Series champions lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Dodgers again couldn’t hold a lead, letting the Rockies tee off for 15 hits.
Nor could the Dodgers keep up offensively at the hitter-friendly park — though they put some pressure on in the ninth inning, when Shohei Ohtani led off with a ground-rule double and the Dodgers scored twice to cut the lead to three runs. Then the new guy, Ryan Ward, made the final out in his big league debut, robbed of a hit and a chance to keep chipping away by a diving Troy Johnston in right field.
Before that, the Rockies — who beat the Dodgers twice in 13 meetings all of last season — chased starter Roki Sasaki from the game in the fifth inning and then ruffled the Dodgers’ relievers. That included closer Edwin Díaz, who came on in the eighth and promptly gave up three singles, a walk and two runs before being pulled with the Dodgers trailing 8-4.
Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki gave up three runs on seven hits in 4-2/3 innings Sunday against the Rockies in Denver.
(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
He and Blake Treinen combined to face eight batters without getting an out.
“They both weren’t sharp,” said manager Dave Roberts, who had theories but not many answers — though he did have real concern, especially about Díaz, who recently had his right knee checked out by the medical staff.
Roberts said the closer wanted to pitch after nine days off, even though it wasn’t a save situation. But his velocity was slightly down (95.4 mph vs. 95.8) and so, “today was a tough evaluation,” the manager said.
“It really was,” Roberts said. “Because, you know, I know what it’s supposed to look like, and when it doesn’t look like that, it gets a little concerning, really.”
And losing for the second time to the Rockies, who are now 9-13? Being in danger of losing their four-game series, after arriving in Denver without having lost to a National League opponent, against a club that hasn’t made the postseason since 2018?
It’s well below the bar the Dodgers have set, and it added a bitter note to Ward’s otherwise sweet debut.
Ward punched a big league clock for the first time wearing No. 67 and cranked his first hit off Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen in the fourth inning, lining a changeup to right field for a single that scored Andy Pages, made it 3-0 and got the 20-some members of Ward’s party up, jumping in place, hugging and high-fiving.
“When I was on first base, I got to see them all jumping around up there,” Ward said. “That was a pretty special moment.”
He also singled in the sixth and swung on the first pitch in his first at-bat, a fly out in the third inning.
The Dodgers gave Sasaki a 2-0 lead in the third. Alex Freeland drove in Hyeseong Kim, and Shohei Ohtani doubled in Freeland — and extended his career-best on-base streak to 51 games, moving past Willie Keeler into third place in Dodgers history.
Sasaki went 4-2/3 innings, threw 78 pitches and gave up three runs on seven hits, striking out two and walking two. His ERA after his fourth start: 6.11, worst in the six-man rotation.
The Dodgers fell behind 6-5 in the seventh when Treinen — who was cleared Friday after he was struck in the head by a batted ball during batting practice — gave up four consecutive hits, including a two-run home run by Mickey Moniak.
The result likely will be a minor detail when Ward tells the story years from now about getting the call after first baseman Freddie Freeman was placed on the paternity list.
The Dodgers’ No. 19 prospect and reigning Pacific Coast League MVP spent the last seven years in the minors. Last season, he hit 36 home runs and drove in 122 runs with a .937 on-base-plus-slugging percentage for triple-A Oklahoma City, and he has a 1.020 OPS and four homers this year.
Ward made it a point to improve his chase rate, draw more walks and get on base more frequently, everything the Dodgers asked of him. He also passed the broadest patience test.
“The plate discipline, being a better hitter … he’s done all that,” Roberts said. “He’s improved his defense. But honestly, for me, just not to let his lack of opportunity in the big leagues deter him. That’s easy when you get frustrated and let it affect performance, and he hasn’t done that.”
If anything, Ward said, the waiting made him better.
“I used it to keep going. ‘OK, if I’m not there yet, what do I have to do to get there?’” he said. “‘What part of my game do I need to work on to keep getting better?’
“I used it as fire to keep working.”
That will be the Dodgers’ assignment too.
In the finale of the four-game series Monday, the Dodgers are expected to start left-hander Justin Wrobleski (2-0, 2.12) against Colorado left-hander Jose Quintana (0-1, 5.63).
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LAS VEGAS – Danhausen’s curse may be real after all – just ask Stephen A. Smith and the New York Mets.
While the latter dropped their 10th game in a row, Smith got his share of the curse on Saturday night during Night 1 of WrestleMania 42. Smith was in attendance for WWE’s premier event of the year and heard massive boos from the crowd.
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith was sitting ringside to watch the action. The ESPN star appeared on the videoboard above the ring at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. He appeared to embrace the reaction and smiled through it.
The boos came after Danhausen appeared on “First Take” on Friday – much to the chagrin of the sports pundit. Smith appeared perplexed by Danhausen’s appearance. Smith said he heard about Danhausen and called him a “bad luck charm.”
Danhausen said Smith had been “rude” to him and put the dreaded “curse” on the commentator.
WWE STAR DANHAUSEN SAYS METS ‘CURSE’ ISN’T EXACTLY LIFTED AS TEAM DROPS NINTH STRAIGHT GAME
Stephen A. Smith attends WrestleMania 42: Night 1 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 18, 2026. (Andrew Timms/WWE)
Smith is far from the only one dealing with the effects of the “curse.”
Danhausen agreed to “un-curse” the Mets during their losing streak. However, he told Fox News Digital earlier this week that there was a reason why the curse’s removal didn’t take full effect.
“I did un-curse the Mets. But it didn’t work because, I believe it was Brian Gewirtz who did not pay Danhausen. He did not send me my money so it did not take full effect,” Danhausen said. “Once I have the money, perhaps it will actually work because right now it’s probably about a half of an un-cursing. It’s like a layaway situation.”
Danhausen enters the arena before his match against Kit Wilson during SmackDown at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
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On “Friday Night SmackDown,” WWE stars like The Miz and Kit Wilson were also targets of Danhausen’s curse.
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