That last game will be remembered for a long time. Ohtani walked the first batter he faced before striking out the next three. Then he came to the plate and launched a ball more than four hundred feet\u2014the first time in M.L.B. history that one of the game\u2019s pitchers had hit a lead-off home run. And that was just the beginning! Over the course of six innings, Ohtani\u2014in his cool, inimitable fashion, with a motion that combines grace and force\u2014gave up only two hits and struck out ten, including six out of the seven batters he\u2019d faced during one stretch. In between, he hit a second homer, one that left the stadium, clearing the center-field roof. As it hung in the night sky, his teammates in the dugout and in the bullpen, who have had a closeup view for all of Ohtani\u2019s Bunyanesque feats, clutched their heads in disbelief. And then he hit a third! It was the greatest performance by the greatest player in history.<\/p>\n
Ohtani\u2019s value to the Los Angeles Dodgers is immeasurable. His contract\u2014seven hundred million dollars for ten years, with team-friendly deferrals\u2014is, considering what he brings to the team both on and off the field, a steal. Still, not every M.L.B. team could, or would, pay anyone so much, let alone surround him with other players on gargantuan contracts.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers have a payroll of more than three hundred and fifty million dollars, which is nearly three times the size of the Brewers\u2019. This has caused the usual hand-wringing about competitive imbalance and the inherent plight of small-market teams. It\u2019s easy enough to see the crude outlines of a narrative. In game one of the N.L.C.S., Blake Snell, a former Cy Young winner who\u2019d signed with the Dodgers in the off-season for nearly two hundred million dollars, threw eight shutout innings. Then in Game Two came Yoshinobu Yamamoto (three hundred and twenty-five million for twelve years), who gave up a home run to the first batter before pitching a complete game in which no one else got to second base. Tyler Glasnow, who signed with the club for more than a hundred and thirty million dollars over five years, gave up one run in Game Three. Then came Ohtani. The Dodgers have had fifteen consecutive winning seasons and thirteen consecutive playoff appearances, and have already won two World Series this decade. They need another championship like Taylor Swift needs a Grammy. But they\u2019ve become a symbol of something bigger than a juggernaut. They\u2019re sometimes framed as an existential threat to the other teams.<\/p>\n