Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani made his MLB postseason debut last year and helped the team win the World Series. However, this year, the Japanese star will make his playoff debut on the mound.
After the Dodgers made quick work of the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Wild Card round, eliminating them in two games, it set up for Ohtani to make his pitching debut against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of the NL Divisional Series.
The Dodgers will count on the 31-year-old to set the tone, as the Phillies had their number this season. Philadelphia won four of the six games these two teams played during the regular season.
Dodgers’ Dave Roberts Talks Shohei Ohtani
Ahead of Ohtani’s pitching debut for the Dodgers, manager Dave Roberts appeared on Friday’s edition of “The Jim Rome Show” to discuss what’s going on behind the scenes as Los Angeles looks to win Game 1 in Philadelphia.
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“I think that he was built for this,” Roberts said. “I know there’s a nature versus nurture, [type of] conversation always with people. But I just think that it’s part of his DNA. I think it’s more of a nature thing. He just has this innate ability to compartmentalize more than I’ve seen any person, let alone [any] athlete, whether it’s [the] outside noise for expectation.”
Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani Will Block Outside Noise
With this being Ohtani’s playoff pitching debut, there will be a lot of coverage and analysis before and after his outing. Nonetheless, don’t expect the Dodgers star to pay any attention to that.
“There’s been stuff off the field that’s been talked about,” Roberts added. “The routine part of it, recovering from Tommy John, to then still hit the expectation of winning another MVP, [and] the media demands on him. All of this stuff doesn’t take away from his focus on preparation to be as good as he can possibly be. Again, I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s truly remarkable.”
The Dodgers take on the Phillies for Game 1 at 3:38 PM PT. The game will air on TBS and HBO Max.
