One pitch. One swing. One pure, unmistakable sound.
On a night the roof was open, the air was hot and the Dodgers were engaged in a Chase Field classic against the Arizona Diamondbacks, that’s what the craziest game of their season came down to.
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The crack of Shohei Ohtani’s bat punctuated a riveting contest in early May with another indelible moment of on-demand magic.
“You guys have heard me say how many times?” teammate Max Muncy marveled. “Sho keeps getting put in these spots that you expect the incredible — and he rarely disappoints.”
Indeed, with two on and one out and the score tied in the ninth, Ohtani completed a wild six-run rally with a go-ahead three-run home run deep to right field.
It lifted the Dodgers to a 14-11 win, one that felt impossible after they squandered a five-run lead earlier in the game. It left Ohtani seemingly trying to lift off himself, stretching his arms and flapping his hands after chucking his bat and gliding up the first-base line.
Up to that point, Friday’s intradivision shootout already featured everything else.
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Wild lead changes and sudden momentum shifts. Line-drive rockets and towering home runs. Even the ejection of Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior, when a bad ball-strike call contributed to his team’s mid-game collapse.
Most of all, however, there was Ohtani — meeting yet another moment, rising once again to the occasion.
“For us to score a lot, for them to come back, for us to come back again,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, “it was a game with a lot of passion.”
Added manager Dave Roberts: “He sees his teammates fighting and guys trying to keep us in the ballgame, so that was kind of the climax of that moment. It’s good to see him show emotion like that. It was great.”
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Ohtani was having a big night before the ninth, doubling twice during an early offensive onslaught that gave the Dodgers (26-13) an 8-3 lead.
The Diamondbacks (20-19) responded, scoring eight unanswered runs over the next five innings to flip the score in their favor, 11-8.
Four batters into the ninth, however, the Dodgers had tilted the seesaw again.
Shohei Ohtani, right, celebrates after hitting a three-run home run in the ninth inning against Arizona on Friday. (Darryl Webb / Associated Press)
A leadoff infield single from Freddie Freeman was followed by consecutive run-scoring doubles from Andy Pages and Kiké Hernández, trimming what was an 11-8 deficit to 11-10. Muncy…