PHOENIX — He raised both arms in triumph and looked to the sky as a ballpark watched in awe. It takes moments like these to stoke this fire out of Shohei Ohtani, to cause him to roar and flip his bat and find his emotional release. It is rare, even for a generational force such as Ohtani, to consistently do the unthinkable. To consistently find a way to make the game come to him. Baseball is built for moments of singular greatness in a team sport, but only when it is your turn to bat.
The Los Angeles Dodgers rallied in the ninth to make sure Ohtani would get his turn. And on a hot, dry Phoenix night that devolved into a home run derby, it was Ohtani who had his typical black stick of wood in his hands when the Dodgers needed it most. Nothing else mattered. Their pitching staff got hammered. Their star rookie continued to show his vulnerability. But Ohtani had the bat in his hand, launching a go-ahead three-run home run in the ninth inning to power the Dodgers to a 14-11 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The night was ridiculous. So is Ohtani.
“Between him and Barry Bonds, they’re the two best players I’ve ever seen,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I played with Barry. But what Shohei does in the clutch — I’ve never seen anything like what he does in the clutch.”
The Dodgers needed just three innings to put eight runs on the board, only to watch their five-run lead disintegrate. Entering the ninth inning with a three-run deficit, it took just four batters for them to bring things level on Max Muncy’s single he punched through the right side. The swings were enough to turn stomachs and raise heart rates. The night was maddening enough that, after the sixth inning, Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior was ejected for expressing his frustration with home-plate umpire Jeremie Rehak’s strike zone — the first ejection of Prior’s baseball life.
The night ended with a different emotion. Or emotions: euphoria, relief and exhilaration.
“I think all of the above,” Roberts said of the emotion that poured out of Ohtani. “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.”
SHOHEI OHTANI, YOU ARE UNREAL. pic.twitter.com/S4jfoRhVV8
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 10, 2025
“It’s not the kind of game we play a lot, but for us to score a lot, for them to come back, for us to come back again, it was a game with a lot of passion,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton.
The ingredients of a difficult night were not hard to find. The Diamondbacks have constructed a 26-man stress test for these Dodgers, with a potent lineup even when outside of the launching pad that Chase Field turned into on Friday night. A hot, dry night with the roof open only provided kindling. So did Roki Sasaki’s fastball, as the rookie right-hander has continued to be perplexed with the pitch’s ineffectiveness and lack of velocity from his peak in Japan.
The shape of the pitch and its diminished velocity remain a problem. The Arizona air’s impact on his splitter and slider made Friday a difficult assignment and reflects the progress still needed for the 23-year-old. He didn’t induce a single swing-and-miss on the fastball all night, allowing long home runs on heaters to Ketel Marte and Eugenio Suárez that put the onus on the Dodgers’ bats to make hay against Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, once nearly a Dodger, got pummeled. A five-run third inning chased him from the game. Sasaki lasted just four innings and Anthony Banda surrendered a game-tying grand slam in the fifth. When journeyman veteran Luis García’s ninth pitch to Suárez in the sixth was called a ball to walk in the go-ahead run, Prior stewed. The sweeper appeared to catch the edge of the plate. Instead, the Dodgers’ collapse was complete, and Prior got an early trip back to the clubhouse. Back-to-back home runs from Marte and Randal Grichuk in the eighth only added to the punishment.
“Obviously, we didn’t pitch well tonight,” Roberts said.
Thankfully for the Dodgers, they’ve constructed a lineup capable of outbursts like the one in the third inning, when seven hitters came to bat before Rodriguez could record an out, drawing fake cheers when he struck out Ohtani.
A similar explosion brewed in the ninth with the Dodgers facing Diamondbacks interim closer Kevin Ginkel for the second consecutive night. Freddie Freeman dribbled an infield single against the shift. Andy Pages hooked a double that stayed fair and rolled long enough for Freeman to rumble home on his surgically repaired ankle all the way from first base. Kiké Hernández followed with a double to left.
Muncy’s struggles this season have come with a mounting burden. His swing started off in the wrong place. His swoon brought him to the point where he was willing to try wearing glasses on the field to correct the astigmatism in his right eye. Friday, he was just hoping to pull a ball on the ground. He got an elevated fastball from Ginkel and yanked it on the ground past a lunging Marte to bring home Hernández and make it 11-11.
Just like that, an embarrassing loss could swing into a resounding win.
“Just the process of tying the game was really key,” Ohtani said.
As Ohtani stepped to the plate, Arizona manager Torey Lovullo retrieved Ginkel. Ryan Thompson, a low-arm-slot reliever with a diving sinker and a knack for getting left-handed hitters out, stood the best chance of extinguishing the threat with a potential double play rather than walk Ohtani intentionally to load the bases for Mookie Betts.
From the dugout, Muncy, pulled for a pinch runner, awaited the inevitable.
“I mean, you guys have heard me say how many times,” Muncy said. “Sho keeps getting put in these spots that you expect the incredible, and he rarely disappoints. And that is no different there.”
Thompson threw a splitter toward Ohtani’s knees on the inner part of the plate. Ohtani annihilated it, sending a shot 113 mph off his bat and 426 feet into the seats.
“Shohei did it, against all odds,” backup catcher Austin Barnes deadpanned to Muncy in the clubhouse. “Monster comes through.”
The monster helped the Dodgers steal one that felt like a lot more than just a Friday night win in May.
“This game is obviously a big win,” Muncy said. “And it can provide a lot of energy for us. But we’ve got to find a way to maintain just steadiness throughout. Obviously, you try to carry a little momentum over from the night before. And that’s what we’re going to do tomorrow.”
(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)