World Series 2024: Shohei Ohtani unlocking best of himself - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — THE MOMENT met Shohei Ohtani on Friday night, as it so often has this month — eighth inning, down a run, Game 1 of a much-hyped World Series teeming with intensity. Ohtani scorched a line drive off the right-field fence, popped up from a slide at second base and yelled toward his teammates. Realizing the baseball had scooted away, he sprinted to third, placing the tying run within 90 feet. Ohtani roared again and implored a sold-out Dodger Stadium crowd to join him. A pitching change followed, at which point Ohtani returned to his dugout to hug and high-five as many teammates as he could before resuming the task at hand.

So much was still uncertain at that point. Ohtani hadn't yet motored home on Mookie Betts' sac fly; Freddie Freeman hadn't yet delivered the walk-off grand slam in the 10th, sealing the Los Angeles Dodgers' 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees. And yet, to Ohtani, it didn't seem to matter. He was once again embracing his moment — the type of moment he'd spent his whole life longing for.

«Simply put,» Ohtani said recently, «I'm grateful to be in this environment.»

Ohtani came to the United States seven years ago with a desire to compete for championships and become a legendary figure within his sport, two pursuits intrinsically linked. He then spent his first six seasons in Anaheim, California, without playing so much as a September game that mattered. Near the end of his run as an Angel, a video surfaced of Ohtani seemingly on the verge of tears after a heart-wrenching loss on Aug. 3, 2023. Losing pained him in ways he would not let on publicly, but many of those around him noticed.

Winning has seemed to unlock the best version of Ohtani. In the run-up to this postseason and now during it,