Why do the Blue Jays keep walking Shohei Ohtani? Inside Canada’s bold strategy in longest MLB World Series game

The Toronto Blue Jays are ready to pitch to anyone but Shohei Ohtani. The Los Angeles Dodgers star is the most fearsome hitter in all of baseball, and the Blue Jays just proved it with their bold strategy in World Series Game 3.

We are already into the 18th inning, and Ohtani has yet to take a pitch in extra innings. He is 4-for-4 in the game, but since the extra innings started, Blue Jays manager John Schneider has intentionally walked Ohtani five times (a World Series record).

In the 17th inning, actually, Schneider had Brendon Little facing Ohtani, but all of his pitches were balls, signaling that the strategy is remaining the same against the $700 million hitter.

In the meantime, so far, Ohtani has reached base safely nine times, which is a postseason record.

Schneider isn't risking the game by throwing his relievers against Ohtani, who can go deep against just about anyone. With the opportunity to take the lead by winning World Series Game 3, it's understandable why Schneider isn't trusting any of his relievers to get the better of Ohtani.

Meanwhile, World Series Game 3 is breaking records for the number of innings already played. With the 18th inning going on, the only other World Series game that went so far was the 2018 World Series Game 3 between the Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox. It lasted 18 innings and 7 hours 20 minutes.

It remains to be seen if that record gets broken, too.

How has Shohei Ohtani performed in World Series Game 3?

Shohei Ohtani has gone deep twice in World Series Game 3. He hit a solo home run in the third inning off Max Scherzer. He tied the game in the seventh inning off Seranthony Domínguez. This was Ohtani's eighth home run of the postseason, tying Corey Seager's Dodgers record from 2020. The MLB record for most postseason home runs is 10, set by Randy Arozarena in 2020. Ohtani is only two away from breaking that as well.

Moreover, Ohtani also hit an RBI-double in the fifth inning. He became just the second player ever to have four extra-base hits in a World Series game. Frank Isbell is the first, and he did it in 1906.

Excluding World Series Game 3, in 12 games this postseason, Ohtani has batted .224 with 11 hits, six homers, 11 RBIs and nine runs scored.

Edited by Krutik Jain