Ohtani, Betts, Judge, Stanton Excel as Playoffs Hit Homestretch

NEW YORK—Major League Baseball’s high-priced stars are shining, as evidenced by Thursday night’s league championship series.

In Cleveland Thursday night, Aaron Judge (on a $360 million contract) and Giancarlo Stanton ($325 million) hit back-to-back eighth inning homers off Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase, giving the New York Yankees a lead that didn’t stand up in a wild 7-5 extra-inning loss. The Yanks still lead the best-of-seven ALCS 2-1.

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Only moments later at Citi Field, Shohei Ohtani (on a $700 million contract) hit the second pitch from New York Mets starter Jose Quintana 422 feet into the right field bleachers for his second homer in as many at-bats over the course of two nights. Mookie Betts ($365 million) added a two-run double and two-run homer for the Dodgers, who cruised to a 10-2 victory to take a 3-1 NLCS lead.

The contracts of Ohtani, Betts, Judge and Stanton represent $1.75 billion paid by the Yanks and Dodgers and stretch into the next decade. They are looking like good investments right now, with everything on the line.

If the Yankees and Dodgers hold on, those same stars could be facing off when the World Series opens next week.

“Those were big time at-bats,” Yanks manager Aaron Boone said afterward. “Judge with two strikes … Then obviously Big G really centered one, too.”

On the back of the Ohtani and Betts blasts, the Dodgers are now in position to wrap it up in Game 5 Friday. It’ll be Jack Flaherty starting for the Dodgers and David Peterson going for the Mets, as New York manager Carlos Mendoza called an audible with his club facing elimination.

“Yeah, that was pretty impressive,” Mendoza said about Ohtani’s opening salvo. “But the solo shot wasn’t going to beat us. You have to take care of the other guys hitting behind him.”

The Yanks were on their way to a 3-0 lead in the ALCS when their bullpen collapsed in the ninth and 10th innings. Luke Weaver was crushed for a two-out pinch-hit homer by rookie Jhonkensy Noel in the ninth. In the 10th, Clay Holmes was hammered by David Fry for the winning two-run shot.

It’s exciting, even from the losing side’s perspective. “Yeah, look, it was an amazing game to witness,” Boone said. “That was playoff baseball. Both sides just kept coming with haymakers and big at-bats, big moments off of two really good bullpens. They outlasted us. They had one more good swing than us.”

The Yanks and Guardians will continue to sort it out on Friday and Saturday at Progressive Field.

In Queens, Ohtani has been a one-man show, with a resounding three-run homer in the eighth inning of Wednesday’s Game 3 victory and his Thursday encore, giving him three homers in his first MLB postseason. He also walked three times and scored four runs Thursday.

The Ohtani show is must-see TV both in the U.S. and Japan. MLB reported that last Friday’s concluding Game 5 of an NL Division Series won by the Dodgers over the San Diego Padres, who had Ohtani’s countryman Yu Darvish on the mound, was watched by 7.5 million viewers in the U.S. and 12.9 million in Japan. MLB noted that 10% of the homes in that country were watching the game.

“One of our guys told me how many eyeballs watched that Game 5 in Japan, which is mind-blowing,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Imagine if the Dodgers make it to the World Series.

“It’s not easy for people in Japan to watch these games because of the time difference,” Ohtani added. “We’ve been playing well. And I hope to continue to perform well for the fans in Japan.”

The big money on display Thursday didn’t even include the $162 million collected by Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who wasn’t in the lineup because of a high right ankle sprain. Freeman has been receiving up to four hours of medical attention a day to prepare to play in these games. The injury, suffered during the final week of the regular season, requires a four-to-six week recovery period. Freeman, playing in obvious pain at times, has been trying to gut it out anyway.

“I don’t really care to know all the details,” Roberts said about Freeman’s medical preparations. “I just want to know if he’s in there or not, knowing that he’s in good hands with our training staff. But what it takes for him to get ready for a ball game these days is a huge undertaking.”

Roberts said he didn’t want Freeman trying to play three games in a row on that tender ankle and expects he’ll be back in the lineup next to Ohtani and Betts on Friday.

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