Shohei Ohtani put on an absolute show on Friday as the Dodgers swept the Brewers to punch their ticket to the World Series for the second straight year. Shotime crushed three homers and also struck out 10 batters. The Japanese star is now officially the first pitcher to hit multiple homers in a postseason game. But beneath all the celebration, there may have been a few moments of tension, too.

“Shohei Ohtani didn’t want to stop pitching and wanted to finish the 7th inning of his historic game and was frustrated at Dave Roberts for pulling him out.”

A Reddit post revealed a different angle of Ohtani-Dave Roberts’ camaraderie.

Ohtani had the sellout crowd fired up right from the start. Notably, after walking leadoff man Brice Turang, he quickly settled in and struck out Jackson Chourio, Christian Yelich, and William Contreras to end the inning dominantly. From there, he was nearly untouchable with Chourio’s ground-rule double in the early frames being the Brewers’ only hit through six innings.

Ohtani was in total control until the seventh, when fatigue started to show.

He walked Yelich to open the inning, then gave up a single to Contreras. And then, just when his pitch count hit 100, Roberts came to the mound.

As the infield gathered around, Ohtani handed Roberts the ball with a slight wince caught on camera. That rare show of frustration was the extent of being pulled out of the game. There were no heated exchanges like the one we saw the day before.

Remember the scene between the Blue Jays’ John Schneider and Max Scherzer from the ALCS game 4?

Scherzer threw 5 2/3 strong innings in Game 4, which became his first postseason win since 2019. However, while he put up a great show, giving up two runs on three hits, with four walks and five SOs, Schneider tried to pull him out by the 5th. Result? A heated exchange and Scherzer staying back in the 6th, retired Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez.

“I wanted the ball, and I basically told him that in a little bit different language.” Scherzer later shared the reason behind such a reaction.

But on-field drama is probably not Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani turned the tables in the postseason

Ohtani went just 1-for-18 (.056) in the NL Division Series. And Roberts didn’t see that as a sign of anything mechanical.

He chalked it up more to the Phillies’ tough left-handed pitching and a few questionable swing choices. Meanwhile, despite Ohtani’s at-bats looking better in the first two NLCS games against the Brewers, the results weren’t there. 1-for-7 (.143).

It was only the third time in Ohtani’s Major League career that he’d gone six games with two or fewer hits and none for extra bases. But Shotime would not let the slump go unanswered.

The very next game, he wasted no time leading off Game 3! A triple off lefty Aaron Ashby, ripping a slider down and away into the right-field corner for his first extra-base hit since the Wild Card Series.

And now, after that historic performance on Friday, Ohtani reminded everyone why you can never count him out. Bigger stage, bigger pressure, and once again, Shohei Ohtani made sure all eyes were on him.