Dave Roberts, who once played alongside Barry Bonds during the slugger’s prime, now manages the Los Angeles Dodgers and says only one other player reminds him of the seven-time MVP: Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani delivered another unforgettable moment Friday night, crushing a three-run home run in the ninth inning to seal a stunning 14-11 Dodgers comeback against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“Barry Bonds and Shohei — those are the best two players I’ve ever seen,” Roberts said. “I’ve never seen anyone else deliver like Shohei does in clutch situations.”
The wild contest in Arizona featured 25 total runs, 26 hits, six home runs, and two different three-run leads that vanished. And in the end, it was Ohtani who turned the game around.
Now in his second season with the Dodgers after starting his MLB career with the Angels, Ohtani has built a reputation for coming through under pressure. Friday’s game was no exception. He stepped to the plate in the ninth with the score tied and two runners on base after a furious rally had erased an 11-8 Diamondbacks lead.
Facing reliever Ryan Thompson, who quickly got ahead in the count 1-2, Ohtani turned on a breaking ball left inside and launched it deep into the right-field stands for his 12th home run of the season. He raised his arms and flipped his bat triumphantly — mirroring the celebration Arizona’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had earlier in the game after his fifth-inning grand slam.
“It was a really emotional game,” Ohtani said via his interpreter. “We don’t usually play games like that, with so many swings in momentum. But to see us come back again was special.”
Ohtani had already made noise earlier in the game with a 423-foot double off the center field wall in the first inning, a rocket shot with an exit velocity of 107.9 mph. But that wasn’t even the most powerful hit of the inning — Arizona’s Ketel Marte smashed a solo home run at 113.1 mph, followed by a two-run shot from Eugenio Suárez.
Los Angeles responded fast. Kiké Hernández homered to start the second inning, and Ohtani drove in another run with a double. The Dodgers added five more in the third to take an 8-3 lead.
Their offense then stalled, going hitless for four innings while the Diamondbacks surged. Gurriel’s grand slam tied the game at 8 in the fifth, and Arizona took the lead on a walk with the bases loaded. Solo home runs from Marte and pinch hitter Randal Grichuk in the eighth gave the D-backs a seemingly safe 11-8 cushion.
But the Dodgers weren’t done. Freddie Freeman led off the ninth with a single, followed by a double from Andy Pages, who drove in three runs in the game. Hernández tied the game with another RBI double, and Max Muncy added a single to knot it at 11. After Michael Conforto was hit by a pitch, Thompson entered to face Ohtani — and the rest was history.
“Shohei in those moments, it’s like he’s built for them,” Muncy said. “When he steps up, we all expect something special. And he always delivers.”
