Shohei Ohtani on Fri, Oct 16, 2026

One homer, three RBI: Ohtani delivers despite three strikeouts

Ohtani went 1-for-4 with a home run and three RBI against Milwaukee on October 16, with three strikeouts and no walks. His only hit was the homer, so the line is lopsided. Even so, he drove in all three runs himself, which suggests he converted a very small number of opportunities into scoring at a high rate.

The pitch mix explains much of the picture. He saw 14 pitches: four sliders, four cutters, three sinkers and three sweepers, a spread without heavy reliance on any one pitch. Sliders and sweepers were both thrown for strikes 100 percent of the time, so breaking pitches were getting ahead in counts, and that likely fed the strikeouts. The cutter produced the most swings and misses with two, while the sinker and slider each generated one. The sinker averaged 98.3 mph and still drew a whiff, which tells us velocity did overpower him at times. The home run most likely came on one of the few pitches left over the heart of the plate.

The benchmarks matter here. His regular-season line is .275 with an .889 OPS and 30 home runs, and the playoff games should be read against that backdrop. The platoon splits are nearly identical: .276 with an .893 OPS against right-handers, and .274 with an .881 OPS against left-handers. Handedness is therefore a weak explanation for the strikeouts. Over his last ten games the results swung widely. He went 1-for-2 on October 15, 0-for-4 on October 13 and 1-for-3 on October 12, and the division series stretch included hitless games. In the late-September games in San Francisco he managed one hit per game. This was the only home run in that ten-game window, which suggests his power returned in a single swing.

Unico's takeaway: even with three strikeouts, one well-hit pitch decided the game, which shows how much his power can change an outcome.