DENVER — Celebrating a division title late into the night and rolling into Denver around 4 a.m. – apparently it takes more than that to cool off Shohei Ohtani.
Between the tribute videos and ovations for retiring Colorado Rockies hero Charlie Blackmon, Ohtani went 4 for 5 with his 54th home run of the season and 57th stolen base as the Dodgers pushed the Rockies within a step of another 100-loss season with an 11-4 shove on Friday night.
The win and a Philadelphia Phillies loss gives the Dodgers a two-game lead for the top seed in the National League playoffs with two games to play. The Dodgers need one more win or another Phillies loss in order to clinch the best record in the National League. The Phillies beat the Dodgers five times in six head-to-head meetings, so they have the tiebreaker if the two teams have matching records after Sunday.
The five-day break that comes with one of the top two seeds might be the only thing that can slow Ohtani.
After grounding out to start the game, he had an RBI single in the second inning, another single in the fourth and a three-run home run into the upper deck in the sixth inning. He doubled and scored a run in the eighth inning.
Over his past eight games, Ohtani is an absurd 24 for 34 (.706) with six doubles, six home runs, 20 RBIs, 14 runs scored and eight stolen bases (he has stolen 34 straight without getting caught). In that time he has eight multi-hit games – including his six-hit game in Miami, two four-hit games and two three-hit games.
This torrid streak has raised Ohtani’s batting average for the season 22 points – from .287 to .309 – closing the gap with NL leader Luis Arraez of the San Diego Padres, who entered play Friday batting .312 but slumping (2 for his past 28).
Ohtani already leads the NL comfortably in home runs (by 15 over Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna) and RBIs (by 130-111 over Milwaukee’s Willy Adames). Given the video-game numbers he has been putting up recently, a Triple Crown run on the final weekend is not out of the question – as if anything should ever be with Ohtani.
Ohtani wasn’t the only Dodger taking advantage of the thin air and bad pitching that are endemic to Coors Field. The Dodgers scored multiple runs in three innings.
Teoscar Hernandez had his own three-hit game with a two-run home run, matching his career-high in home runs (32).
Andy Pages hit a solo home run, his third in his past four games.
Rookie right-hander Ben Casparius handled most of the work in the Dodgers’ bullpen game, allowing two runs (one earned) over 4⅓ innings while striking out seven.
More to come on this story.