The redemption tour began just as the Dodgers imagined it, back when they signed Shohei Ohtani to his $700 million contract in the offseason.
With one of the superstar’s thunderous, no-doubt, game-changing home run swings.
One inning into their postseason opener on Saturday night, the Dodgers were having nightmare flashbacks to last year, facing yet another steep hole after yet another poor performance from their Game 1 starting pitcher.
The 53,028 towel-waving fans at Dodger Stadium had been silenced. In the visiting dugout, the San Diego Padres were riding an early jolt of momentum.
But then, in the kind of sequence that has alluded the Dodgers during their postseason failures of recent years, Ohtani came to the plate and, in his first career playoff game, immediately wiped the slate clean.