Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani plays one of the greatest games in baseball history, throwing 10 strikeouts and hitting 3 home runs

At the plate and on the mound, Ohtani was simply sensational in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series while conjuring up one of the greatest single-game performances in the history of baseball — and perhaps even in all of sports.

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way star pitched the 13th three-hitter in postseason annals on Friday night, connecting in the first, fourth and seventh innings for an epic three-run single that traveled 1,342 feet.

He was similarly impressive on the mound, throwing a scoreless, two-hit ball in the seventh inning with 10 strikeouts and a masterful variety on his 100 pitches.

Ohtani did it all, too, in a very important moment for his team: the Dodgers’ 5-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers put the defending champions back in the World Series after a four-game sweep of the regular season’s best team.

“This was probably the greatest postseason performance ever,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “There were a lot of games in the postseason. There’s a reason he’s the greatest player on the planet. What he did on the mound, what he did with the bat, created a lot of memories for a lot of people.”

After the raucous postgame celebration of the Dodgers’ second straight NL pennant since joining the club, Ohtani tried to shift some of the spotlight to his teammates.

“There were times during the post-season where Teo (Teoscar Hernandez) and Mookie (Bates) took me, and this time, it was my turn to be able to perform,” Ohtani said through his translator. “And I think just looking back over the entire postseason, I didn’t perform to expectations, but I think we saw today what left-handed hitters can do.”

One left-handed hitter in particular took the Dodgers to the World Series — and Ohtani, who reached base four times in four plate appearances, even singled out the perfect catcher for his historic evening.

“It’s really a team effort, so I hope everyone in Los Angeles, Japan and around the world can enjoy really good sake,” said Ohtani, a taster of the famous Japanese rice wine, to cheers from the audience.

Ohtani earned the NLCS MVP award almost solely on the strength of this famous game. He was 2-for-11 with a triple and three walks in the first three games of the series.

He was in an October slump by his lofty standards, going 6-for-38 in the postseason and sitting out an eight-game drought after hitting a franchise-record 55 in the regular season.

Such is the nature of Ohtani’s limitless talent: He can turn into a superhero athlete any time he wants, and the mound served as his phone booth in Game 4.

“The way he’s been battling in the postseason, not letting it get to him and keeping his mentality and confidence up is really impressive,” Roberts said. “So we knew it was going to work out at some point. And what better night to do that while also throwing the ball.”

After Ohtani struck out three Brewers batters in the top of the first inning, he hit the first leadoff homer by a pitcher in major league history during the bottom half — and his night of astonishing accomplishments was just beginning.

His second homer was a stunning 469-foot drive that cleared the pavilion’s roof in right-center — a place where few homers ever land — after he left his bat at 116.9 mph.

His shot in the seventh inning settled into the left-center stands and crushed the Brewers, who finally chased him off the mound by fielding two runners in the top of the inning, only to go scoreless anyway when reliever Alex Vesia escaped a jam.

The three-time MVP is the first player to play a postseason game for three since Chris Taylor did it with the Dodgers in October 2021. Ohtani’s current teammate, Kiki Hernandez, also accomplished the feat for Los Angeles in the 2017 NLCS.

Ohtani became the third pitcher and the first in 87 years to hit three homers in a game in which he was a starter, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The others were Jim Tobin for the Boston Braves on May 13, 1942, and Guy Hecker for Louisville on August 15, 1886.

Ohtani, who has not gone deep since he scored twice in Los Angeles’ home opener against Cincinnati, is the first Dodgers player to play multiple games in the postseason. He also became the first player to have two homers in any game with an exit velocity of 116 mph or higher since Statcast began tracking in 2015.

The right-hander was great on the mound as well.

He issued two early walks but did not allow a hit until Jackson Corio led off the fourth with a ground-rule double. Ohtani was stranded with a groundout and two strikeouts.

He got two more punches in the fifth and sixth, with Dodgers fans rising in applause every time he returned to the dugout to exchange his glove for a bat.

While his two-way role requires extensive outfield work to remain ready for both jobs, Ohtani had pitched in just two games over the past 30 days before Game 4, thanks to permutations in the Dodgers’ schedule.

In his last regular season start, Ohtani pitched six scoreless innings on five hits against Arizona on September 23, throwing a season-high 91 pitches. In his MLB Postseason debut on October 4, he gave up three runs over six innings with nine strikeouts to earn the win in Los Angeles’ 5-3 win over Philadelphia in the Division Series opener.

Ohtani also had the drive to match his fellow Dodgers starters, who have been exceptional on the mound since the playoff race became serious.

The Dodgers’ rotation held September hitters to an MLB record low of .173 for one month. Since the start of the postseason, four Los Angeles pitchers — Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani — have allowed just 10 earned runs while pitching 64 1/3 innings with 81 strikeouts over 10 playoff games.

Ohtani and the Dodgers have a week off before the start of the World Series next Friday at either Rogers Center in Toronto against the Blue Jays or Chavez Raven against the Seattle Mariners.

This club has suffered from long layoffs in past postseasons, but Ohtani admitted they could use a break — and the Dodgers will spend at least the next couple of days basking in the brilliance they saw while punching their ticket to the Fall Classic.

“I see it as a positive in terms of being able to rest, both as a position player and as a pitcher,” Ohtani said. “We had some off days, but we played some very meaningful games that were very stressful.”