Shohei Ohtani’s big moment to kick off the 2025 MLB postseason was usurped on Tuesday night by [checks notes] WNBA pregame coverage.
The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Ohtani got Game 1 of his team’s Wild Card series against the Cincinnati Reds started in style. Leading off in the bottom of the first inning at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif., Ohtani got around on a 2-1 fastball from Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene and smoked it into the right field seats for a solo homer.
Shohei Ohtani LEADOFF home run! #Postseason pic.twitter.com/ARb64AknKY
— MLB (@MLB) October 1, 2025
Unfortunately though, most television viewers missed the home run in its entirety. The Dodgers-Reds game was initially being aired on ESPN2 while ESPN handled the exciting finish to the Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees Game 1 showdown. However, the ESPN2 broadcast inexplicably cut over to “WNBA Countdown” … immediately before the pitch that Ohtani homered on.
Here is the video of the brutal moment.
ESPN really cut to WNBA coverage just before Shohei Ohtani hit a home run. Unbelievable, staggering incompetence! pic.twitter.com/jVr96nUpGz
— outbreezy (@outbreezyWC) October 1, 2025
Even if the Dodgers-Reds game immediately shifted from ESPN2 to ESPN, many fans rightfully complained over social media about the awful broadcast decision.
ESPN – great job switching the Dodger game from ESPN2 to ESPN exactly when Shohei hits a dong so that no one can see it.
— Cody Rossmore (@CodyRossmore) October 1, 2025
I missed the shohei homer cuz espn2 cut the coverage to espn right before lolllll
— Mortal Lock Logan (@logan_flatland) October 1, 2025
Hey @espn, you really cut away on ESPN2 in the middle of Shohei Ohtani’s AB during a Wild Card game? I missed his HR because of that switch. Unreal broadcast decision.
— C. Braunstein (@CBraunstein86) October 1, 2025
IF YOU WERE WATCHING ON ESPN2, THEY CUT AWAY TO A BREAKING NEWS WNBA UPDATE RIGHT BEFORE SHOHEI HOMERED LMFAOOO WTF
— Hyeseong Kim Muse 김혜성 (@HyeseongKimMuse) October 1, 2025
ESPN did have a couple of factors to navigate around there, especially since the Indiana Fever and the Las Vegas Aces were about to play a decisive Game 5 of their second-round playoff series. But that game wasn’t scheduled to tip off until 6:29 PM PST, and Ohtani’s home run occurred roughly 13 minutes earlier at 6:16 PM PST (meaning that ESPN pre-empted the homer for a WNBA pregame show). On top of that, you would think that ESPN would wait until after an at-bat to flip their coverage, especially the at-bat of the single biggest draw in the entire sport right now in Ohtani.
Ultimately, it has been a tough last month or so for The Worldwide Leader, especially when trying to work across multiple sports. Back in August, one of their hosts went viral for getting a cross-sports reference completely and embarrassingly wrong.
