Many fans were wondering what happened during one of Shohei Ohtani’s at-bats in Game 3 of his Los Angeles Dodgers’ NLCS against the New York Mets at Citi Field on Wednesday night.
Ohtani went 1-for-4 with a walk, strikeout and 3-run home run in his Dodgers’ 8-0 win that gave the team a 2-1 series lead. The Dodgers designated hitter was batting in the top of the sixth with his team leading 4-0 and struck out to end the half-inning.
After his strikeout, Ohtani looked toward the Dodgers’ dugout with a confused look on his face. He even put his hands in a position as if to say, “what happened?”
Weird sequence in that Ohtani strikeout. I'm not sure what that hand motion Alvarez does means. I think Ohtani thought it was a balk? He's confused about something. pic.twitter.com/DPMuY3zAUG
— Jomboy (@Jomboy_) October 17, 2024
There are two theories about what happened.
One is that Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez had tapped his mask to signal to pitcher Reed Garrett that he needed to speed things up to avoid a pitch clock violation. Some thought that maybe Ohtani was looking to the dugout to ask why a pitch clock violation had not been called.
The other interpretation is that someone from the Dodgers’ dugout may have seen Alvarez wave his hand by his mask and told Ohtani that a high pitch was coming. In that case, Ohtani may have been looking toward the dugout to ask why the pitch went low if he was told something high was coming.
Ohtani wound up clubbing his huge 3-run home run in his following at-bat, so the at-bat from the sixth turned out to not matter much.
What do you think happened in that situation?
