The Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers were tied with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Shohei Ohtani was coming to the plate as the potential winning run with the bases empty. The Blue Jays intentionally walked him. And somehow, it made sense. UPDATE: The Blue Jays did it again in the bottom of the 11th with two outs and no one on base.

Shohei Ohtani is baseball's fastest 40-40 man. The Japanese superstar blasted a two-out grand slam in the ninth inning for his 40th homer after earlier stealing his 40th base, lifting the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night.

Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani struck out the Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer was tagged out trying to steal second.

Statcast measures the pop time and arm strength of Alejandro Kirk catching Shohei Ohtani stealing second at a pop time of 1.85 seconds

The Dodgers have jumped to a 2-1 lead in the 2025 World Series after a thrilling back-and-forth, extra-inning contest in Game 3 ended in a 6-5 win for Los Angeles after 18 innings.

Baseball games do not get better than this. This was Martin Scorsese and James Joyce, an epic clash of wills on the grandest stage.

So, when Ohtani came up again in the ninth inning, the Blue Jays decided to do something most teams would now consider a relic of the past: They refused to pitch to him. The intentional walk is no longer a significant part of Major League Baseball.