Is this the moment baseball has been waiting for?
The best player on the planet stepping onto the biggest stage the sport can offer.
Shohei Ohtani, the two-way phenomenon who has redefined what’s possible on a baseball diamond, is expected to start Game 7 of the 2025 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, a source told NBC LA.
The Dodgers could still change their mind overnight, but as of now, it’s Ohtani, on three days’ rest, no less.
It’s the kind of moment baseball has dreamed about but never dared to script — Ohtani on the mound, season on the line, a title within reach. For all his highlights, home runs, and jaw-dropping feats, never before has Shohei Ohtani stood in a setting quite like this.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hinted at the decision after Friday night’s Game 6 victory, saying that every arm except Yoshinobu Yamamoto would be available for the winner-take-all finale. Yamamoto had thrown 96 pitches over six innings of one-run baseball in the 3–1 win that forced Game 7. But everyone in the room knew the truth — if Ohtani’s arm could answer the call, it would.
And now it will.
Ohtani’s postseason as a pitcher has been a study in brilliance and endurance. Across three starts, he’s posted a 3.50 ERA, including a masterclass against the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS, when he struck out ten across six scoreless innings, while also hitting three home runs to send his team to the World Series.
In Game 4 of the World Series, he showed he was human — surrendering four earned runs on 93 pitches — yet even then, his presence on the mound drew a kind of reverence.
He’s been just as vital at the plate, with a 1.111 OPS this postseason, reaching base fifteen times in the Fall Classic and collecting three home runs, including two in the 18-inning epic that will live forever in Dodger lore.
Now, Ohtani is expected to face 41-year-old Max Scherzer, a future Hall of Famer chasing one more ring in what could be his final start. It’s a generational duel — the game’s most electrifying talent versus one of its most accomplished warriors.
If Ohtani does start, as expected, it’s likely he would not be able to pitch deep into the game, but potentially once through the lineup before exiting for another Dodgers’ starting pitcher like Tyler Glasnow or Blake Snell.
Ohtani’s inclusion brings with it an extra layer of intrigue. Under MLB’s two-way rules, if he starts, he can continue to serve as the designated hitter after leaving the mound. It’s a small detail with big implications — Ohtani could, quite literally, shape this game from every angle.
For all the noise surrounding his unprecedented contract and global superstardom, this is the moment Ohtani was brought to Los Angeles for. To carry the Dodgers when it matters most. To stand in the eye of October and refuse to blink.
He’s already done things no one else has dared to imagine. But Saturday night in Toronto, under the bright lights of a nation’s gaze, Shohei Ohtani won’t just be rewriting the record books — he’ll be writing baseball’s next great chapter.
And this time, the world will be watching every pitch.
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