LOS ANGELES — As Shohei Ohtani bolted toward second base, the Dodger Stadium crowd readied for another electric moment on a night that had already featured plenty for the home fans to cheer about. Home runs from Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman had the ballpark buzzing in the early going of the Dodgers’ 4-2 victory in Game 2, and the Dodgers were coasting with a three-run lead and a locked-in Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound.
But the run production had ceased in the middle innings. So after Ohtani drew a walk against Clay Holmes in the bottom of the seventh, he decided to put his game-changing speed to work to try to help manufacture an insurance run with the dangerous Hernández at the plate with two outs.