Shohei Ohtani went the hammiest of hams in the game that eliminated the MLB-best-by-record Brewers from the postseason tournament, hitting three dingers and dominating on the mound. When you look at coverage of the game or his performance, it being the best postseason performance seems to be implicit — I don’t think I’ve even seen an article that’s deliberately asked whether it was the best. Hence this question.
Ohtani’s performance is maybe not the greatest performance in any game. (For example,
Rick Wise hit two homers and threw a no-hitter, though his no-hitter only had a 3/1 K/BB ratio.) No one else has really highlighted any dual threat, massive would-be WAR accumulation games in the playoffs, so Ohtani’s performance is probably the best single-game performance to happen in a playoff game.
But, allow me to raise one more point here…
Presumably, people are playing in the playoffs to directly win the set of games needed to advance to, and secure, the championship. Postseason stats are inherently a small sample; players will likely care more about their cWPA than their would-be WAR-accumulated-in-postseason. (There would also be interesting issues with what replacement level in the playoffs means.) But, Ohtani’s game is nowhere near relevance on the all-time cWPA leaderboard. At this point, it’s unlikely anyone touches Hal Smith’s homer in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, though you have to wonder, does anyone actually remember Hal Smith or his homer these days?
Anyway, Ohtani or not Ohtani? And if not, then what are you going with?
