PHOENIX -- The moment called, and once again, Shohei Ohtani answered.
The Dodgers had just clawed their way back to a tie ballgame in the ninth inning of a contest that they had once led by five runs, before surrendering eight. They opened the frame with four straight hits to knot the score at 11-all, and chased D-backs reliever Kevin Ginkel from the game with two on and one out.
Then the reigning National League MVP stepped to the plate.
It wasn't long before Ohtani took a big swing, tossed his bat to the side and watched with upraised arms as the ball sailed into the right-field seats, capping a six-run ninth inning as the Dodgers stormed back for a 14-11 win on Friday night at Chase Field.
The Dodgers have become so accustomed to heroics from Ohtani that their manager could only think of another legendary slugger as a point of comparison.
"Between him and Barry Bonds, they’re the two best players I’ve ever seen," manager Dave Roberts said. "I played with Barry. But what Shohei does in the clutch -- I’ve never seen anything like what he does in the clutch."
As Ohtani rounded the bases following the go-ahead three-run blast, "M-V-P!" chants briefly rained down at the D-backs' home park. It was the ultimate cathartic moment to decide another electric contest between two NL West rivals.
"It's not the kind of game we play a lot," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, "but for us to score a lot, for them to come back, for us to come back again, it was a game with a lot of passion."
Emotion was high from beginning to end. Rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki did not have his best stuff and gave up three runs on a pair of homers in the first inning, only for the Dodgers to leap out to an 8-3 advantage after the third.
But Sasaki labored through the fourth, allowing a run on a groundout, and his night ended after just 61 pitches when he issued a walk to his first batter of the fifth inning. Then Anthony Banda entered and loaded the bases before serving up a game-tying grand slam to Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
The D-backs took the lead in the sixth when Luis García issued a bases-loaded walk to Eugenio Suárez in a plate appearance where the Dodgers deemed some of the calls questionable. Pitching coach Mark Prior was ejected after that inning for arguing balls and strikes with home-plate umpire Jeremie Rehak.
After Arizona padded its lead with back-to-back homers off Alex Vesia in the eighth, frustration was high.
"I just felt that the offense did enough to win the game at that point in time, and to not pitch well, it's frustrating," Roberts said. "Because that just kind of puts other guys in the game, and you're trying to win the ensuing games as well. I just feel that we're better than we've pitched, and fortunately, our offense picked us up."
Once the Dodgers got rolling, the game flipped quickly. Freddie Freeman led off the ninth with a base hit, followed by three consecutive run-scoring knocks from Andy Pages, Kiké Hernández and Max Muncy.
When Ohtani unloaded on a 1-2 offering from D-backs reliever Ryan Thompson not long after, hammering it at 113 mph off the bat, it was as unbelievable as it was unsurprising.
"You know when he's coming around, and we've got to do a good job of controlling him," D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "When we do, we win games. When we don't, you see what happens. We just made some mistakes to him, but he's an immense presence on the field, and you feel when he's in the box, and he can change it, like he did tonight with one swing."
Like in Thursday's series opener between the Dodgers and D-backs, the energy at Chase Field threatened to spill over in every big moment. There were dueling chants between local and visiting fans, and the atmosphere would have been right at home under the bright lights of the postseason.
Both teams have realistic ambitions of getting there. The NL West has been the most competitive division in baseball, and matchups between its prospective contenders have lived up to the billing -- especially when a superstar like Ohtani meets the moment the way he tends to do.
“Sho keeps getting put in these spots that you expect the incredible, and he rarely disappoints," Muncy said. "And that is no different there.”