I wrote this sentence down in my notebook before the ninth inning: “Shohei Ohtani is probably the only player in baseball who can win a game by himself. Garrett Crochet got as close as you can without holding a bat.”
When Crochet wasn’t able to finish the job, the game felt like a lost cause. When Marcelo Mayer struck out with the winning run on third, the game felt like a lost cause. When Carlos Narvaez went down 0-2 with two outs, the game felt like a lost cause.
Of course, it wasn’t a lost cause. Carlos Narvaez hit a ball off the monster to win the game in ten innings.