PHOENIX —
The crowd gasped.
Was this really happening?
A dull desert afternoon suddenly became a noisy celebration of dazzling disbelief.
This was really happening!
Shohei Ohtani, down to his last pitch in what had been a failure of a first game in a Dodgers uniform, clubbed that pitch high into the blue midday sky, the ball soaring over an Air National Guard advertisement before dropping into the grassy area beyond the left-field wall.