Skip Schumaker refusing to walk Shohei Ohtani paved way for best offensive night ever

Say you were a manager. If an opposing batter who's having an historical offensive season, and who's already gone 4-4 on the night with a single, two doubles, a homer, and two stolen bases, steps up to the plate in a 12-3 game your team is losing — do you walk him? Oh, and he's also on the cusp of becoming the first player to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in one season. Do you walk him?

That's the question Skip Schumaker was facing in the top of the seventh as the Dodgers trounced the Marlins Thursday night. Miami relievers George Soriano and Mike Baumann had already seen six of LA's hitters in that inning alone, and had given up three more runs on a two-run double for Andy Pages and a wild pitch from Baumann.

That last time Ohtani was up, he'd hit his 49th home run of the year after already stealing two bases to get to 51. Schumaker could've walked him, could've spared the Marlins the absolute embarrassment of being the team that gave up Shohei Ohtani's 49th and 50th homers. All he had to do was hold up four fingers, Gerrit Cole-style.

On the Dodgers' broadcast, Schumaker was spotted in the dugout just before Ohtani's fifth at-bat, and the lip readers went wild. The best approximation of what he was saying seems to be, "F— that. Too much respect for this guy for that s— to happen." And the rest is history.

Skip Schumaker made the right decision and didn't walk Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani to allow historic 50th home run

Postgame, after the Marlins had weathered a 20-4 loss to the Dodgers, Schumaker said of not intentionally walking Ohtani, "That's a bad move, baseball-wise, karma-wise, baseball-gods-wise. You go after him and see if you can get him out." Clearly, the Marlins could not, but not walking Ohtani was the right thing to do. After all, in a ballgame your team is losing by nine runs, what's the point?

And Ohtani capped off the night with another home run in the top of the ninth to score LA's 15th, 16th, and 17th runs. The Dodgers were just bullying the Marlins at the point; position player Vidal Bruján was in to pitch, but it capped off a 6-6 night at the plate for Ohtani. He covered 17 total bases and drove in half of the Dodgers' final score.

He became the first player since at least 1901 to have at least five hits, multiple homers, and multiple stolen bases in a single game, and we've got Schumaker to thank, at least partially, for that. The Dodgers clinched a postseason berth with the win, marking the first time in Ohtani's career that he'll play baseball in October. Sorry it had to come against your Marlins, Skip, but it had to happen against someone.