Schneider: Blue Jays will keep walking Ohtani

The Toronto Blue Jays have no plans to allow Shohei Ohtani to swing a bat after the Dodgers star enjoyed a historic night at the plate in an 18-inning 6-5 victory for Los Angeles on Monday.

Ohtani reached base a record nine times in Game 3, the most by a player in a single game since 1942. The Blue Jays walked Ohtani in each of his last five plate appearances - including four intentional walks - after he collected two doubles and two home runs in his first four at-bats.

Jays manager John Schneider confirmed postgame that the Jays intend to continue walking Ohtani, according to TSN.

Toronto opted to start taking the bat out of Ohtani's hands after the star slugger hit a game-tying home run in the seventh inning off Seranthony Domínguez.

"We're trying to pitch around him," Schneider said of the game-tying blast, which occurred with the bases empty and one out. "You trust Seranthony to make pitches to do that. Sometimes for pitchers it's hard to do that when you're kind of trying to throw a ball and didn't put it where you want to put it.

"(Ohtani) had a great game, he's a great player, but I think after that, you just kind of take the bat out of his hands."

The Dodgers were unable to cash in on any of Ohtani's free passes following his seventh-inning blast. But the 18-inning classic was eventually decided when Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run to give Los Angeles the victory and a 2-1 lead in the series.