Another big Sho: Ohtani hits 2 homers, ties record with 4 extra-base hits in World Series Game 3

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Even in a monumental 18-inning World Series game overflowing with statistical superlatives and unforgettable achievements all across the field, Shohei Ohtani again managed to tower above it all.

No player ever had more extra-base hits in a World Series game than Ohtani did in Game 3 on Monday night when he slugged two homers and two doubles in the first seven innings.

No player in any major league game ever reached base more times than Ohtani did when he got walked five straight times following his four-hit barrage.

And nobody who ever picked up a baseball accomplished a fraction of Ohtani’s latest mind-blowing feats at the plate on a night when they really needed to get to bed because they had to pitch the next day.

“I want to go to sleep as soon as possible so I can get ready,” a smiling Ohtani said through his interpreter after the Dodgers' epic 6-5 victory finally ended with Freddie Freeman's walk-off homer leading off the 18th.

Dodgers fans crawled into bed Tuesday morning dreaming of back-to-back titles after Ohtani was a thorough nightmare for the Toronto Blue Jays' pitching staff.

Just 10 days after he hit three homers and struck out 10 Milwaukee Brewers to clinch the National League pennant in what's already considered by many to be the most spectacular one-game performance in baseball history, Ohtani gave himself some competition for that distinction when he reached base in all nine of his plate appearances in his very next game in Chavez Ravine.

“I hope we don't lose sight of, you know, our starting pitcher got on base nine times tonight,” Freeman said. “Just incredible. When you're that hot ... like Shohei was tonight, I mean, (walking him is) the right move. You don't want Shohei to beat you. Let other guys try and beat you after his first four at-bats. It took a lot longer, but (we) finally did it.”

Ohtani tied a 119-year-old record when he got four extra-base hits. After the Jays effectively took the bat out of his hands by refusing to pitch to him any more, he became the first major leaguer in 83 years to reach base nine times in any game, let alone the postseason.

“He had a great game,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “He’s a great player, but I think after that, you just kind of take the bat out of his hands.”

When asked if the Blue Jays’ handling of Ohtani late in Game 3 is what should be expected going forward in the World Series, Schneider flatly replied: “Yeah.”

When Freeman finally blasted his second historic walk-off homer in a World Series game at Dodger Stadium, Ohtani leapt onto the field with his teammates and then ran out toward the bullpen for a joyous celebration with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who had been warming up to pitch the 19th inning just two days after throwing a complete-game victory in Toronto.

“What matters the most is we won," Ohtani said through his interpreter. "And what I accomplished today is in the context of this game, and what matters the most is we flip the page and play the next game.”

Freeman's latest clutch homer cleared the fence just over 17 hours before Ohtani will make his first World Series start on the mound when he pitches for the Dodgers in Game 4 on Tuesday night. The exertion of a 6-hour, 39-minute game could affect his pitching — or Ohtani could continue to accomplish practically superhuman feats with grace and style.

Ohtani led off the bottom of the first in Game 3 with a ground-rule double to right field. He followed with a solo homer to right in the third inning off Toronto starter Max Scherzer, and he added an RBI double in the fifth off reliever Mason Fluharty.

Ohtani then hit a tying 401-foot homer off Seranthony Domínguez with one out in the seventh. It was his sixth homer in the Dodgers' last four games, and he tied Corey Seager's eight homers in 2020 for the most by a Dodgers player in a single postseason.

The Blue Jays had seen enough of Ohtani by then: Schneider intentionally walked him in the ninth, 11th, 13th and 15th innings — and the gambit worked each time, with Ohtani's teammates unable to get him home.

Ohtani is the first player to be intentionally walked four times in a postseason game, just one shy of the overall major league record for intentional passes set by Andre Dawson in May 1990.

With a man on first, the Blue Jays pitched to Ohtani in the 17th — but just barely, with Brendon Little throwing four pitches comfortably outside the zone.

Ohtani became the first player to reach base nine times since Stan Hack had five hits and four walks for the Cubs in an 18-inning game on Aug. 9, 1942, tying a record also achieved by Max Carey in 1922 and Johnny Burnett in 1932.

After becoming the first player in MLB history with three multihomer games in one postseason, Ohtani is closing in on Randy Arozarena's MLB record of 10 homers in a postseason.

Only one other player in baseball history got four extra-base hits in a World Series game: Frank Isbell had four doubles for the Chicago White Sox in Game 5 in 1906 against the Chicago Cubs.

Ohtani also became the first hitter to have multiple games with at least 12 total bases in a single postseason. The only other player to have two such postseason games in his career was Babe Ruth.

Ohtani has six hits and five RBIs in the first three games of the World Series against Toronto, the city where fans chanted “We don’t need you!” at Ohtani while the Blue Jays won Game 1. Ohtani also homered late in that blowout loss.

Ohtani hit two homers in the Dodgers' first game of the postseason against Cincinnati, but he hadn't homered again until his historic performance in the NLCS. All three of those homers were solo shots, and he hit a pair of solo homers in Game 3.

Ohtani now trails only Arozarena, who set the major league record with 10 postseason homers in 2020 before Tampa Bay lost the World Series to Seager and the Dodgers.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani watches his RBI-Double against the Toronto Blue Jays during the fifth inning in Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles.(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani celebrates a double against the Toronto Blue Jays during the first inning in Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani hits a RBI-double against the Toronto Blue Jays during the fifth inning in Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles.(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani celebrates in the dugout after scoring against the Toronto Blue Jays during the fifth inning in Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani celebrates hit RBI-Double against the Toronto Blue Jays during the fifth inning in Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s second term has been eventful. You wouldn’t know it from his approval numbers.

An AP-NORC poll from January found that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of Trump’s performance as president. That’s virtually unchanged from March 2025, shortly after he took office for the second time.

The new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research does show subtle signs of vulnerability for the Republican president. Trump hasn’t convinced Americans that the economy is in good shape, and many question whether he has the right priorities when he’s increasingly focused on foreign intervention. His approval rating on immigration, one of his signature issues, has also slipped since he took office.

Here’s how Americans’ views of Trump have — and haven’t — changed over the past year, according to AP-NORC polling.

Call it a gift or a curse — for all his unpredictability, Trump's approval numbers just don't change very much.

This was largely the case during his first term in office, too. Early in his first term, 42% of Americans approved of how he was handling the presidency. There were some ups and downs over the ensuing years, but he left office with almost the same approval.

That level of consistency on presidential approval numbers could be the new normal for U.S. politics — or it could be unique to Trump. Gallup polling since the 1950s shows that presidential approval ratings have grown less variable over time. But President Joe Biden had a slightly different experience. Biden, a Democrat, entered the White House with higher approval numbers than Trump has ever received, but those fell rapidly during his first two years in office, then stayed low for the remainder of his term.

Most Americans have held a critical view of Trump throughout his time in office, and Americans are twice as likely to say he's focused on the wrong priorities than the right ones. About half of U.S. adults say he’s mostly focusing on the wrong priorities one year into his second term, and approximately 2 in 10 say he’s mostly focused on the right priorities. Another 2 in 10, roughly, say it’s been about an even mix, and 14% say they don't have an opinion.

The economy has haunted Trump in his first year back in the White House, despite his insistence that “the Trump economic boom has officially begun.”

Just 37% of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling the economy. That’s up slightly from 31% in December — which marked a low point for Trump — but Trump started out with low approval on this issue, which doesn’t give him a lot of room for error.

The economy is a new problem for Trump. His approval rating on this issue in his first term fluctuated, but it was typically higher. Close to half of Americans approved of Trump’s economic approach for much of his first White House stint, and he’s struggled to adjust to this as a weak point. Americans care a lot more about costs than they did in Trump’s first term, and, like Biden, he’s persistently asserted that the U.S. economy is not a problem while the vast majority describe it as “poor.”

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults say Trump has done more to hurt the cost of living in his second term, while only about 2 in 10 say he’s done more to help. About one-quarter say he hasn't made an impact.

When Trump entered office, immigration was among his strongest issues. It’s since faded, a troubling sign for Trump, who campaigned on both economic prosperity and crackdowns to illegal immigration.

Just 38% of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling immigration, down from 49% in March. The poll was conducted Jan. 8-11, shortly after the death of Renee Good, who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.

But there are signs that Americans still give Trump some leeway on immigration issues. About half of U.S. adults say Trump has “gone too far” when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the country illegally, which is unchanged since April, despite an immigration crackdown that spread to cities across the U.S. in the second half of the year.

Nearly half of Americans, 45%, say Trump has helped immigration and border security “a lot” or “a little” in his second term. This is an area where Democrats are more willing to give Trump some credit. About 2 in 10 Democrats say Trump has helped on this issue, higher than the share of Democrats who say he's helped on costs or job creation.

Trump has focused his attention more on foreign policy in his second term, and polling shows most Americans disapprove of his approach.

But much like Trump's overall approval, views of his handling of foreign policy have changed little in his second term, despite wide-ranging actions including his push to control Greenland and the recent military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

About 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the issue of foreign policy, and most Americans, 56%, say Trump has “gone too far” in using the U.S. military to intervene in other countries.

Trump’s continued focus on global issues could be a liability given its sharp contrast with the “America First” platform he ran on and Americans’ growing concern with costs at home. But it could also be hard to shift views on the issue — even if Trump takes more dramatic action in the coming months.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,203 adults was conducted Jan. 8-11 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

President Donald Trump holds a bill that returns whole milk to school cafeterias across the country, in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)