Shohei Ohtani’s biggest playoff day was his first. That’s not to say he didn’t discount his overall postseason contributions – he had an uneventful World Series and an amusing stretch in which he scored only game-winning hits, but given the sample size, his numbers prove to be quite respectable if not even as expected. On the other hand, the expectation was Ohtani’s typical narrative inevitability. Something like, say, in the very first game of the NLDS, when the Dodgers were down three runs in the second inning and Ohtani smashed a high fastball from Padres ace Dylan Cease to end the game in one hit. After six seasons without a postseason, Ohtani was suddenly there.

None of the other postseason days had the same feel as the first, due to a combination of Ohtani’s aforementioned perfectly respectable struggles and the Dodgers’ postseason tendency to win or lose games by large margins. But even when Ohtani wasn’t on base, he was a presence. For one thing, there was that graphic on TV where the batters were counting down until he got to the plate. Then there was the fear of a shoulder injury. And because Ohtani is Ohtani, even his mistakes had meaning. In the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ decisive Game 5, Gerrit Cole hit Ohtani’s 80-FV colleague Gavin Lux with the bases loaded. Good: It’s Gavin Lux. But then Cole knocked Ohtani down, and The meant something. It’s a simple truism – great players make big moments feel bigger – but there you have it.

As much as people might find the general misfortune of World Series stars ironic in an Alanis Morissette way, MLB didn’t really need Ohtani and fellow future MVP Aaron Judge to produce highlight moments. Judge found his way there last night. He fought his way back from statistical insignificance in the World Series and helped his team win (initially) and then (eventually) lose the game. Ohtani struck out with the bases loaded and won his first ring. Highlights and even lowlights are notable benefits for viewers, but stars, if they’re big enough, even if they’re doing nothing, can change the way fans watch just by standing. To some, it felt a bit like a monkey’s paw reward that Ohtani’s chosen rival team was the Dodgers, but after that: Wasn’t it worth it, even at the expense of Tungsten Arm O’Doyle?

Alanis Morissette’s greatest irony is that it happened so quickly. Just last season, Ohtani was with the Los Angeles Angels – the angelwho had made a necessary and failed attempt at a postseason run. And now he’s at the top of the list along with two other future Hall of Famers, and Mike Trout is still trapped on the other side of town. It’s a reversal of Bryce Harper’s free agency story and a nice reminder that the mistakes you make at 23, like signing with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, don’t necessarily doom you for the rest of your life .

The whiplash of it all still makes the entire situation seem unbelievable: that Ohtani doesn’t have to break his back carrying his team to win a game, let alone a series win; that a year after his Angels failed to make the playoffs, Ohtani had already won his first World Series; that Ohtani announced a dog, a woman and a new interpreter in very quick succession. Something like this just shouldn’t happen. But then again, it’s very Shohei Ohtani. The game has already changed.

Incredibly, there is more to come. Ohtani is so good as a hitter that it would be easy to forget that he also pitches this year. Now imagine a postseason where his UCL is fully recovered and he’s on the rise. This is almost too good to hope for – unless you are in touch with the angels. In this case, it would be too terrible to think about.