MIAMI — They started to trudge of the clubhouse at 1:23 a.m. Sunday, their heads down, eyes glazed, mostly staring straight ahead.
The large contingent of reporters, perhaps 100 in all, waited behind a rope in the mixed zone in the corridor of loanDepot Park, and at 1:31 a.m., Shohei Ohtani came out of the door and stopped to talk.
It was a strange sensation for Ohtani, a feeling he knew that was inevitable, but he wasn’t prepared for it right now.
The pain was raw.
For the first time in years, after winning two World Series titles and two MVPs with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Ohtani finally lost.
