Before the 2016 Japan Series, a Number columnist told Hiroshima to give up the games Ohtani pitched

By the fall of 2016 Shohei Ohtani was the reason most Japanese commentators picked Nippon-Ham to win the Japan Series. Yasushi Washida, writing for Number Web on Oct. 21, started from that consensus and turned it around. Under the headline "Erase Shohei Ohtani from the Japan Series," he argued that Hiroshima's biggest problem was how to handle a player who could beat them both on the mound and at the plate.

His answer was to plan around losing. He cited a line from former Seibu manager Masaaki Mori: in a seven-game series you can lose three, so the question is how you lose them. For Hiroshima, that meant accepting that the games Ohtani started might be gone and focusing on winning four of the others. Washida also noted that the 165 km/h pitch Ohtani had just thrown was the fastest in Japan, and that the major league record recognized at the time was Aroldis Chapman's 169 km/h.

The Series followed the script for a while. Ohtani started Game 1 and lost, striking out 11 in six innings but allowing three runs, Baseball-Reference's Bullpen records. Hiroshima won the first two games. In Game 3, back in Sapporo, Ohtani went 3-for-4 as a hitter and singled in the bottom of the 10th to drive in the winning run. Nippon-Ham won the Series. Brandon Laird was named Series MVP. Ohtani hit .375 with four doubles.

The column was half right. Hiroshima did take the game Ohtani pitched. What the plan could not account for was the hitter. The Japan Series title was the last team prize Ohtani won in Japan. A year later he would be leaving.