Tommy Edman has seen his share of Shohei Ohtani home runs by now, but the Dodgers shortstop still finds himself amazed by some of his teammate’s moonshots. That was the case in Wednesday night’s NLCS Game 3, when Ohtani sent a 397-foot blast high above the right field foul pole and halfway up Citi Field’s second deck to punctuate the Dodgers’ 8-0 win over the Mets. “It just comes off his bat different,” Edman remarked Thursday before NLCS Game 4. “It’s like a golf ball. I keep saying I’ve never seen a ball hit that far, but at some point, like, you’ve seen a bunch of Shohei’s homers.” The three-run blast was the second home run of the postseason for Ohtani, who hit 54 in the regular season to go along with 59 stolen bases for the first 50-50 campaign in MLB history. Expected to win his third MVP Award, Ohtani is competing in the MLB playoffs for the first time, and the results have been mixed so far. He entered NLCS Game 4 with a .226 average and a .771 OPS through eight playoff games, having gone 0-for-22 with the bases empty compared to 7-for-9 with runners on base. His Game 3 home run snapped a six-game homerless drought, and after the win, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts suggested it was “important for Shohei, certainly, to build some confidence.” “I think he’s performing well,” Roberts said Thursday of Ohtani’s postseason so far. “I’m excited for him. I think the moment isn’t too big. I think that you’ve seen other superstars in years past, their first postseason, you could see them trying too hard. I don’t see that with Shohei. But I will say that homer last night, I thought, was really good to see for him.” The Japanese-born Ohtani spent his first six MLB seasons with the Angels, winning two AL MVP Awards but never making the playoffs. The two-way sensation joined the Dodgers in December on a 10-year, $700 million contract featuring heavily deferred money but did not pitch this season as he recovers from right elbow surgery. “This is my first experience in the postseason, so I can’t really rely on the experiences or my reflection in the past,” Ohtani said through an interpreter Tuesday during a workout at Citi Field. “But what I do know is that we’ve been playing against good teams, better teams, with their best pitchers, so being able to get base hits, put up results isn’t as easy, maybe, as it could be.” Wednesday’s home run was Ohtani’s 17th hit in his last 20 at-bats with runners in scoring position, dating back to the regular season. Earlier this week, Roberts dismissed the possibility of dropping Ohtani from the leadoff spot in an effort to get the lefty-swinging star more plate appearances with runners on base. “I don’t think there’s a hitter that says when runners are in scoring position that they’re not more focused,” Roberts said Thursday of the disparity between Ohtani’s at-bats. “I think that is a part of it, but I still like him in any spot. I think there’s a little bit of a focus part of it, but we still need him to get on base, too.” Ohtani’s first season with the Dodgers got off to a whirlwind start, with his since-fired interpreter Ippei Mizuhara charged with bank fraud for allegedly stealing more than $16 million from the slugger to pay off his own massive gambling debt. Mizuhara pleaded guilty in June. Despite the distraction, Ohtani led the NL with 130 RBI this season, regularly batting in front of Mookie Betts, the AL MVP with the Red Sox in 2018, and Freddie Freeman, the NL MVP in 2020 with the Braves. With Ohtani’s arrival came sky-high expectations for the Dodgers, who went an MLB-best 98-64 in the regular season and seek their first World Series title since 2020. The 6-4 superstar poses perhaps the biggest NLCS challenge for the Mets, who seek their first championship since 1986. “He’s just a regular dude, just like you and me,” Betts said Wednesday of Ohtani. “He just has a superpower that you and me can’t do.”