Shohei Ohtani has mashed 100 mph fastballs for homers, stolen bases against some of the game's best catchers and recently wrapped up one of the best regular seasons in Major League Baseball history.
Now the Japanese superstar and his Los Angeles Dodgers have to face something that's arguably even more daunting.
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New York Yankees' Aaron Judge reacts after striking out during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Cleveland Guardians' Jose Ramirez watches his double off Houston Astros relief pitcher Ryan Pressly during the eighth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani follows the flight of his single off Colorado Rockies pitcher Seth Halvorsen in the eighth inning of a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Mookie Betts celebrates after hitting a single during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Philadelphia Phillies' Bryce Harper looks on from the dugout before a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
A five-day break.
Since MLB’s most recent 12-team playoff format took effect in 2022, five of the eight top seeds have lost in the Division Series, unable to capitalize on the supposed reward of earning a bye through the Wild Card Series.
This year, the Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies have the top two seeds in the National League, while the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians are in the same position in the American League. That's given all of them five days to prepare for the best-of-five Division Series that begin Saturday.
Sure, a few days to heal bumps and bruises while other teams fight it out is nice. But there's also a downside.
“It’s not a vacation,” Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott said following a workout earlier this week.
Maybe more than any other professional sport, baseball is one that relies on rhythm and routine. MLB squeezes 162 regular-season games into 187 days over six months, meaning teams are playing games almost daily from April to September. Other than the All-Star break in July, there's never two scheduled days off in a row.
Five days is a relative eternity. And it hasn't always been a good thing.
“It’s a trade-off,” said Chris Antonetti, Cleveland's president of baseball operations. “The benefit is you get time off. The downside is you’re not in the major league environment facing live major league pitching in the normal cadence that you would be during the season.
"But on balance, I think I’d still take the trade-off and want the bye.”
The Guardians have played simulated games the past three days to keep fresh. On Wednesday, they played in an empty Progressive Field with crowd noise piped in, giving it the same aura as the pandemic-marred 2020 season.
“What we’ve tried to do is be really deliberate this week about the environments we’re creating to keep our guys ready and ready to compete on Saturday,” Antonetti said.
The Yankees are one of the teams that have had success under the current playoff format, winning their 2022 Division Series against the Guardians following a five-day layoff. Manager Aaron Boone said last week that part of his plan was to bring some of the organization's minor leaguers to New York so there were fresh arms for hitters to face while they wait for Saturday.
“We'll do our best to prioritize taking advantage of the rest, which I'm sure several guys at this time of the year will benefit from,” Boone said. “But we're also trying to make sure we keep that mental edge and keep guys as sharp as we possibly can with live looks.”
The Dodgers are the poster child for what can go wrong following a long break in October. They were the top NL seed in 2022 but lost in four games to the San Diego Padres. Last season, they also earned a bye before getting drilled by the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-game sweep.
Now Los Angeles is back in the same position. The Dodgers are in a good spot in many ways — they've got one of the game's best offensive lineups with Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, and have clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs thanks to a 98-64 record in the regular season.
They've also tweaked their routine during the five-day break compared with the previous two years, getting some swings against high-velocity pitching machines that mimic MLB pitchers. A few of the team's players also have organized watch parties for the wild-card games in an effort to keep up camaradarie.
But one thing they won't have on Saturday is momentum.
They'll have to create it fast.
“I see some more hunger, I see some more edge. I like that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Not to say that guys weren’t prepared or trying or cared, but there’s a different level of intensity.”
AP Sports Writers Tom Withers in Cleveland, Dan Gelston in Philadelphia, Beth Harris in Los Angeles and AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum in New York contributed to this report.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
New York Yankees' Aaron Judge reacts after striking out during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Cleveland Guardians' Jose Ramirez watches his double off Houston Astros relief pitcher Ryan Pressly during the eighth inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani follows the flight of his single off Colorado Rockies pitcher Seth Halvorsen in the eighth inning of a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Mookie Betts celebrates after hitting a single during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Philadelphia Phillies' Bryce Harper looks on from the dugout before a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a government shutdown deadline, the Senate rushed through final passage early Saturday of a bipartisan plan that would temporarily fund federal operations and disaster aid, dropping President-elect Donald Trump's demands for a debt limit increase into the new year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had insisted Congress would “meet our obligations” and not allow federal operations to shutter ahead of the Christmas holiday season. But the day's outcome was uncertain after Trump doubled down on his insistence that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal — if not, he said in an early morning post, let the closures “start now.”
The House approved Johnson's new bill overwhelmingly, 366-34. The Senate worked into the night to pass it, 85-11, just after the deadline. At midnight, the White House said it had ceased shutdown preparations.
“This is a good outcome for the country, ” Johnson said after the House vote, adding he had spoken with Trump and the president-elect “was certainly happy about this outcome, as well.”
President Joe Biden, who has played a less public role in the process throughout a turbulent week, was expected to sign the measure into law Saturday.
“There will be no government shutdown," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The final product was the third attempt from Johnson, the beleaguered House speaker, to achieve one of the basic requirements of the federal government — keeping it open. And it raised stark questions about whether Johnson will be able to keep his job, in the face of angry GOP colleagues, and work alongside Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk, who called the legislative plays from afar.
Trump's last-minute demand was almost an impossible ask, and Johnson had almost no choice but to work around his pressure for a debt ceiling increase. The speaker knew there wouldn’t be enough support within the GOP majority to pass any funding package, since many Republican deficit hawks prefer to slash federal government and certainly wouldn’t allow more debt.
Instead, the Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate next year, with big plans for tax cuts and other priorities, are showing they must routinely rely on Democrats for the votes needed to keep up with the routine operations of governing.
“So is this a Republican bill or a Democrat bill?” scoffed Musk on social media ahead of the vote.
The drastically slimmed-down 118-page package would fund the government at current levels through March 14 and add $100 billion in disaster aid and $10 billion in agricultural assistance to farmers.
Gone is Trump’s demand to lift the debt ceiling, which GOP leaders told lawmakers would be debated as part of their tax and border packages in the new year. Republicans made a so-called handshake agreement to raise the debt limit at that time while also cutting $2.5 trillion in spending over 10 years.
It’s essentially the same deal that flopped the night before in a spectacular setback — opposed by most Democrats and some of the most conservative Republicans — minus Trump’s debt ceiling demand.
But it's far smaller than the original bipartisan accord Johnson struck with Democratic and Republican leaders — a 1,500-page bill that Trump and Musk rejected, forcing him to start over. It was stuffed with a long list of other bills — including much-derided pay raises for lawmakers — but also other measures with broad bipartisan support that now have a tougher path to becoming law.
House Democrats were cool to the latest effort after Johnson reneged on the hard-fought bipartisan compromise.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said it looked like Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, was calling the shots for Trump and Republicans.
“Who is in charge?” she asked during the debate.
Still, the House Democrats put up more votes than Republicans for the bill's passage. Almost three dozen conservative House Republicans voted against it.
“The House Democrats have successfully stopped extreme MAGA Republicans from shutting down the government, crashing the economy and hurting working-class Americans all across the nation,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, referring to Trump's “Make America Great Again” slogan.
In the Senate, almost all the opposition came from the Republicans — except independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said Musk's interference was “not democracy, that's oligarchy.”
Trump, who has not yet been sworn into office, is showing the power but also the limits of his sway with Congress, as he intervenes and orchestrates affairs from Mar-a-Lago alongside Musk, who is heading up the new Department of Government Efficiency.
The incoming Trump administration vows to slash the federal budget and fire thousands of employees and is counting on Republicans for a big tax package. And Trump's not fearful of shutdowns the way lawmakers are, having sparked the longest government shutdown in history in his first term at the White House.
“If there is going to be a shutdown of government, let it begin now,” Trump posted early in the morning on social media.
More important for the president-elect was his demand for pushing the thorny debt ceiling debate off the table before he returns to the White House. The federal debt limit expires Jan. 1, and Trump doesn't want the first months of his new administration saddled with tough negotiations in Congress to lift the nation's borrowing capacity. Now Johnson will be on the hook to deliver.
“Congress must get rid of, or extend out to, perhaps, 2029, the ridiculous Debt Ceiling,” Trump posted — increasing his demand for a new five-year debt limit increase. "Without this, we should never make a deal."
Government workers had already been told to prepare for a federal shutdown that would send millions of employees — and members of the military — into the holiday season without paychecks.
Biden has been in discussions with Jeffries and Schumer, but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Republicans blew up this deal. They did, and they need to fix this.”
As the day dragged on, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to remind colleagues “how harmful it is to shut the government down, and how foolish it is to bet your own side won’t take the blame for it.”
At one point, Johnson asked House Republicans at a lunchtime meeting for a show of hands as they tried to choose the path forward.
It wasn’t just the shutdown, but the speaker’s job on the line. The speaker’s election is the first vote of the new Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, and some Trump allies have floated Musk for speaker.
Johnson said he spoke to Musk ahead of the vote Friday and they talked about the “extraordinary challenges of this job.”
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Mary Clare Jalonick, Darlene Superville and Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., celebrates as the Senate begins voting on the government funding bill just in time to meet the midnight deadline, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., celebrates as the Senate begins voting on the government funding bill just in time to meet the midnight deadline, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters after passing the funding bill to avert the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters after passing the funding bill to avert the government shutdown at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The Capitol is pictured in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., emerges from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., emerges from a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., talks with reporters after attending a meeting with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., as the House works on a spending bill to avert a shutdown of the Federal Government, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
FILE - President-elect Donald Trump poses for a photo with Dana White, Kid Rock and Elon Musk at UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden, Nov. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks briefly to reporters just before a vote on an interim spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. The vote failed to pass. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
