Shohei Ohtani in making his first postseason pitching start on Saturday night will make MLB history in a new way. The two-way superstar in Game 1 against the Phillies is the first starting pitcher in postseason history to bat higher than sixth in a game.

Ohtani bats leadoff in Game 1, as he has in each of his previous 51 starts and in now 151 of his 161 starts this year, including the postseason. That’s normal for Ohtani, helped by the two-way-player rule adopted by MLB in 2022 that allows two-way players to start at both designated hitter and pitcher, so that when they leave the game as a pitcher, they can remain in the lineup as a hitter.

But it’s not normal in postseason history.

Four times in the 2015 postseason — Kyle Hendricks and Jason Hammel twice each — the Joe Maddon-era Cubs

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