NEW YORK – Shohei Ohtani didn't seem particularly comfortable in Game 3 of the World Series after injuring his shoulder in Game 2.

It didn't particularly matter to the Dodgers.

Instead, it was a stellar start from Walker Buehler and two timely hits from Ohtani's fellow MVPs Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman that made the difference in Los Angeles' 4-2 victory over the Yankees on Monday in the Bronx in Game 3 of this World Series. This gave the Dodgers a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.

While it was hardly the Dodgers' most explosive offense, scoring just four runs and five hits, Game 3 still showed how taxing it is for a starting pitcher to navigate the LA lineup. Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt accompanied Ohtani on four pitches to start the game – an immediate reminder that despite a shoulder injury and limited success so far in the series, Ohtani is a threat whenever he enters the box.

The first of two long battles between Schmidt and Betts followed, with Betts flying out to left field on Schmidt's seventh offering. Freeman arrived ready to further strengthen his case for World Series MVP honors.

“Luckily he threw all three of his first three throws,” said Freeman, who had never faced Schmidt in his career before Monday. “He went up on the first pitch with the sweeper and then the cutter, and then he threw the knuckle curve. So I saw all three pitches. I was okay with having two goals less because I could see everything he had.”

In the fourth pitch, Schmidt went up and in to the cutter again – a very similar spot from which Freeman had hit a 97 mph fastball from Carlos Rodón deep into right field for a home run in Game 2.

“I don’t think he tried to throw the cutter in that spot,” Freeman said afterward.

But that's exactly where it went, and once again Freeman made a big connection. The ball exploded off his bat and enjoyed the short journey to the short right-field porch of Yankee Stadium before crashing into the crowd. Seven minutes into Game 3, the Dodgers had a 2-0 lead and any positive enthusiasm that had been building in the Bronx vanished.

In the top third it was Betts' turn to extend the lead, albeit with a very different brand of attacking excellence. After drawing a leadoff walk, Tommy Edman advanced to second on an Ohtani groundout, putting Betts on Schmidt with a runner in scoring position. Monday's game was also the first time in his career that Betts faced Schmidt. Despite getting Betts flying on his first attack, Schmidt failed to draw a single whiff from the stingy Betts, whose exceptional contact skills remain the core feature of his elite offensive profile.

This trend continued in their longer second meeting. Schmidt quickly fell behind 2-0 with a high cutter and a sinker that ran deep and inside for ball two. But the right-hander went back into attack mode, hurling his entire arsenal to different parts of the zone, looking for a much-needed escape as his pitch count climbed. On the ninth pitch, Schmidt used his high-spin knuckle curve, but instead of breaking sharply below the zone, he moved back to the inside half where Betts could handle it.

It was hardly the sharp contact that Freeman made against Schmidt, but Betts scored anyway, throwing the ball high over first baseman Anthony Rizzo's head before falling into the grass just inside the right field line in front of Juan Soto, allowing Edman to run around and scoring the Dodgers' third run.

Schmidt had tried everything, even fending off weak contact from Betts — his RBI single had a paltry exit velocity of 71.2 mph — but it wasn't good enough. Of the 68 pitches Schmidt threw in his shortened Game 3 appearance, 16, or 23.5% – three sweeps, four sinkers, four knuckle-curves and five cutters – were thrown in his two showdowns with Betts.

“That was one of the attacks that set the tone,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said afterward. “Tommy did a great job of reading the ball off the bat, getting it into contact and scoring right there. But that at-bat, just winning pitches, coming through with two strikes and continuing to fight to score another run – that's what we did all night.

“I thought we had some really good at-bats. So Mookie kind of sets the tone.”

At the end of the fourth, it was Betts' glovework that brought another sigh of disappointment from the Yankee Stadium crowd looking for a reason to get excited. With Giancarlo Stanton on second base, Jazz Chisholm Jr. smoked a line drive toward Betts in right field. Betts' initial bounce suggested he expected the hard-hit ball to be carried more towards the gap in right-center field, but the ball had enormous topspin that sent it hurtling to the ground at unusual speed.

This forced Betts to make a last-second decision to either stay on top and play the ball in a leap, thus delivering the shot, or make a desperate dive to catch the ball – with the risk of him bounces past him and no one supports him.

With six Gold Gloves and an exceptional combination of athleticism, coordination and confidence, Betts chose the latter, leaping forward and grabbing the ball just above the turf for a slick second pass.

With two championships and a wealth of accolades already under his belt over his 11-year career, Betts has little left to prove; His status as one of the greatest players of his generation and a likely future Hall of Famer is absolutely assured. But for a player who understands the sky-high expectations of both himself and his star-studded team, Betts' stellar postseason is a refreshing comeuppance after his previous two trips in October, which barely reflected his talent.

Betts went 2-for-14 in the Dodgers' 2022 NLDS loss to San Diego and 0-11 against Arizona in Los Angeles' shocking 2023 NLDS exit. Holding such a small sample against the superstar is certainly unfair, but as one of the faces of this franchise, his lack of impact over the last two Octobers continued into the winter after the Dodgers' campaigns ended disappointingly.

This current run, with LA one win away from a World Series, is much more reminiscent of Betts' first October in Dodger blue in 2020, when the team stormed through the expanded postseason field and the franchise's first championship since 1988 Corey Seager's epic performance earned him MVP honors in both the NLCS and World Series. Betts was a consistent and productive presence as LA's leader, hitting .296/.378/.493 with two home runs in 18 games, both in the World Series against Tampa Bay.

This October, Betts is hitting .291/.394/.582 with more walks than strikeouts while consistently showcasing elite glove work in right field. He hit four home runs in 13 games, the same number he had hit in the 58 postseason games of his career prior to 2024. Thanks to Tommy Edman's breakthrough in the NLCS and Freeman's World Series power surge, Betts likely won't collect any individual postseason hardware. But his consistent contributions on both sides of the ball are a big reason the Dodgers are just one win away from the only award anyone in their clubhouse cares about.

“He’s Mookie Betts,” Freeman said after Game 3. “I think everyone was a little worried (after) those first few games in San Diego in the LDS” — when Betts lost 6-0, another small example of one Failure, This is indicative of the standard he holds – “but we all know it’s Mookie Betts. He is one of the best players of all time.”

Betts understood the task for the 2024 Dodgers from the start. At the team's FanFest in early February, after a historic offseason full of big-name acquisitions, Betts didn't shy away from doing what you'd expect from a team with a roster with such an overwhelming amount of star talent.

“It’s the World Series or nothing,” he then said. “You know it’s going to be hard. Each game will be the other team's World Series. It is what it is, but this is what we signed up for. We have to adapt to it.”

Of course, there were some twists and turns and turbulent times along the way. But the 2024 Dodgers posted the best record in baseball during the regular season and are now on the verge of defeating the team with the best record in the American League to achieve the sky-high goal they set for themselves many months ago.

For Betts, it was a World Series or nothing — and if his recent game is any indication, nothing was never really an option. For Freeman — who has all but secured World Series MVP should the Dodgers actually claim their fourth and final win in the coming days — adding to his personal accolades collection means little compared to the collective goal his team still has in mind has.

“I really just want to hoist this trophy,” he said. “I don’t care how this happens. I don't care if I go from 70 strikeouts to 0 for the next 70. As long as we win, that’s all I care about.”