It's hard to argue at this point that Shohei Ohtani isn't the greatest baseball player who's ever lived. In the Dodgers' 6-5, 18-inning win over the Blue Jays in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday night—and into Tuesday morning—the 31-year-old phenom went 4-for-4 from the dish with two home runs and two doubles before being walked five times over the final 11 frames.

And yet, L.A.'s hero of the night may not have been the dual-threat star—but rather, a relief pitcher who wasn't even on the Dodgers' active playoff roster this time last week.

With his bullpen depleted as he mulled over putting a position player on the mound in the biggest game of their season, manager Dave Roberts handed the ball to 25-year-old Will Klein—who, in turn, delivered four scoreless innings while allowing just one hit—and striking out five—to earn a win that put the Dodgers up 2-1 in the World Series.

"I never dreamed that anything like this would happen," Klein said following Monday night's marathon. "So just having the guys like Kersh [Clayton Kershaw], Freddie [Freeman], Shohei [Ohtani], Mookie [Betts] like all those guys like, celebrating me for a second there, was just insane. I don't think I could have dreamt a dream that good."

Klein has had quite the journey to begin his MLB career. Originally selected by the Kansas City Royals in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB draft, the right-hander was traded to the A's in June of '24 before being designated for assignment this past January. He was then dealt to the Mariners and DFA'd again in May before being sent to the Dodgers—splitting time between L.A. and Triple-A Oklahoma City throughout the season—and ultimately delivering the performance of his life on baseball's biggest stage.

Prior to Game 3, Klein's career-high for pitches thrown in an outing was 36. He doubled that, hurling 72, on Monday night.

"You don't ever plan on playing 18 innings, and you just kind of ask more from the player," said Roberts after the win. "He delivered ... Certainly with the adrenaline on this stage, what he did was incredible."

"I don't know how I kept going," Klein admitted to Fox's Ken Rosenthal. "But I just knew every inning I went out there, it was gonna be another zero. If I had to keep going out, there were gonna be more zeroes put up. Everyone worked their a-- off to get here, and I wasn't gonna be the one that put that to waste."

And that he didn't. L.A. won it in the bottom of the 18th thanks to a Freddie Freeman walk-off home run, Klein etched his name in Dodger lore, and the boys in blue are now two wins away from a second consecutive World Series title.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Dodgers' Game 3 Unsung Hero Not Named Shohei Ohtani.

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