Karma, ‘baseball gods’ behind Skip Shumaker’s decision not to walk Shohei Ohtani

The Miami Marlins got punched in the mouth repeatedly by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday, specifically by Shohei Ohtani. On Thursday, the Dodgers cruised to a 20-4 win over the Marlins behind a six-hit, 10-RBI outing by Ohtani. Three of those six hits were home runs, one of which was a record-breaker.

In the top of the seventh inning, Ohtani crushed a two-run homer to left-center field in Miami's home ballpark to record his 50th home run of the season. With that, Ohtani became the first player ever to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season.

With Ohtani single-handedly destroying the Marlins, one had to wonder why Marlins manager Skip Schumaker opted to not intentionally walk the star. But ahead of Ohtani's record-breaking home run, Schumaker was spotted telling someone in the Marlins dugout "f*** that" seemingly in response to a question about intentionally walking Ohtani.

Skip Schumaker credits karma and 'baseball gods' for not intentionally walking Shohei Ohtani

After the game, Schumaker was asked by reporters why he decided to pitch to Ohtani, despite being 4-for-4 and 5-for-5 at the plate late. Schumaker said that it's on his team to try and get Ohtani out on their own. Walking Ohtani, in Schumaker's words, would be bad baseball gods- and karma-wise.

"That's a bad move, baseball-wise, karma-wise, baseball-gods-wise. You go after him and see if you can get him out," said Schumaker.

Schumaker said he was proud that his pitchers were "attacking" Ohtani and not "scared" of the star. While Schumaker said it was a "bad day for the Marlins," he did say that it was "a good day for the game of baseball" to see Ohtani break a record.

Ohtani may have clinched the National League MVP award on Thursday afternoon for becoming the inaugural member of the 50-50 club. While it does sting for the Marlins to have played a prominent role in that happening, Schumaker wasn't going to run away from the challenge that was getting Ohtani out. In Schumaker's mind, this strategy was the right decision for the game of baseball and the baseball gods.