NEW YORK – Shohei Ohtani perked up when he heard his name.

“I told him,” Dodgers backup catcher Austin Barnes said after Ohtani’s three-run moonshot clinched an 8-0 victory over the Mets in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, “hit the ball over the fence.”

“Not bad advice,” Ohtani said.

Barnes clapped his hands three times. “Like, ‘Today, man, over the fence.’”

Ohtani beamed as he dressed to leave the ballpark, two wins away from the World Series.

“Good coaching,” Ohtani said.

The game is not that simple for Ohtani. But sometimes he can make it look that way, as he did in the eighth inning on Wednesday, when he hit a ball that looked like it could have landed in Flushing Bay had Citi Field’s second deck not been in the way.

Shohei Ohtani has not hit a hit in 22 at bats with no one on base, but has seven hits in nine at bats with runners on board. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

The home run led a procession of Mets fans to the exits, extended Ohtani’s bizarre postseason splits and eased the tension for manager Dave Roberts. The Dodgers arrived in Queens this week hoping to sneak through three straight games while using starting pitchers who couldn’t last deep into games. With one strike, Ohtani increased the lead and protected the bullpen. Roberts didn’t have to use high-leverage relievers Evan Phillips and Daniel Hudson. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting in Game 4, the team should line up Phillips and Hudson plus Blake Treinen and Michael Kopech, who combined for two scoreless innings on Wednesday.

“Those things are important,” Roberts said.

This is Ohtani’s first time in the postseason. He has competed under a microscope for much of his professional career, but never before has the American public studied his at-bats at such a detailed level. He contributed two hits in a Game 1 win and walked twice in a Game 2 loss. Yet he had made the game seem so simple in the final months of the season — whenever he saw a pitch, he hit it with great force — that every out he made seemed like a harbinger of a long-term slump.

Roberts has suggested that Ohtani swung too often on pitches outside the strike zone. He looked lost against Mets starter Sean Mananea in Game 2. On Tuesday, before the Dodgers practiced at Citi Field, Ohtani deflected questions about his confidence and approach. He didn’t believe he was wilting under the glare of the postseason. He didn’t think he was in the middle of a terrible stretch.

“I feel good on the board,” Ohtani said through his interpreter Will Ireton. “I feel like I can think back to the times when I (felt) good and maybe incorporate that into that.”

Part of the concern stemmed from a strange disparity in its splits. Ohtani hasn’t hit a hit in 22 at-bats with no one on base, yet he has seven hits in nine at-bats with runners on board. The difference may matter less to most sluggers, but Ohtani leads the Dodgers lineup. He used his legs to steal 59 bases during the regular season. He didn’t steal anything in October.

Ohtani emphasized Tuesday that this brief lull in his production wouldn’t change his intentions as a hitter. “Regardless of how they pitch to me, my plan is to take as much of the same approach as possible and not really focus on how they attack me,” he said.

Ohtani made good on that promise in Game 3. He grounded out on the first pitch he saw, a 90-mph fastball from Mets starter Luis Severino. Two innings later, when Severino couldn’t find the zone, Ohtani walked. In the sixth, after Kiké Hernández’s two-run homer, Ohtani swung as Mets reliever Reed Garrett’s 0-2 cutter dove toward his cleats.

All of those at-bats took place with the bases empty. Ohtani’s didn’t celebrate. He followed a walk from catcher Will Smith and a two-out single from Hernández. Mets reliever Tylor Megill attempted an inside strike for an 0-1 cutter. Ohtani waffled the ball into right field. A collective sigh came over the 43,883 fans in the stadium. The statistics don’t do the homer justice: 185.9 km per hour, at an estimated distance of 100 meters. The ball hooked close to the post, close enough to merit a replay review.

“I don’t know if you would even undo that,” said third baseman Max Muncy, who reached base in five at-bats and added a solo shot in the ninth. “The ball was 30 yards over the foul pole. The foul pole is not high enough for that.’

The home run changed the calculus for Robert’s endgame. He had used Treinen, one of his backup aces, to move to the bottom of the Mets lineup in the seventh inning. As the eighth inning began, with the Dodgers leading by four, Hudson came loose in the bullpen. If the score remained tied, Treinen would return for the eighth. If the Dodgers added a run, Hudson would pitch. Add three runs? That allowed Roberts to send in rookie Ben Casparius for the final two innings. “The more runs we score, that makes it easier,” Treinen said.

The bullpen appears to be almost at full strength for Game 4. The Dodgers are trying to run this gauntlet without Mets hitters Francisco Lindor, Mark Vientos and Pete Alonso repeatedly looking at the same relievers. So far, Roberts has succeeded. “The more we can hide guys and keep them from going in, that’s probably ideal,” Hudson said.

Ohtani left the stadium without speaking to reporters. He didn’t have to say much. “It was important,” Roberts said, “that Shohei could build some trust.” His team is at the top. His swing silenced a ballpark and saved his bullpen. A reminder was also offered. Even amid this relative decline in his hitting, Ohtani can inspire awe. That is of course not shocking.

(Top photo by Shohei Ohtani: Elsa/Getty Images)