OSHU CITY, Japan — In Oshu, the small rural town where Shohei Ohtani grew up, baseball is as much a part of the landscape as the farmers’ fields and low-rise hills surrounding it. The area has long been known for its beef and ironwork. Now it’s famous for Ohtani.

In recent days, local officials organized watch parties at community centers where supporters waved inflatable sticks hailing Ohtani as “The Pride of Oshu City” as his Los Angeles Dodgers took on the New York Yankees in Ohtani’s first World Series, which the Dodgers won in Game 5 on Wednesday.

As they watched Game 4 from Japan a day earlier, Yasuo Sakamoto, 74, and his wife, Keiko, 70, wore the Dodgers jerseys and hats they got when they visited Los Angeles this summer to see Ohtani play.

“Even at my age, I’m really awed by him,” Yasuo Sakamoto said of Ohtani. “In Japan when there’s news about Ohtani, it’s bright news. If they win, it’s going to be even brighter.”

After having lost the first three games to the Dodgers, the Yankees fended off a potential sweep in Game 4, winning 11-4 at home. But the Dodgers came from behind after being down 5-0 to win Game 5 and the World Series at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, rallying to a 7-6 victory.

Ohtani, 30, a two-time American League Most Valuable Player who is the favorite to be named National League MVP this year, is not the first strong baseball player to have come out of Japan’s Iwate prefecture, which is about 300 miles north of Tokyo. But people here see him as a “once-in-a-century” talent.

“They’re blessed with wonderful instructors,” said superfan Hironobu Kanno, surrounded by some of the estimated 3,000 pieces of Ohtani memorabilia he has collected as he has watched Ohtani rise through Japan’s amateur ranks and into Major League Baseball with a record $700 million, 10-year contract.