Shohei Ohtani is scuffling at the plate, and so far the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar is coming up mostly empty in the postseason.
After stumbling into the playoffs battling biceps and knee injuries, he was 2 for 13 (.154) with two walks, four strikeouts and one stolen base in their four-game NL Division Series win over the Atlanta Braves, to go with a .421 OPS and .154 slugging percentage.
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Clearly not up to the four-time MVP's standards.
“He’s a very good self-evaluator, a very extremely high competitor and expects a lot from himself,” manager Dave Roberts said this week.
As Ohtani goes, so go the Dodgers. They weren't much better, hitting just .203 against Atlanta.
Ohtani was dropped to fifth in the order — his lowest as a Dodger — for Game 3 of the NLDS. He reached base twice — on a catcher’s interference and a walk. He moved up to the cleanup spot for Game 4. He had previously only started in the first or second spot.
Not postseason punishment, just tactical moves based on opposing pitching.
Roberts said Friday he'll bat Ohtani anywhere from second to fifth in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.
“There's nothing right now I'm going to hang my hat on outside of I just believe in the person and the talent,” Roberts said. “Against the Braves, I thought he did a good job of controlling the zone, I saw some better swings.”
Some of Ohtani's offensive slump can be traced to nagging injuries that limited him to just 139 games in the regular season. He went on the injured list, with right biceps and left knee issues, for the first time as a Dodger in September.
Ohtani has admitted he's still not 100% healthy. At times, he doesn't appear comfortable at the plate.
“I haven’t been able to get a good grasp of the root cause of all this,” he said through a translator last week. “I think that process is going to happen during the offseason when I’m going to have a little bit more time to be able to address it. But as of now, it’s something I’m just going to have to manage.”
However, health is only part of the equation. He's been uncharacteristically aggressive swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone, something Roberts hopes he improves on Sunday.
“He can still do a better job of staying in the strike zone,” Roberts said. “It's hard to have success when you're out of the zone.”
Roberts has maintained unwavering trust in Ohtani and believes his bat will come to life as the Dodgers' bid for a third consecutive World Series championship continues.
“I do think that getting a couple days out of a game environment to kind of work on his swing, rest the body, rest the mind, is a benefit,” the manager said Friday. “I’m just never going to count Shohei out.”
Bolstered by their pitching, the Dodgers are in the NLCS against the Brewers for the second straight year.
Ohtani led the Dodgers to a four-game sweep of Milwaukee last year, when the Brewers hit a measly .118 against Dodgers pitching.
He was 5 for 14 (.357) with three home runs, four walks and five strikeouts as NLCS MVP — all three homers came in a memorable Game 4 clinch in which he also struck out 10 as a pitcher. He had a 1.643 OPS and 1.143 slugging percentage.
Ohtani won’t be pitching this time because of his injuries, with his place in the rotation taken by two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow return.
Elite pitching can carry a team deep into the postseason, but poor hitting often leaves a team with a thin margin for error, especially when its biggest star is struggling.
“Hitting homers, slugging, it’s part of his hallmark in the batter’s box,” Roberts said. “He’s very in tune with what’s being said, what he hasn’t done.”
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