The Los Angeles Dodgers are two wins away from reaching the World Series for a second consecutive season despite Shohei Ohtani not producing at his usual level offensively.
Through eight playoff games thus far, the two-way star is hitting just .147/.275/.324 with two home runs, six RBI and six walks in 40 plate appearances.
Ohtani has especially struggled since the NL Division Series as he is just 2-for-his-last-25 with no extra-base hits and only two RBI.
The 31-year-old did end an 0-for-15 drought with his RBI single in Game 2 of the NL Championship Series, but otherwise has not looked like himself at the plate.
Ohtani has not fared well against left-handed pitching in the postseason, and that’s something Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy is trying to take advantage of. Though, Murphy also doesn’t view Ohtani as being in a slump.
“I think most people struggle against (Cristopher) Sánchez, (Jesús) Luzardo and (Ranger) Suárez,” Murphy began. “Those guys are really, really good. So I don’t consider Ohtani struggling. I don’t.
“It’s baseball. You can go through 30 at-bats or 50 at-bats and not put up the same numbers and maybe be hitting the ball hard or whatever. But I don’t have Ohtani struggling. But I want to throw lefties against him whenever we can. It’s always harder for a lot of those lefties to face lefties that are throwing 95 (mph) and above, and sinkers into them.”
Interestingly enough, Ohtani has only faced a left-handed pitcher in three of his first 10 plate appearances against the Brewers in the NLCS. He is 0-for-2 with a strikeout and walk in those at-bats.
Ohtani has gone 1-for-5 with an RBI and two walks against Brewers right-handers.
“Ohtani, I know had one line drive caught yesterday and got another hit. We walk him 100 times, so it’s like, I don’t look at him as struggling at all. I just don’t. I don’t look at those type of numbers,” Murphy reiterated.
“I know if Sanchez is pitching left on left and throwing the two-seamer in, throwing that slider away, it’s tough for everybody. He’s going to be especially careful. If you don’t care if you walk him, you’ve got to be especially careful of Ohtani.”
Dave Roberts on Shohei Ohtani’s struggles
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts previously stated that Ohtani’s struggles in the postseason have more to do with chasing pitches out of the strike zone rather than difficult matchups.
“I just think that his decision-making hasn’t been good,” Roberts said during the NLDS. “You can see, it’s balls in/off, and he’s really not giving himself a chance to hit a mistake.
“I just think that he’s in between a little bit, but the swing decisions are just not where they need to be right now. That’s kind of what I see, decision-making.”
Roberts expressed some optimism on Wednesday, sharing his belief that Ohtani’s at-bat quality has improved in the NLCS and his presence alone makes an impact as the Dodgers wait for more on-field results.
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