The Los Angeles Dodgers’ offense as a whole has been in the midst of a slump for nearly a month, and that has been highlighted by Shohei Ohtani’s struggles.
In June, Ohtani is hitting just .205/.300/.432 with a 107 wRC+, a significant drop from his wRC+ that sat around 180 through the first two months of the season.
He raised those numbers against the Texas Rangers with a pair of home runs, but those were his only two hits in 10 at-bats.
While Ohtani hasn’t produced at the level expected of him recently, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believes the designated hitter is breaking out of his slump.
“I think that the chase is starting to go down a little bit,” Roberts said. “The balls down below, I think he’s hitting a lot.
“He’s hitting more balls hard. I know he feels good physically, and there’s been a lot of good signs, yeah.”
A lot of Ohtani’s struggles correlate with a hamstring contusion he suffered in May. While the Dodgers and Ohtani originally didn’t believe it was an issue, Roberts notes it could have had more of an affect than they first believed.
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Roberts said. “I think that players have a tendency to downplay how they’re feeling, certainly an injury if it’s playable.
“But with that, if you don’t feel great, there is some kind of carryover into you know how the mechanics of the swing are, yeah.”
Overall, Ohtani has still had a fantastic season, and all players are going to slump at some point in a season, and likely multiple times.
Through 67 games, he’s hitting .306/.377/.578 with 17 home runs, 44 RBI, 51 runs scored, a 170 wRC+ and 3.1 WAR.
Shohei Ohtani not concerned by slump
Ohtani isn’t worried about the recent issues, expressing confidence he will break out of it.
He is focused on controlling what he can control and letting the results be what they are, knowing that eventually things will turn around due to the ups and downs of an MLB season.
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