Shohei Ohtani was named the National League Championship Series MVP after a historic three-home run and 10-strikeout performance that sent the Los Angeles Dodgers to the 2025 World Series, and it also helped end a narrative that was forming.
Prior to that point, Ohtani was in the midst of a terrible slump at the plate, hitting just .158/.273/.368 in the postseason. That led to changing his workout and pregame schedule a bit, which included taking batting practice on the field at Dodger Stadium.
Ohtani typically just hits in the batting cages, which made his decision to hit on the field come as somewhat of a surprise that even Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hyped up a bit during the first time Ohtani took the field to hit.
When asked about his new practice regiment, Ohtani explained what led to making the change and why this was the right time for it, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“There’s some things that I want to be able to do on the field that you can only do on the field, so I want to do that and just make sure – especially considering how we just don’t have a lot of games left,” Ohtani said through his interpreter.
But when asked for more specifics about what he was looking for, Ohtani left that part vague:
“That’s a secret,” he said.
After that breakout offensive performance, Ohtani raised his triple-slash line to .220/.333/.634, and with his starts on the mound, the right-hander has a 2.25 ERA in the postseason over 12 innings with 19 strikeouts.
The Dodgers will need him to continue contributing on offense against a Toronto Blue Jays’ team that may be their toughest challenge yet this postseason. While the pitching has held things down, the offense has yet to fully break out, but with Ohtani producing, the outlook changes entirely.
Andrew Friedman credits Phillies for Shohei Ohtani’s struggles
While some wondered whether Ohtani’s obligations as a pitcher were having an effect on his hitting, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman believes the Phillies performed remarkably well in limiting Ohtani.
“I think the biggest thing is the stuff that the Phillies threw at us obviously was really good,” Friedman recently said. “But even beyond that, I thought the execution was as good as it can possibly be. So I think the combination of those things lining up.
“Look, if a pitcher who has really good stuff executes at an A-plus level, hitters aren’t going to hit. Hitting is way too difficult. It’s about hitting mistakes more than not. And they executed it on him at an elite rate. So could some swing decisions help and potentially get a mistake? For sure.
“But I think it was the most impressive execution against a hitter I’ve ever seen.”
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