The Los Angeles Dodgers hold a commanding 3-0 lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series despite Shohei Ohtani not looking like his usual self at the plate.
The two-way star is just 2-for-11 with an RBI and three walks through three NLCS games. Ohtani has largely struggled in the postseason as a whole as he’s hitting just .158/.273/.368 with one triple, two home runs, six RBI, six walks and 17 strikeouts in 44 plate appearances.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts previously implied that Ohtani’s lack of production could be related to his pitching obligations.
There have been times this year when the 31-year-old struggled at the plate in games that he also pitched, along with also not hitting particularly well in the ensuing contest. It prompted the Dodgers to begin lining up Ohtani’s pitching starts before an off day.
However, Ohtani disputed the notion that pitching has negatively impacted his hitting in the postseason.
“I don’t necessarily think that the pitching has affected my hitting performance,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “Just on the pitching side, as long as I control what I can control, I feel pretty good about putting up results.
“On the hitting side, just the stance, the mechanics, it’s a constant work in progress. I don’t necessarily think so. It’s hard to say. Again, last year I was DH full time. This year I started to incorporate pitching.”
Ohtani said earlier this season that being a two-way player is normal to him and hasn’t had any issues readjusting to the role.
“I know I might sound like I’m saying the same answer again, but yeah, I don’t really necessarily think it has really affected,” Ohtani reiterated.
“I do feel like I was able to just have a pretty good season offensively, being able to have quality at-bats throughout the season. It’s hard to say. But yeah, same answer as before.”
Pat Murphy downplays Shohei Ohtani’s struggles
Although the numbers suggest otherwise, Brewers manager Pat Murphy isn’t buying the notion that Ohtani has slumped at the plate.
“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.”
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