Shohei Ohtani has been in the midst of a major slump at the plate, which has caused his batting average to drop .040 points in May.
Overall, Ohtani has been a very consistent producer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. But Ohtani has hit just .193/.270/.351 in his last 15 games, and that drops to .185/267/.370 over his past seven games.
One possible reason for the slight dip could be the hamstring contusion that Ohtani suffered a couple of weeks ago when he was hit in the leg on a pickoff attempt.
Ohtani has stated that the injury doesn’t affect him when he swings, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hasn’t ruled that out as a reason for the slump, even if it’s no
“His words, he doesn’t feel it when he’s swinging the bat,” Roberts said. “I guess maybe, he’s a finely tuned machine and sometimes, in the context of a sports car, when it’s not firing on all cylinders, it just doesn’t run right.”
Roberts compared this injury to the back discomfort Ohtani had experienced earlier in the year and the similarities he sees in the slight variation of Ohtani’s swing.
“When his back was bothering him a little bit, you saw some funkier swings, a little bit more chase,” Roberts said. “Hamstring bothering him a little bit, you see a little bit of the same thing.
“But I think that he’s getting close to where he needs to be physically. I think that staying to the big part of the field is a remedy. And yesterday, I thought he made some outs to the right side of the diamond, where when he can stay inside the baseball, through it, he’s better.”
Compared to the rest of the league, Ohtani’s numbers still rank among the best, despite his numbers dropping.
The Dodgers have shown a willingness in the past to keep Ohtani out of the lineup for rest when they deem it necessary, as they did with his back earlier in the season and in the second game of their doubleheader with the Mets on Tuesday.
But the fact that he is still healthy enough to play through it is a good sign that this injury should eventually be a non-issue.
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