Shohei Ohtani is set to play in the MLB playoffs for the first time with the Los Angeles Dodgers after six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels where they never played meaningful games late in the year.
Ohtani has long expressed a desire to play in the playoffs, and that was the primary focus for him while deciding where to sign as a free agent. He also backed that up by deferring the majority of his contract to allow the Dodgers to continue adding talent to their roster.
With the start of the MLB postseason just around the corner and the Dodgers still battling for the National League West division title, Ohtani has been on fire at the plate, batting .621 with an on-base plus slugging of 1.943 over his last seven games and .417 with a 1.360 OPS over his last 15.
“He’s raised his level of play,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “The epitome of it was that (Adrian) Morejon at-bat, gets behind 0-2, takes a couple breaking balls and hits a ball hard to drive in a run. You see the emotion that you never seen, and you’ve seen that over the last week. He’s sniffing the postseason and understanding how important how these games are.”
Ohtani himself has also seen the benefits of playing in important games late in the season
“The fans and even within the team, I do feel like there’s some sense of elevation when it comes to playing these meaningful games,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton.
Ohtani has also been near automatic recently with runners in scoring position. That was an issue for the superstar to start the season, which led to Roberts having a conversation with Ohtani about pressing in those opportunities.
Ohtani has since made the adjustments necessary in those spots, and the big moments haven’t caused him to regress back.
“He’s handling it exactly the way I would’ve hoped,” Roberts said. “This is a playoff environment, you can see they’re trying to crowd him and then spin him away. He’s just being patient, waiting for his pitch, and he’s doing something when he gets his chance.
“And as far as emotions, he’s really channeling them and the energy is the right energy. It’s not pressing. It’s urgency, it’s everything you want in a playoff environment.”
Ohtani said he’s focused on having quality at-bats in those situations, along with every at-bat he gets. That focus has led to the results and increased trust from his manager.
“Level of confidence, very high,” Roberts said of Ohtani. “It’s one of those things you just try to get him up to bat with guys on base so they can’t pitch around him. As far as where he’s at right now, mentally, physically, it’s right where we need him to be.”
Shohei Ohtani hoping for NL West clinch at Dodger Stadium
The Dodgers have a magic number of two, meaning they can clinch as early as Thursday night against the San Diego Padres. It’s the final regular season home game of the season for the Dodgers, and Ohtani is hoping they can wrap up the division in front of their fans.
“Just being able to do this, hopefully be able to celebrate in front of the home fans will be something that I am looking forward to,” Ohtani said.
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