LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani acknowledged his postseason offensive slump even before he sat in front of a microphone Wednesday afternoon. The Los Angeles Dodgers star posted a picture of himself striking out on his Instagram story after the team’s 5-1 win in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.
The self-deprecation added to the chorus lamenting his skid at the plate. Ohtani has two hits and 12 strikeouts over his past 25 at-bats.
“I’m really all focused on just putting up better quality at-bats,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton, in his first public comments with English-speaking media since the end of Game 1 of the NLDS against the Phillies.
After wrapping up his remarks Wednesday, Ohtani tried something different. His teammates and Dodgers coaches cackled when Ohtani’s Michael Bublé walk-up song blasted during the Dodgers’ workout and Ohtani stepped into the batter’s box for a round of hitting. It marked the first time Ohtani had taken on-field batting practice since March, when the Dodgers opened the season in the Tokyo Dome. In his fifth and final round, he hit one off the top of the roof in the pavilion section and out of the ballpark.
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This was a welcome sign for the Dodgers, who can earn a return trip to the World Series with two more victories over the Milwaukee Brewers. They are winning despite the struggles of a player likely headed for a fourth MVP award.
The culprits behind Ohtani’s playoff slide are obvious. The Phillies and Brewers lined up their pitching specifically to attack Ohtani, who has faced 20 left-handers in 30 plate appearances against the two teams. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman lauded the Phillies’ plan against Ohtani in the National League Division Series, calling it “the most impressive execution against a hitter I’ve ever seen.”
Still, Ohtani’s persistent struggles have emerged as a storyline for a Dodgers team looking to become baseball’s first repeat champions in a quarter-century.
The opposing attack plans made sense, Ohtani said. The Phillies, in particular, pitched him inside with sinkers that ran in on his hands and exploited his vulnerability to changeups from left-handed pitchers. Still, the Dodgers benefited in another way from the opponents’ strategy: Ohtani seeing more lefties set up more opportunities for the right-handed hitters behind him.
The numbers have not turned around. Ohtani is striking out nearly half the time. He has been worth -3.25 percent in Championship Win Probability Added while on offense, according to Baseball Reference. He doesn’t have an extra-base hit since he launched a pair of home runs in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Cincinnati Reds.
But manager Dave Roberts, who was critical of Ohtani’s swing decisions against the Phillies, noted what he felt were better at-bats from his two-way star. Ohtani drew three walks in the series opener and collected a run-scoring single in the seventh inning of Tuesday night’s victory while also hitting into a 115.2 mph lineout earlier in the night. He still struck out three times, including with the bases loaded in the eighth inning against lefty Robert Gasser.
“You can only take what they give you, so for me, I think he’s in a good spot right now,” Roberts said.
That doesn’t mean Ohtani’s frustrations aren’t bleeding through. He will start Game 4 for the Dodgers and reiterated that his work on the pitching side has not carried into his struggles at the plate. On days he pitched during the regular season, he went 12-for-54 (.222). On the days after he started, he was 5-for-34 (.147).
“On the pitching side, as long as I control what I can control, I feel pretty good about putting up results,” Ohtani said. “On the hitting side, just the stance, the mechanics, that’s something that I do — it’s a constant work in progress.”
When asked about Roberts’ suggestion that Ohtani’s at-bats were shorter on his pitching days to conserve energy, his response was brief.
“Same question, so no, my answer is still the same,” Ohtani said with a chuckle.
Roberts called whatever frustrations Ohtani may have “fair” and “expected.” This has hardly been the offensive production anyone expected from the superstar. Roberts doubled down on his belief in Ohtani, saying before the series that his bat will need to turn around for the Dodgers to repeat.
“I like the edge,” Roberts said. “He’s obviously a very, very talented player, and we’re counting on him. … He’s just a great competitor. He’s very prepared. There’s still a lot of baseball left.”
The Dodgers, for their part, have performed quite well despite their primary offensive engine not firing properly. They’ve won seven of their first eight games this postseason on the backs of a standout rotation rather than an offense that hasn’t scored more than five runs in a game since the start of the NLDS.
Still, an offensive outburst from Ohtani would be a welcome sight.
“During the regular season and postseason, my approach is pretty much the same: Swing at strikes and not swinging at balls,” Ohtani said. “As a result of that, then you just see the strikeouts or the walks.
“Again, as I said, my focus, number one, is to make sure that I have quality at-bats.”