The Los Angeles Dodgers advanced to the National League Championship Series, while superstar Shohei Ohtani hit just .056 in the NLDS.
His only hit in 18 at-bats is certainly alarming, but including the two Wild Card games, Ohtani is hitting .148 with a .604 OPS. He hit a pair of long balls during Game 1 of the Wild Card round and has had just two hits since.
While the Dodgers have shown how talented they are and have shown a next man up mentality, especially against the Philadelphia Phillies in recent series, manager Dave Roberts recently talked about how his team won’t win the World Series if Ohtani doesn’t get going.
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“We’re not going to win the World Series with this kind of performance,” Roberts said. “So we’re counting on a recalibration, getting back to the strike zone and understanding what they’re going to try when he faces left-handed pitching: pushing him in, pushing him off the plate, spinning him away. He just has to be better at managing the strike zone.”
“I’m counting on it. We’re all counting on it.”
Ohtani has shown he is more than capable of bouncing back from a rough patch, but with the competition only getting tougher as October progresses, that won’t be an easy task.
During the regular season, Ohtani had quite a slump during the month of July. He hit .204/.321/.505 with an .826 OPS. He added nine home runs during this span, the third most in any given month, but it was an unusual 24 games for him.
Ohtani’s response was to shed an incredible tear to end the regular season. His August and September consisted of a .309/.431/.660 slash line and an OPS of 1.091. He added 17 of his 56 home runs in what proved to be one of his most successful stretches of the season.
If the soon-to-be four-time MVP can turn the tide when it’s never mattered, the Dodgers could very well be rewarded with another title, but LA needs just eight more wins to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions in a quarter century.
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Photo credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn images
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