Thanks to their 5-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 2 of the NLCS on Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers took a commanding 2-0 series lead and improved to 7-1 in their first eight postseason games.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about that record, and the one thing that should terrify the Brewers and the other two American League teams, is that they did it while getting next to nothing from Shohei Ohtani, their best hitter and player.
Shohei Ohtani’s quiet postseason didn’t matter for Dodgers
After Ohtani’s 1-for-5 (with three strikeouts) performance in Game 2, he is now just 5-for-34 in the postseason (.147) with a .599 OPS. And that’s with a two-home run performance in the opening game of the playoffs against the Cincinnati Reds in the wild-card round. Since that game, Ohtani went just 3-for-29 without a single extra base hit. He also struckout twelve in those 29 at-bats.
He just hasn’t been very good, and it’s a sharp decline in production compared to what the Dodgers saw from him in the regular season, when he was playing at an MVP level and was one of the best hitters in all of Major League Baseball.
The scary thing for the Brewers — and for American League teams if the Dodgers advance — is that Ohtani won’t struggle forever.
It’s almost like he’s a sleeping giant waiting to wake up. There’s a monster game in there and there are still some big hits lurking in that bat.
The fact that the Dodgers have been able to win so consistently while getting nothing from their best hitter is a testament to the team they have put together. Both in the depth of their lineup and the quality of their pitching staff.
Winning games 2-1 is no problem. Leading up and delivering to other batters was not a problem. It’s one of the perks of having a bottomless budget and the largest payroll in baseball. With this you can not only collect superstars, but also a lot of them. If one of them doesn’t produce, there are three or four that can.
That’s what the Dodgers get. That’s why they are the defending World Series champions and six wins away from another one.
#Shohei #Ohtanis #disappointing #postseason #didnt #matter #Dodgers