As the Los Angeles Dodgers prepare for the series finale against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday, the man tied for the National League lead with 45 home runs in Shohei Ohtani will take the mound to try and secure the series sweep.
Manager Dave Roberts revealed that as the three-time MVP prepares to pitch in his 11th start of the season, there are some major expectations for him to do something he hasn’t done since 2023.
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“It’s big,” Roberts said. “Tomorrow’s going to be a nice afternoon and I expect him to go out there and get through five innings.”
Ohtani has been far from sharp in his last three starts, totaling a 7.30 ERA across 12.1 innings of work. Before August began, Ohtani had a 2.40 ERA, allowing just four runs through 15 innings.
As the postseason nears closer, the ramping up of Ohtani the pitcher may be a little more intense. The Dodgers pitching roster has been without substantial depth the whole season, and with aspirations to becomes baseball’s first back-to-back champions in a quarter-century, Ohtani must be ready for anything
Pitching coach Mark Prior recently spoke on Ohtani potentially coming out of the bullpen in October, but in order for that to be a reality, his effectiveness can’t be trending down.
“It’s been discussed,” said Prior. “It’s really understanding the rules of him coming in as a reliever and knowing that because of the rule and the way it’s set up right now as a starter, he can come out of the game and still maintain as a DH. But he comes in as a reliever, you got to find that line of where the game is because you can’t have him come in in the sixth and then take him out as a pitcher in the seventh and then keep him as a DH.”
Ohtani’s bat — the one that leads the NL in slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+, and the aforementioned tie for home runs — is too valuable to lose late in a competitive playoff game if he were to enter the game in relief, but the ability to go deeper into games that he starts is going to be paramount down the stretch.
According to Roberts, it looks like that process will be tested on Wednesday.
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Photo Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
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