Shohei Ohtani Addresses His Recent Struggles for Dodgers
Shohei Ohtani is struggling.
You wouldn’t be able to tell if you looked at his numbers. And you wouldn’t be able to tell if you watched his back-to-back home runs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
However, over a much longer stretch of play, Ohtani isn’t exactly playing like himself.
Through May 16, when Ohtani got hit with a pickoff attempt against the Cincinnati Reds and suffered a bruised hamstring, Ohtani was slashing .360/.430/.669 with 12 home runs, 30 RBIs, and an OPS of 1.099 in 44 games.
Since May 17, Ohtani is slashing .204/.275/.409 with five home runs, 14 RBIs, and an OPS of .683 in 23 games.
While Ohtani has made it clear the hamstring wasn’t hampering his play, it’s clear that it’s led to an elongated slump. Ohtani addressed the slump on Thursday night after an 0-for-4 performance, including a strikeout with two on and one out in the bottom of the eighth inning of a two-run game.
“There’s always going to be stretches of ups and down, as a team and personally,” Ohtani said via interpreter Will Ireton. “Obviously when things aren’t going well, that’s when we put everything under a microscope. My approach has been the same, just trying to put up quality at-bats.”
Ohtani is still having a great year, slashing .306/.377/.578 with 17 home runs and 44 RBIs in his first year with the Dodgers. However, he’s still trying to get out of a slump that’s ramped down his production.
Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
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Pulling off the ball. Apologizing after every swing. His swings look comical. I’d like to see some fire from our players. This entire team with the exception of Walker Buehler look like Grandmas.
I am calling no way on the hamstring causing Shohei to be hamstrung at the plate. I dealt with many hamstring injuries throughout my pro/semi-pro career and never suffered a significant drop in my hitting slash line. I don’t have the exact numbers but it was over 500/600/1400 in one of the European leagues back in the 90s while nursing multiple hamstring issues at the age of 41.
I completely agree with you. Players are no longer regarded as human they are equities coddled and nurtured with a speed obsession. You are only looked at if you can hit a 100 or how fast your ball leaves the park. I say who cares. TJ surgery is becoming more and more common. It’s no longer if it’s going to happen but when. You pitch 5 or 6 innings and then you come out, most times, because you’re exhausted and rest for 6 days. I have a Dodger fan since 1954 when my dad took me to Ebbets Field when the Pirates were in town; he was Buc fan. My love affair started immediately. Bill James should be hog tied and please bring the wind up and complete game.
Freeman should bat second & Ohtani bat 3rd –freeman has more contact– Ohtani more swings and misses, and not clutch!!!!!!
Roberts has been the problem with drawing up a valid line up. I agree that Freeman should bat 2nd…then the slumping over paid ($800 million) DH, then Smith….
He should also implement more base stealing and bunting over runners into scoring position. They hit into more DPs, when a big run is needed to win a game….its called small ball…they also need to support their star pitching staff with runs…
Roberts needs to stop playing the bull pen game…I’ve been a Dodgers fan since the moved to LA…saw first game at the Coliseum and opening day at Dodgers Stadium and the best overall manager was Lasorda…he used the players the right way and players manufactured runs for their pitchers. Todays games are very boring..
Upper management needs to butt out of the field play..
Both you guys are right on about
Freeman (2) Ottani (3). Roberts did
say last week he was considering it when
opposing certain lefties. Wouldn’t hurt to
test the waters on this a bit before we start the
2nd half!