Shohei Ohtani Takes Rare On-Court BP Amid Playoff Crisis, Downplays Impact of Two-Way Role

On Wednesday, at 5:37 p.m., Michael Buble’s “Feeling Good” blared through the speakers at Dodger Stadium.

Shohei Ohtani came to the plate with a bat in hand.

There was obviously no one in the stands. Nor an opposing pitcher on the mound. The Dodgers, on this day of practice after returning from Milwaukee, were still 22 hours away from resuming their National League Championship Series against the Brewers. For any other player, this would have been a routine affair.

Ohtani, however, is not just any player.

And among the many things that make him unique, his habit of almost never taking batting practice in the field is one of the small but notable ones.

Which made his decision to do so on Wednesday a telling development.

Over the past two weeks, Ohtani has been in crisis. Since the start of the NL Division Series, he is just two for 25 with a total of 12 strikeouts. He was stifled by left-handed pitchers. He made poor swing decisions and failed to hit the ball.

Last week, manager Dave Roberts went so far as to say the Dodgers “wouldn’t win the World Series with that kind of performance” from their $700 million slugger.

So Ohtani came to batting practice Wednesday, the most visible sign yet of his urgency for a turnaround.

“The other way to say it is if I hit, we’ll win,” Ohtani said in Japanese when asked about Roberts’ World Series quote earlier Wednesday afternoon. “I think he thinks if I hit, we’ll win. I’d like to do my best to do that.”

In Roberts’ opinion, Ohtani has already begun to improve since his dismal NLDS, when he struck out nine times in 18 trips to the plate against a left-handed Philadelphia Phillies staff that, as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman emphatically put it, had “the most impressive execution against a hitter I’ve ever seen.”

In Game 1 of the NLCS against the Brewers, Ohtani was 0-for-2 but walked three times; twice intentionally, but another on a more disciplined five-pitch at-bat to start the game against left-handed opener Aaron Ashby.

The next night, he went just 1 for five with three more strikeouts, giving him 15 in the postseason, the second-most in the postseason. But he had an RBI single, scoring his first run since Game 2 of the NLDS. He followed that up with a steal, earning his first sack of the playoffs. And earlier in the game, he hit a fielder to right at 115.2 mph, the fastest he’s hit a ball since facing Cincinnati Reds pitcher Hunter Greene deep in the team’s playoff opener.

“The first two games in Milwaukee, his at-bats were fantastic,” Roberts said Wednesday, before taking to the field and watching Ohtani’s impromptu BP session.

“That’s what I was looking for. That’s what I’m counting on,” he added, while emphasizing the cautious approach the Brewers also took with the future four-time MVP. “You can only take what they give you. So for me, I think he’s in a good place right now.”

Of course, Ohtani’s overall numbers continue to suggest otherwise. His .147 postseason batting average is second-worst on the team, ahead of only Andy Pages. His seven-game extra-base hit drought is longer than any he endured in the regular season.

“The first thing I need to do is increase the level of my at-bats,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “Swing at strikes and don’t swing at balls. »

Ohtani’s rough patch Wednesday also raised questions about his role as a two-way player and whether his return to pitching this season (and, next October, for the first time in the postseason) contributed to his sudden struggles at the plate.

After all, on the days Ohtani pitched this season, he hit .222 with four homers but 21 strikeouts. In the days immediately following an outing, he hit .147 with two home runs and 10 strikeouts.

His current slump began with a four-out no-hitter in Game 1 of the NLDS, when he also had a six-inning, three-run start on the mound.

And in recent days, Roberts has acknowledged a likely correlation between Ohtani’s two roles.

“[His offense] “He wasn’t good when he pitched,” Roberts said after the NLDS. “We need to think about it and come up with a better game plan.”

Ohtani, on the other hand, pushed back on that narrative somewhat during Wednesday’s practice, during which he also held a bullpen session in preparation for his upcoming start in Game 4 of the NLCS on Friday.

Although it is “physically more taxing” to take on both roles, he conceded, he countered that “I don’t know if there is a direct correlation.”

“Physically,” he added, “I don’t feel like there’s a connection.”

Instead, Ohtani decided Wednesday to fix his swing like any other normal hitter would. He took to the field for his rare batting practice session. Of his 32 shots, he sent 14 over the fence, including one that slammed into the roof of the right-field pavilion.

“Certainly, there’s frustration,” Roberts said of how he’s seen Ohtani handle his uncharacteristic lack of performance.

But, he added, “it’s normal. It doesn’t bother me. I like the advantage.”

“He’s obviously a very, very talented player, and we’re counting on him,” Roberts continued. “He’s just a great competitor. He’s very prepared. And there’s still a lot of baseball left.”