The day after his land, Shohei Ohtani turns into Michael Comforto.
Ohtani played four games on days after his departures, and he took a total of 15 strikes in them.
He collected only one blow.
It is removed six times.
Ohtani launched three innings in the 5-2 victory of the Dodgers against the Minnesota Twins on Monday evening, which led the manager Dave Roberts interviewed on the expected compliance of Ohtani on Tuesday.
“In the shot box, it is certainly always a threat,” said Roberts. “So I don’t think so, we are thinking too much.”
GOOD.
The suspicions that Ohtani’s pitching has negatively affected Ohtani strikes have become almost intangible.
Ohtani will remain a double -meaning player.
He will remain a double -meaning player for the rest of the regular season, and he will remain a double -meaning player in October.
It should provide more than a few rounds here and there. He should be a full -fledged starter.
Because he wants it. Because dodgers need it.
Ohtani is the best striker of a team that cannot hit many things lately. He is the best launcher of a team with a rowing staff ravaged from injuries who underwent another probable defeat on Monday evening when Tanner Scott left the match with forearm pain.
His value as a double -meaning player was obvious in the opening match of the three games series against the Twins, while abandoning a head circuit in Byron Buxton and made the favor by crushing a two -point circuit at the end of the first round.
The 2-1 advance has been gradually extended, by a pair of solo circuits by Will Smith and another basic vacuum fired by Andy Pages.
Ohtani launched three rounds, the damage itself inflicted were limited to the Buxton circuit, even if it was in the grip of control problems. Ohtani withdrew three strikers and was accused of four strokes and a walk while launching 46 throws.
“I thought I wanted to make four rounds, but my pitch count was accumulating,” said Ohtani in Japanese.
The Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers famous with its teammate Mookie Betts after hitting a two -point circuit during the first round on Monday.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
He will be extended to four rounds at his next departure, said Roberts.
Dodgers may need each of them, since they have lost 10 of their last 13 games.
Ohtani did not know it at the time, but he spent six seasons preparing something like that. On the angels, he was a great player of a horrible team, which the dodgers are at the moment.
The sorry state of the team did not prevent Ohtani from trying to wear it then, and that does not prevent it from trying to wear it now.
“I think he is very aware of where our team is right now,” said Roberts. “I think he is trying to make his way to get us over the bump. He’s in competition. He takes very good at-bats. And he fights. So I like what he does. “
Ohtani has dominated each of the last three games.
“There is just an additional level of concentration that I see in decision -making on the plate,” said Roberts.
Roberts observed that Ohtani was not motivated by personal glory. He pointed out how Ohtani offered no resistance when he said he wanted to change it and Mookie Betts in the order of the strikers, Ohtani falling from the head in place n ° 2.
Ohtani struck the first in every game until Sunday when Roberts moved Betts at the top of the alignment in the hope of launching his season.
When Roberts sent a text from Ohtani the previous night, Ohtani replied, telling him to do everything that was best for the team, even if it meant to beat him ninth.
“I have absolutely no problem with that,” said Ohtani. “What is most important is that everyone can hit comfortably.”
Ohtani’s circuits in the last two games came right after Betts reached the base in front of him, with a single Sunday against the Brewers of Milwaukee and with a walk on Monday against the start of the twins David Festa.
“He wants to win,” said Roberts about Ohtani. “I think that playing him every day, throwing him, making him walks if necessary and changing spots with Mookie in order, all that is in the best interest of the ball club is what he does.”
Ohtani is now 31 years old. There are questions about the question of whether his body can always resist the workload required to play in both directions, and rightly so. But as the Dodgers went through this mid-season crisis, Ohtani revealed the spirit that was fundamental to making him the best player in the world. Roberts will bet the season on it. He has no other option.
