A swing that stopped looking like his
Shohei Ohtani struck out four times on Wednesday. On the last of them he shook his right arm and winced. The Dodgers lost 8-6 to St. Louis in 10 innings, and by Thursday the conversation inside the club had moved from managing the discomfort to naming it.
“You can see the swing wasn’t the swing that we’re used to seeing,” manager Dave Roberts said. “So, he’s not close to optimal.”
Roberts said he would sit down with Ohtani and the training staff on Thursday. The right arm is not the only problem. Ohtani has been carrying knee and biceps trouble as well.
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Roberts weighs ten days against nothing
The manager laid the options out loud, including the one nobody in Los Angeles wants to hear in September.
“Is a day or two, or I mean, shoot, even 10 days, is that going to help get him to be 100%? Don’t know the answer,” Roberts said. “But I think where we’re at, I think he’s just going to have to find a way to make do and do the best he can.”
Ohtani votes to play. Roberts said so himself, then drew the line.
“He definitely doesn’t want to take the day. He feels that, I know, speaking for him, I know he feels that he needs to post and be in the lineup. If he’s upright, he should play. I respect that. But if he’s feeling the way that visibly looks, then really not helping anyone.”
The numbers stopped hiding it
Ohtani is 2-for-23 with 11 strikeouts across his last six games. Over the season he sits at .279 with 30 home runs and 80 RBIs in 129 games, a line that would satisfy most hitters and understates what Los Angeles expected of him.
The pitching half of his season already ended in practice. Ohtani went 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 14 starts out of a six-man rotation and stood among the National League Cy Young contenders at the break. He has not thrown a pitch in a game since July 3.
At 32, with a division to protect and October approaching, the case for ten days writes itself. Whether Ohtani signs off on it is the part Roberts cannot control.
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