by Cary Osborne
The sound of baseballs rattling between the wooden bench seats in the Right Field Pavilion at Dodger Stadium was followed by the thud of a baseball bouncing off the roof.
The unusual sight of Shohei Ohtani taking batting practice on the field at Dodger Stadium was nearly as rare as the sight of a struggling Shohei Ohtani for a lengthy stretch of a baseball season.
But both are a reality.
Ohtani, 2-for-25 since the beginning of the National League Division Series, took the uncommon step of taking batting practice on the field on the Wednesday off day.
The two-way superstar is 1-for-7 in the National League Championship Series with the Dodgers holding a 2–0 lead over the Brewers.
Earlier in the day, Ohtani answered questions about the difficulties of the last two series.
“The regular season, the whole season, my approach has been pretty much the same — swinging at strikes and not swinging at balls,” he said.
He added: “All I’m really focused on is putting up better quality at-bats.”
In his 30 plate appearances, opposing pitchers have been ahead of him in a count 18 times. He has struck out 12 times. Ohtani has swung at 15 pitches out of the zone, according to Statcast.
The numbers don’t tell the whole story, according to manager Dave Roberts.
“I think the contribution is not just by batting average,” Roberts said. “Certainly him being in the lineup, posting, getting the walks, allowing for Mookie to have opportunities to drive runs in — that’s contribution. For me, I think the first two games in Milwaukee, his at-bats have been fantastic. That’s what I’ve been looking for. That’s what I’m counting on. I think he’s controlling the strike zone. I think he’s still staying aggressive when he gets his pitch.”
Ohtani has faced 12 different pitchers over the last six postseason games — seven left-handers. He was 1-for-16 against left-handers in the NLDS against the Phillies in what Dodger President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman called execution “at an elite rate.”
Ohtani is 1-for-3 against lefties in the NLCS.
He has put 13 balls in play since the start of the NLDS — seven hard-hit balls and only two hits to show for those (including a 115.2 mph lineout in Game 2). He has reached base four times in 10 plate appearances in the NLCS — four walks and an RBI single.
Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy compared Ohtani’s challenges to those of his own former National League MVP Christian Yelich, who is hitless over his last four postseason games.
He knows that the sounds at Dodger Stadium on a Wednesday off day can be duplicated on a Thursday on-day in Game 3 and beyond. Murphy snapped his fingers to demonstrate how quickly things could change for Ohtani.
“He’s dangerous,” Murphy said of Ohtani. “And we pitch him as tough and as careful (as we can), and we bring in a matchup anytime we can. So for a four-game stretch, or a five-game stretch — whatever he struggled for — that’s not enough to say, ‘Oh, this guy is in a bad place. Because those guys are so good that they can flip it like that.”
2025 NLCS: Ohtani looks for a reset as the scene shifts to LA was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.