Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani Says 2-Way Role Not Cause of Hitting Slump, ‘Work in Progress’

Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani has struggled at the plate recently, but he said his hitting slump is not a result of his pitching duties.

“I don’t necessarily think that the pitching has affected my hitting performance,” Ohtani told reporters through an interpreter. “Just on the pitching side, as long as I control what I can control, I feel pretty good about putting up results. On the hitting side, just the stance, the mechanics, that’s something that I do — it’s a constant work in progress. I don’t necessarily think so. It’s hard to say.”

Ohtani played well in the wild-card round but has since gone 2-for-25 with 12 strikeouts. He snapped a 15-at-bat hitless streak with an RBI single in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s Game 2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS.

Ohtani did not pitch in Game 1 of the NLCS as the Dodgers went instead to Blake Snell. Manager Dave Roberts said before the series that Ohtani would pitch at some point, but he wasn’t sure when.

Roberts said before the series that the pitching plan for Ohtani was not related to his hitting struggles.

“No, not at all,” Roberts said. “I think it was just kind of Shohei’s going to pitch one game this series. So, it’s one game and then you have two other guys that potentially can pitch on regular rest.”

Luckily for the Dodgers, Ohtani’s slump hasn’t hurt them too much thanks to outstanding performances from their starters. Snell gave up just one hit in eight innings in the 2-1 win in Game 1, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a complete game in Game 2, allowing just three hits and one run.

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