Don’t over think it: Dodgers must let Shohei Ohtani hit, even when he pitches

Don’t even think about it.

Don’t even think that Shohei Ohtani should be held out of the Dodgers’ lineup on days he is their starting pitcher.

Ignore what Ohtani did in his most recent start.

Forget about how Ohtani struck out 10 batters in six innings in an 8-2 victory over the Miserable Mets on Wednesday night.

Disregard how he gave up only one hit in the first four innings or threw four consecutive fastballs at 100 mph to power his way out of a jam in the fifth.

As tempting as it might be to see what Pitcher-Only Ohtani could do, the Dodgers don’t plan to make this a regular practice – nor should they.

Because when they play games that really count in October, they absolutely must have Ohtani’s bat in their lineup.

Even without Ohtani the Hitter, the Dodgers completed their sweep of New York’s Unfinest by smashing four homers and collecting 12 hits.

But there were disconcerting signs in the details.

Their five-run blitz in the eighth inning, highlighted by designated hitter Dalton Rushing’s grand slam, obscured the reality that their offense wasn’t particularly dangerous for most of the night. Up to that point, their entire run production consisted of two homers – a two-run shot in the second inning by Hyeseong Kim and a solo blast by Teoscar Hernandez in the sixth.

With Kyle Tucker, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Hernandez at the top of their order, the Dodgers fielded a lineup that was still one of the best in baseball.

But something was missing, and that something was Ohtani.

The Dodgers just didn’t look as imposing without him hitting.

There’s a reason he’s reached base in his last 48 games. He introduces a fear factor that forces opposing pitchers to decide whether to challenge him or avoid him and pitch to another All-Star instead.

There’s no question the Dodgers would want Ohtani to hit in every postseason game, regardless of whether he’s pitching. And if they want him to be a two-way player in the playoffs, they will have to let him use the regular season to get used to such a workload.

Conversely, they would be courting trouble by asking him to pitch and hit in the same game in October after not having done so in the regular season. 

Manager Dave Roberts insisted the only reason Ohtani didn’t hit on Wednesday was because he was struck by a pitch on his right shoulder two days earlier.

“There’s still some soreness in there,” Roberts said.

Roberts declared Ohtani would be the Dodgers’ designated hitter the next time he’s their starting pitcher, most likely next week in San Francisco.

While Roberts acknowledged he would consider using Ohtani exclusively as a pitcher again in the future, he said, “It’s got to make sense to not have your best hitter in the lineup.”

Ohtani might have offered a reason by pitching as well as he did.

He allowed just a run, two hits and two walks. The earned run was the first charged to him this season, raising his earned-run average from 0.00 to 0.50.

“Not that he wasn’t already one of the better pitchers in the big leagues now, but I think he’s arguably one of the best now when you give him the opportunity to just solely worry about pitching,” Rushing said. “Everyone knows what he can do with the bat, everyone knows what he can do with the baseball. But being able to separate the two sometimes, it’s honestly better.”

Ohtani was surprised when Roberts told him he wouldn’t DH on Wednesday. Not hitting, he said, “the time between innings feels long.”

But he was also able to better plan how to attack hitters.

“In that sense, I think a lot of that time was productive,” he said.

Indeed, this was the best Ohtani looked on the mound in his first three starts, and he acknowledged as much.

The Dodgers can again use Ohtani the way they used him against the Mets if looks particularly worn down later this season. Otherwise, he has to be in the lineup. He has to prepare for another World Series run.

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