The Dodgers aren’t changing anything with Shohei Ohtani.
The NL MVP frontrunner has produced some curious numbers this postseason — going 6-for-8 with runners on base and 0-for-19 with the bases empty — as the Dodgers head into Game 3 of an NLCS that is even at one game apiece with the Mets.
Still, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said there is no plan to move him out of the leadoff spot where he hit in 90 of the team’s regular-season games and all of their seven postseason ones.
“It’s just funny how things change, where there was a lot of concern about Shohei not being able to get hits with the runners in scoring position — and now we’re all trying to find ways … to get guys on base so he can hit, right?” Roberts said on Tuesday, according to ESPN.com.
“I kind of find that comical, a little bit.”
Ohtani’s numbers are nearly identical out of the two slots during the regular season, hitting .307 out of leadoff compared to .314 out of the two slot.
Ohtani does have a higher on-base percentage while batting leadoff (.392 vs..387), and he slugged much better from No. 1 (.680 vs. .602).
“I think it’s isolated,” Roberts said. “There have been times that he has to reset as all hitters do. Sometimes certain pitchers sort of kind of trigger bad habits. And you’ve got to identify that to then reset. … But to think that I’m going to move Shohei to the 4 or the 3, that’s just not going to happen.”
So expect Ohtani to continue to bat leadoff going forward in the NLCS, where Mets pitcher Sean Manaea was able to get some foolish-looking swings from the Japanese slugger in Game 2.
Ohtani struck out in his first two plate appearances on Monday, the first to leadoff the game and the second to begin the third inning while Manaea dealt the Mets to a 7-3 victory.
“Regardless of however they are pitching to me, my plan is to stay with the same approach, as much as possible and not really be too focused on how they attack me… If I’m feeling good and the results aren’t there, then I’m not too concerned because there’s luck involved,” Ohtani said through an interpreter, per ESPN.
The Mets turn to Luis Severino in Game 3 for the biggest start of his career to date as the Mets look to take control of the best of seven for the right to go to the World Series.
