While the Los Angeles Dodgers are looking forward to another Shohei Ohtani turn on the mound, the two-way star’s hitting inconsistencies are altering strategy.
Ohtani will pitch for the seventh time this season when the Dodgers host the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night in the third game of a four-game series.
Ohtani will be tasked with trying to end his team’s four-game losing streak.
Again, Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts will use Ohtani only as a pitcher in the game and will not use him as the designated hitter on Thursday, either.
Roberts was asked the pros and cons of taking a key bat out of the lineup, even as Ohtani ended an 11-game home-run drought with a solo shot Tuesday.
“The pros are taking the hitting part off his plate (and) letting his body recover a little bit for a couple days,” Roberts said. “The con is just not being able to write his name in the lineup at the top of the order.”
Ohtani’s exit velocity and swing speed are down this season, while he is hitting .240 with seven home runs and 17 RBIs. But he has been one of the best pitchers in baseball during his first full season on the mound since 2023.
A right-hander, Ohtani (2-2, 0.97 ERA) has given up just four earned runs over 37 innings. He has lost his past two games, 2-1 defeats to the Houston Astros and Miami Marlins. In those two games combined, Ohtani gave up three earned runs, nine hits and three walks over 13 innings, with 17 strikeouts.
“He always has that sense of responsibility to his teammates, that he wants to be out there both ways,” Roberts said. “So I’ve learned that I have to be proactive and take (lineup decisions) out of his hands, like with most great players.”
In four career starts against the Giants (21 innings), Ohtani is 1-0 with an 0.43 ERA.
The Giants have kept Ohtani in check as a hitter this season. Despite two hits Tuesday, the Los Angeles star is batting just .136 against San Francisco, while his home run Tuesday was his first RBI against the team.
San Francisco is 4-1 against its rival this season.
Ohtani’s home run was overcome by the bottom of the Giants’ order as No. 9 hitter Eric Haase hit two homers and No. 8 hitter Harrison Bader hit another in a 6-2 victory that marked the Giants’ third straight victory.
Haase is getting playing time at catcher after Patrick Bailey was traded to the Cleveland Guardians. Daniel Susac is out with an injury to his right elbow.
“I was just trying to be on time,” Haase said of his at-bats against Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. “I hate to just really simplify it to that, but being in a role where I could be playing every day, or I don’t know if I’m going to play for the next month, when I get my cleats in the dirt, I’m just trying to help the team and push forward.”
The Giants will send left-hander Robbie Ray to the mound on Wednesday. Ray (3-4, 2.76 ERA) earned a 5-2 win Friday when he gave up one run on four hits over six innings at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Ray has made 25 career starts against the Dodgers, his most against any team in 13 career seasons, and is 9-8 with a 3.74 ERA in 144 1/3 innings.
–Field Level Media
