How bad hasShohei Ohtani’s recent hitting slumpgotten?

Bad enough, thatmanager Dave Robertssaid the two-way star might be out of the Dodgers’ lineup –– at least as a hitter –– the next two nights.

While Ohtani was in the team’s Tuesday lineup asleadoff man and designated hitter, Roberts said the slugger would get the day off on Thursday, and that he was leaning toward only having him pitch in his scheduled Wednesday start on the mound, as well.

If the team follows through on that plan, it would mean giving Ohtani back-to-back days off at the plate; a break Roberts believes could benefit the 31-year-old as he grinds through a prolonged cold spell offensively.

“I think it’s just more of, kind of thinking that it might just be a good thing to take a little bit of a load off his plate offensively,” Roberts said. “Letting his body recover a little bit, as far as (not) being a two-way player for a couple days. Playing more of the longer view, potentially giving him a reset on the offensive side.”

Ohtani could certainly use a reset as a hitter. He entered Tuesday mired in a 4-for-38 slump over his last 11 games. He has batted just .200 over the last month overall. And he has only one home run in his last 107 plate appearances, a stunning power outage for a four-time MVP coming off back-to-back 50-homer campaigns.

In each of those last two seasons, of course, Ohtani wasn’t also taking on full-time pitching duties as he is right now –– sporting an MLB-best 0.97 ERA in his first six starts.

And while he disputed the notion that his pitching is directly causing his batting slump, both he and team officials have acknowledged the added difficulty that comes with trying to balance both roles, especially when his swing is as out of whack as it appears right now.

“I think we all came in knowing that we had to read and react,” Roberts said of the challenge of trying to manage Ohtani’s workload. “It was gonna be fluid. It should be. It’s very unique … So, no one thought it was gonna be easy.”

No one, of course, seemed to think it would bethisdifficult either.

Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos