For a few days last week, the Dodgers almost couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
Because, for the first time in his three years with the team,Shohei Ohtani looked like a mere mortalat the plate.
From April 20-25, the four-time MVP had theworst six-game stretch of his Dodgers career, batting 3-for-23 with no extra-base hits and nine strikeouts. Dating back to April 12, he had gone 59 plate appearances without a home run, the longest such drought of his tenure with the club.
During his slump, he was struggling to lay off low pitches or keep from pulling the ball harmlessly to the right side of the infield.
For at least a little while, baseball’s two-way superhero seemed to be fighting some rarely-seen kryptonite, grinding through the kind of stretch to which he’s typically immune.
“You don’t hear the word ‘slump’ correlated with Shohei on the hitting side ever,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts quipped over the weekend.
“We’re all human, we all have our stretches,” added first baseman Freddie Freeman. “But (to see it from Ohtani), it’s definitely weird.”
Indeed, while it’s easy to forget when he’s mashing 450-foot home runs, or blowing 100 mph fastballs past hitters from the mound, or accomplishing statistical feats once thought impossible in baseball’s modern era, even Ohtani has his physical limitations.
And this year, in his return to full-time pitching following a second career Tommy John surgery, he’s getting a renewed –– and potentially telling –– early-season test.
Last week, both Roberts and several teammates noted an inevitable shift in the 31-year-old superstar so far this season. He’s had to put more focus on pitching. He’s had to factor in more between-starts recovery. He’s had to manage his overwhelming workload more delicately than ever before.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
