LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani will be in the Los Angeles Dodgers' lineup for Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night.
Manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday that Ohtani will bat anywhere from second to sixth with the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers losing the first two games of the best-of-seven series.
“He was very convicted that he is onto something mechanically (with his swing),”
Roberts said. “He was adamant that he can help us. He’s well enough to help us win a baseball game, so that’s all I needed to hear.”
Ohtani is hitting .150 (3 for 20) over six postseason games. He has seven strikeouts, three walks and one stolen base with no home runs, no RBIs and an OPS of .411.
He hasn’t homered since Aug. 18 at Colorado.
Ohtani admitted before the NLDS against Atlanta that he’s not 100% healthy from right biceps and left knee issues. He has appeared visibly uncomfortable at the plate while flailing at pitches.
“The symptoms have subdued a lot,” Ohtani said Tuesday through a translator. “The symptoms shouldn’t be the reason why I can’t hit, and even if the injuries happen by accident, I take full responsibility.”
Roberts spoke to Ohtani before the team worked out at Dodger Stadium. He said it wasn’t about benching the Japanese superstar, but rather offering him time off similar to Freddie Freeman during the postseason in 2024. Freeman had a sprained ankle and bone bruise, took three days off spanning the NL Division Series and NLCS before earning World Series MVP honors.
“Over the course of this long season, there’s only really a short period of time when my mechanics is completely in sync,” Ohtani said. “So it’s just really kind of just going back and forth, finding the right parts of the swing and managing just the different parts of the swing. It’s a constant, ongoing process that’s headed in the right direction.”
Ohtani led the Dodgers to a four-game NLCS sweep of Milwaukee last year, when the Brewers hit a measly .118 against LA's pitching.
He was 5 for 14 (.357) with three home runs, four walks and five strikeouts as NLCS MVP — all three homers came in a memorable Game 4 clinch in which he also struck out 10 as a pitcher. He had a 1.643 OPS and 1.143 slugging percentage.
“We remember vividly at this time last year that he maybe had the best baseball game ever played the day he pitched against us and hit a home run every time up, it seemed like,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “You can’t forget that, his capabilities. But you still have to go at him.”
Ohtani is known for hitting homers but the Dodgers would take any kind of offensive production from him at this point.
“In this big moment, we’re listening to Shohei, and we’re going to support the crap out of him and believe in him, and that’s it,” Roberts said.
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