Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani did not record a hit with a runner in scoring position until Wednesday’s game against the Rockies. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Shohei Ohtani is not publicly known, nor personally sees himself, as a quick starter at the plate.
“Overall, in my career,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton, “I don’t really have a hot start in the beginning of the season.”
This year, that’s technically true again — but only if you hold the reigning National League MVP to his own stratospheric standards.
Through the opening three weeks, all of Ohtani’s triple-slash stats are down from last year (.288/.380/.550), but only because his 2024 marks (.310/.390/.646) all topped the NL. Same story with a .930 OPS that is more than 100 points lower than his gaudy 2024 total, but still good enough to rank top 20 in the majors.
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With six home runs and five stolen bases, Ohtani isn’t quite on mathematical pace for another 50-homer, 50-steal season; but is on an early track to become the first player in MLB history with multiple 40/40 campaigns.
And though he has taken a few more awkward swings than normal in the opening three weeks, he has started honing in on his power stroke, too, leading off Wednesday’s win over the Colorado Rockies with a towering 448-foot blast that almost cleared the right-field pavilion.
“I think overall,” he said, “it’s been a really good first 20 games.”
The only true area of regression so far has been in one statistical category; where a glaring drop in production has signaled a key early-season problem for the team.
After racking up 130 RBIs in 159 games last year, Ohtani has just eight in this season’s opening 20 contests. Seven of them have come via his six home runs (all but one of which were solo shots). Not until Wednesday, when he returned to the plate in a seven-run first inning and knocked in Austin Barnes with an RBI single, did he record his first hit with a runner in scoring position.
“Shohei’s in a good spot,” manager Dave Roberts said recently. “We just need to get some guys on base for him.”
That reality said more about the rest of the team’s offense than its superstar leadoff man.
From the Nos. 7-9 spots in the batting order, the Dodgers have posted a .173 batting average so far, tied for worst in the majors. Prior to Wednesday, they’d given Ohtani just nine plate appearances with runners in scoring position (tied with No. 2 hitter Mookie Betts for fewest among the team’s regulars). In four of those spots, he was walked.
It created an early-season conundrum for Roberts, as he tried to shake the team out of a recent offensive lull. Should he consider dropping Ohtani in the lineup, where he could get more RBI opportunities? Or should he give his offense more time to find its footing, and hope his bottom-half hitters began heating up at the plate?
“I just feel that there’s guys who are gonna perform better than they have,” Roberts said this week, opting for the latter. “Shohei will ultimately get those opportunities.”
And on Wednesday, he finally saw signs that could be happening.
In an 8-7 win over the Rockies, the Dodgers got five hits and a walk from their bottom three hitters.
One was provided by Barnes, the backup catcher who didn’t have a hit all season before doubling in the first in front of Ohtani.
The others came from more important pieces of the Dodgers’ lineup construction: Max Muncy and Andy Pages.
Bottom-of-the-order staples who are both batting under .200 to begin the season, Muncy and Pages had arguably their best games of the year Wednesday. Pages, the second-year center fielder, went two for four with three RBIs, continuing improvements that began during his two-homer series in Washington last week.
“He is swinging the bat a lot better,” Roberts said.
Muncy, meanwhile, reached base three times with the help of a recent adjustment to his own slumping swing.
In an effort to stay more on top of the ball at the plate this year, Muncy spent his offseason purposely trying to hit grounders and low line drives. In doing so, however, he realized he had begun lurching forward in his swing. As a result, he gave himself less time to read pitches and make proper swing decisions. And even when he did, he wasn’t driving the ball like usual.
“The ball sped up on me the first few series of the season and I really wasn’t myself,” Muncy said. “I was chasing a lot of stuff and I was unable to recognize it.”
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But now, he has returned to staying back in his stance and is looking for pitches to elevate. Amid a series in which Muncy walked six times, Roberts felt he also took his best at-bat of the season against left-hander Luis Peralta on Wednesday night, launching one deep fly just foul before ripping a single into right field.
“When he’s getting on base, and it was a ton this series, then that’s a good thing,” Roberts said. “So I do think that he’s turned a corner, yeah.”
The Dodgers hope that the rest of their bottom-half hitters will do so as well.
Because the more Ohtani heats up as the season progresses, the more important it will be to have guys getting on base in front of him.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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