Shohei Ohtani wasn’t smiling.
Ohtani pitched his best game of the season on Wednesday night, but in the aftermath of the Dodgers’ 4-0 victory over the Giants, he looked as if his dog just died.
Manager Dave Roberts kept him out of the Dodgers’ offensive lineup for the fourth time in five starts, and the one-way version of Ohtani responded with seven scoreless innings that ended the team’s four-game losing streak.
That was viewed as a coincidence by Ohtani, who kept denying that his pitching was affecting his hitting, and vice versa. Ohtani wasn’t about to concede that his workload required modifications, even though his home run the previous night was only his second in his last 24 games as a hitter.
“I think it’s simply a lack of ability,” he said in Japanese.
As for how much harder it’s become to play both ways now that he’s closing in on his 32nd birthday, Ohtani replied, “I think I’m at my best right now. I still think I’m young.”
Considering how much he insists on being a two-way player, his responses were entirely predictable.
But the debate over how he should be used will rage on. His latest start ensured that it would.
Because if Ohtani continues pitching as well as he did against the Giants, the Dodgers would have a reason to not want to use him as a designated hitter when he’s on the mound. He has an earned-run average of 0.82.
At this point, there might be only one way for Ohtani to ensure this doesn’t become a regular practice, or even a semi-regular one: He has to start hitting and he has to start hitting soon.
There was a time when Ohtani would have embraced the kind of schedule on which Roberts has him.
When he was in Japan and when he first came to the major leagues, Ohtani usually didn’t hit on the days he pitched. In fact, he usually didn’t hit the days directly before and after his starts either.
But Ohtani refined his own standards in 2021, the season in which he won his first Most Valuable Player award with the Angels. He stopped taking regular days off, and that’s been the norm for him since.
Ohtani is said to have politely accepted Roberts’ lineup decisions, but how does he actually feel about the manager’s calls? And if he’s upset, how much does that matter?
“I think he appreciates it,” Roberts said. “It does matter, to some extent, but I do think that when I see him and how his body is responding and dragging a little bit, I think that most times it’s best to take it out of the player’s hands. I do think that we have a good enough relationship that he understands I’m doing this for him and the team.”
Roberts also pointed out that decreasing his responsibilities as a hitter allows him to push him more as a pitcher. The game on Wednesday night was an example. Ohtani threw 90 pitches in the first six innings, but Roberts permitted him to pitch the seventh.
“Where he was at, if he was hitting, I would probably pull the plug right there,” Roberts said.
Ohtani finished with a season-high 105 pitches.
Part of Roberts’ calculation was that Ohtani was scheduled to be held out of the series finale against the Giants on Thursday.
“Just trying to allow him to have a couple days to reset the body,” Roberts said.
Ohtani said he would use the extra time to “solidify” what he did well on Tuesday night, when he was 2 for 4 with a walk.
He described recent weeks as a never-ending search for answers in the batter’s box. He tried this, he tried that, but nothing stuck.
“In many cases,” he said, “making improvements isn’t as difficult as maintaining them.”
As weary as he sounded, he made clear he wasn’t about to stop looking for solutions.
“Resting is important, but I want to do what I have to do in order to unleash that the next time I play,” he said.
Ohtani knows what he has to do.
Throughout his career, whenever his viability as a two-way player was under question, the results served as the ultimate arbiter.
When he broke into the Japanese league. When he moved to the majors.
Now, as a four-time MVP in his third season with the Dodgers, he finds himself in a familiar predicament. Once again, his production could decide his fate.
