Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday he will not drop Shohei Ohtani for a crucial playoff clash with the Milwaukee Brewers after the Japanese superstar insisted he feels “good enough” to contribute. Four-time MVP Ohtani has been in dire form after returning from multiple injuries this post-season, hitting just 3-for-20 in the playoffs, with no home run since August. The Dodgers trail their best-of-seven National League Championship Series 2-0, and reports circulated following Monday’s loss that Roberts and his staff were considering the drastic measure of benching his talisman.
“I did speak to Sho, had a great conversation. He’s adamant he feels good enough to be in there,” Roberts told a press conference. “He’s close to finding something with his swing. I feel great about it.” The Dodgers, chasing a rare World Series three-peat, have three home games beginning Wednesday to get the series back on track. But the Brewers, who led Major League Baseball with 103 regular-season wins, need just two wins to reach their second-ever World Series, 44 years after their 1982 appearance.
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Ohtani, who has struggled with knee and biceps injuries, has not hit a home run since August 18. He has just one RBI in his last 110 plate appearances. During the playoffs, Ohtani has seven strikeouts and no extra-base hits. But Ohtani said Tuesday that his “symptoms have subdued a lot,” and that he is focused now on his swing mechanics. “Over the course of this long season, there’s only really a short period of time when my mechanics is completely in sync,” he 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. So it’s a constant, ongoing process that’s headed in the right direction.”
Ohtani has already dropped to fifth in the batting order this post-season — the lowest he’s hit since 2020 — and Roberts suggested he could bat as low as six on Wednesday. But the manager denied he had ever considered unilaterally “benching” Ohtani for poor form. “It was more of, ‘hey, man, if you’re not feeling good enough that you feel like you can perform up to your ability, then we’ll pivot, give you a couple days,'” said Roberts. “And talking to him, he feels like he’s close to finding something and was close yesterday in finding something mechanically. With that, I’m excited. I’m all about it. So he’ll be in there.”
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