With 3-hit outburst, Ohtani's bat may finally be waking up after slow start

LOS ANGELES -- Shohei Ohtani has been a slow starter at the plate in years past, but all told, this has been a rather unusual beginning to the season for him.

The Dodgers' two-way superstar has shone on the mound, allowing just one earned run through his first 24 innings for a near-pristine 0.38 ERA. But at the plate, Ohtani had yet to really get going.

Ohtani showed some promising signs that better days were coming in the first two games of the weekend series against the Cubs, but he broke out in Sunday's series finale, recording his first three-hit game of the season in a 6-0 victory at Dodger Stadium.

"Started to head in the right direction yesterday," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton on SportsNet LA. "I just have to be a little more patient throughout."

By going a triple shy of the cycle, Ohtani put an end to a pair of unfavorable streaks. He snapped his six-game streak without an extra-base hit with a double off left-hander Shota Imanaga in the fifth inning, then ended his longest homerless streak as a Dodger at 11 games with a solo shot off southpaw Hoby Milner in the seventh inning, his sixth of the season.

"Being a left-handed hitter," manager Dave Roberts said, "sometimes that lefty gets you back where you need to be."

Let's dive into some of the reasons behind Ohtani's slow start.

At the plate
Ohtani has had no problem getting on base, reaching in his first 22 games he batted in this season before his 53-game on-base streak dating back to last season came to an end. But while he's been drawing walks at an impressive clip, he has yet to make the expected impact with his bat.

During the Dodgers' season-opening homestand -- when Ohtani went without an extra-base hit -- he said he was getting pitches that he should have been able to do more with, but he wasn't impacting them the way he would have expected. That remained true at times in the weeks that followed, but the bigger issue is that he was expanding his zone.

Entering Sunday, Ohtani put up a 31.3% chase rate, which ranked in the 40th percentile among qualified Major League hitters, per Statcast. He also whiffed at a 27.5% clip, which ranked in the 35th percentile. There has always been an element of swing-and-miss to Ohtani's game, but his pitch selection has stood out to the Dodgers. He has worked to correct that by adjusting the setup to his swing.

Workload considerations
About two weeks ago, Ohtani did not hit in a game he started on the mound while nursing a bruised right shoulder. Roberts said at the time that separating Ohtani's pitching and hitting workloads would not become the norm, but it does seem like the Dodgers are giving some more thought to doing that on occasion.

Last year, Ohtani went 12-for-54 (.222) in the 14 games where he pitched, albeit with an .878 OPS. This year, he's gone only 1-for-10 (.100) with a .457 OPS in his three two-way games.

The Dodgers know that Ohtani likes hitting and pitching -- and is capable of doing both at a high level -- in the same game, so they're not looking to put an end to that. If he's not already in the starting lineup, he would be unable to pinch-hit in a game he starts on the mound, so that is another consideration for the team. But every now and then, it could make sense to have him focus on only one part of his game, and Ohtani is open to that.

Two-way toll
The Dodgers are mindful of the effort that goes into being a two-way player -- not just in the games where Ohtani pitches, but over the course of a full season.

Ohtani began this year as a full two-way player for the first time since 2023, having been limited in the two seasons in between while recovering from a second major surgery on his right elbow. He has put together full-fledged two-way seasons before, but the Dodgers believe that going back to that has been an adjustment for Ohtani.

"The truth is, he was more focused on the hitting [last year], because there wasn’t much demand on the pitching side," Roberts said. "And right now … you could argue there’s more focus on the pitching and there’s more demand on the pitching with what we’re asking of him. So there’s gotta be some cuts into some of the bandwidth, the production on the offensive side. That’s just common sense."