LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani's entrance song, «Feeling Good» by Michael Bublé, played at Dodger Stadium in an otherwise quiet moment Wednesday afternoon. Ohtani then emerged from the dugout for a rare session of on-field batting practice, drawing a sarcastic round of applause from his teammates. The Los Angeles Dodgers' two-way phenomenon proceeded to uncork prodigious home runs, one of which clanked off the roof that sits beyond the right-field bleachers.
That Ohtani put himself in that situation, taking batting practice at Dodger Stadium for the first time since joining the team two years ago, might have spoken to the urgency of the moment.
The Dodgers have continued to roll through these playoffs, but Ohtani's hitting slump has merely persisted. Since the wild-card round, he is just 2-for-25 with 12 strikeouts. His seventh-inning RBI single in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Tuesday snapped a hitless streak of 15 at-bats, the second longest of his career.
Speaking before Wednesday's workout, Ohtani denied that performing as a two-way player in the postseason has impacted his hitting.
«I don't necessarily think that the pitching has affected my hitting performance,» Ohtani said through an interpreter. «Just on the pitching side, as long as I control what I can control, I feel pretty good about putting up results. On the hitting side, just the stance, the mechanics, that's something that I do — it's a constant work in progress. I don't necessarily think so. It's hard to say.»
Ohtani homered twice in two wild-card wins against the Cincinnati Reds but was overwhelmed by a Philadelphia Phillies team featuring three devastating left-handed starting pitchers, going 0-for-13 with seven strikeouts against
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