Suddenly, there’s an uncomfortable irony to Shohei Ohtani’s walk-up music.
Every time the dulcet tones of Michael Buble singing “…and I’m feeling good” come on, the Dodgers have to hope their two-way star does too.
For the first time in almost a week on Monday, Ohtani was feeling good enough to return to the Dodgers’ lineup, ending a previous streak of four-straight games missed while he was managing injuries to his right arm and left knee.
However, whatever was ailing him at the plate before his recent absence –– when he went 6-for-46 over a 12-game stretch from Aug. 19 to Sept. 2 –– had clearly yet to be resolved.
“It was certainly good to get him back out there,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But there was certainly nothing to write home about.”
Indeed, while the Dodgers rode another big night from Teoscar Hernández (two hits, including a three-run home run, plus a walk) to a 6-3 defeat of the Cincinnati Reds, Ohtani went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts while drawing only a seventh-inning walk –– inspiring little confidence that, even if he’s able to take the field right now, his swing is close to being where he and the team would like it to be.
Back in his customary leadoff spot, Ohtani began the night with relatively loud contact, lifting a deep fly ball to left field that died just shy of the warning track.
But after that, the 32-year-old looked largely unchanged from his recent offensive struggles.
He swung through a changeup and slider from young Reds ace Chase Burnes in the third inning, going down on the latter while chasing a pitch in the dirt.
He went down swinging again during his highest-leverage at-bat in the fifth, leaving a runner stranded at third after fanning on a sweeper and changeup from left-handed reliever Brandon Williamson.
“I should have enough experience to be able to address any kinks or injuries or anything like that with the swing,” Ohtani said through an interpreter afterward. “I’m going to use this as an opportunity to add on to the experience that I’ve had previously and be able to address it regardless [of my injuries].”
Ohtani did show better plate discipline in the seventh, fouling off two pitches in the zone while taking four misses from Williamson for a walk.
And to Roberts, the most important part of the game was that Ohtani was simply able to play.
“I think the main thing is that there was nothing alarming from the at-bats,” he said. “To take four days off, to come out of it feeling good, I think that’s a win in itself.”
When asked how far away Ohtani’s swing looks from its ideal state, Roberts even tried to strike an optimistic tone, writing off Monday as more of a timing issue after Ohtani’s recent break.
Just like the last four nights, in which the Dodgers all won with Ohtani out of the lineup, the team overcame his lack of impact again to run their winning streak to five games.
Emmet Sheehan was key to that, returning from triple-A Oklahoma City for a 5 ⅔-inning, one-run, 10-strikeout gem.
So too was Hernández, who continued his recent tear by lacing a 112 mph line drive into the left-field bullpen for a three-run homer in the sixth.
An inning before that, a two-run throwing error by Reds’ third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes had also given the Dodgers a lead.
Still, come October, the Dodgers know they will require more from Ohtani at the plate.
That’s what has made this last week so tricky, as they tried to balance his tenuous health with the need to give him a chance to rectify his swing –– all while also finally pulling the plug on his progression as a pitcher.
“I’m confident that my overall performance should be better moving forward,” Ohtani insisted. “I think the thing that I was more focused on was making sure that the pitching wouldn’t cause the worse scenario, which was for me to not be able to play at all.”
For now, that potential outcome has indeed been avoided.
But Monday was a reminder that, even if Ohtani is feeling good enough to return to the field, there’s still much work left to go before he looks right at the plate.
“Physically, he looked good, he came out of it feeling strong, feeling healthy,” Roberts said. “Just to get a day under his belt, four at-bats, and him to come out of it not going backwards was important, and we accomplished that.”
