Shohei Ohtani has made three starts for the Los Angeles Dodgers while rehabilitating his arm. In his third appearance, Ohtani pitched two scoreless innings, marking his longest outing. However, his performance at the plate has been inconsistent, striking out in his first at-bat each time after pitching. Despite Ohtani's preference to remain a leadoff hitter, manager Dave Roberts is considering repositioning him in the lineup. The idea is to alleviate the pressure of rushing to bat immediately after pitching, although there are potential drawbacks to such changes.
Ohtani's third appearance was his best on the mound as he completed two scoreless innings. It was the first time he's pitched more than one inning for the Dodgers.
Although Ohtani is comfortable remaining as the Dodgers' leadoff hitter, Roberts can see a scenario where dropping him down in the lineup may be more beneficial.
Roberts mentioned, 'Yeah, I can, he's good with it right now, but is there a scenario where I feel that it might be better for him in that first at-bat to reshuffle the lineup to give him one, two, three hitters to get set, sure. Absolutely.'
The logic behind moving Ohtani down in the lineup would be so that he doesn't have to rush into batter's box after the first inning.
Collection
[
|
...
]