Shohei Ohtani Is on a Tear: Dodgers Star Is Working His Way Out of a May Slump and Toward Another Title
Shohei Ohtani had a rough May. He has spent the last week proving it does not matter.
The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar is in the middle of a seven-game hitting streak in which he has gone 13-for-27 (.481) with seven extra-base hits and 10 RBI. The slump that had Dodgers fans nervously checking his line every morning is officially over. Ohtani looks like the same player who won three of the last four MVP awards.
The timing matters. The Dodgers are pushing for a third straight World Series title. They cannot do it without Ohtani at his best.
The Slump Was Always Going to End
Ohtani’s mini-slump was always more about timing than concern. He had cold stretches in his MVP years. He had cold stretches in his Triple Crown chases. Great hitters slump. Ohtani is the best hitter on the planet and he had a 14-game stretch in which his swing was a half-tick off.
The Dodgers never panicked. Manager Dave Roberts kept Ohtani in the leadoff spot the whole time. The front office knew the swing data was fine. Quality of contact had not dropped. The exit velocity numbers were still elite. The hits just were not falling.
That is over now. Ohtani has been crushing the ball for a week and the runs are finally being credited.
The Pitching Side Is Coming Too
The next storyline to watch is Ohtani’s return to the mound at full strength. He has thrown a handful of games this season as he works back from his second elbow surgery. The Dodgers have been careful with his innings and pitch count.
If he is healthy enough to throw 100 innings down the stretch, the Dodgers rotation becomes terrifying. Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Tyler Glasnow. Tony Gonsolin. And Ohtani in his ace form as a back-of-the-rotation matchup nightmare. No team in baseball can match that pitching depth.
The Three-Peat Is Real
The Dodgers have not lost three straight games all month. They are seven games up in the NL West. They have the best run differential in baseball. They are doing what teams with a $400 million payroll are supposed to do.
Mookie Betts is healthy. Freddie Freeman is hitting. Kyle Tucker, the offseason headline addition, has slotted in seamlessly. The bullpen has been the best in baseball. There are no real weaknesses on this roster.
The last team to three-peat as World Series champions was the Yankees from 1998 to 2000. That run is one of the most legendary stretches in baseball history. The Dodgers have a real chance to match it.
They cannot do it without Ohtani. He is back. The race for the trophy starts now.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
