Friday was Shohei Ohtani bobblehead giveaway night at Dodger Stadium.
Which meant, given Ohtani’s penchant to perform on such occasions, manager Dave Roberts had even higher expectations than normal for the four-time MVP.
“I thought he was gonna hit a home run tonight,” Roberts joked. “I think he wanted a home run tonight, on his bobblehead night.”
Alas, in a dramatic 8-7 win over the Texas Rangers, Ohtani instead took a backseat to Max Muncy’s and Andy Pages’ starring displays.
Muncy hit three home runs in the victory, going 4-for-5 with a walk-off shot in the bottom of the ninth.
Pages was 3-for-3 with four RBIs and a homer, maintaining MLB’s early-season batting lead with a .449 average.
Ohtani, by comparison, had only a fifth-inning single and an intentional walk in the eighth.
On the year, he is now batting just .265 with an .875 OPS –– quality production, but clearly below his personal standards.
“He’s taking walks, getting hits,” Roberts said. “(But) he hasn’t really got going yet.”
Friday still came with an historical achievement for the two-way talent.
With his fifth-inning single, Ohtani extended his streak of reaching safely in regular-season play to a whopping 44 games going back to last year.
That is the longest run currently active in the majors. It is the third-longest in the Dodgers’ Los Angeles franchise history. Most notably, it left Ohtani alone among all Japanese-born players in MLB history, passing the previous high mark Ichiro Suzuki set back in 2009 with the Seattle Mariners.
Apparently, a newly-unveiled stadium statue wasn’t the only thing of Ichiro’s to be broken Friday.
For Roberts, such accomplishments are a reminder of Ohtani’s larger value and presence.
Even when he isn’t terrorizing opponents, he’s doing things no one before has achieved.
Because of that, Roberts looked at Ohtani’s sluggish start –– and the underwhelming numbers the team’s other top-of-the-order superstars have thus far posted around him –– and argued that, in the context of the Dodgers’ 10-3 record, it’s actually been a positive sign for the direction of their season.
“For us to win the games we’ve won, scored the runs we’ve scored, and Sho isn’t going?” Roberts said. “He’s going to get hot. That’s a good thing for us.”
The on-base streak also underscored a certain level of growth with the 31-year-old slugger.
Pitchers, Roberts noted, are continuing to attack him very carefully. So, he is continuing to take his walks, ranking eighth in the majors with 11 free passes.
“Hitters get impatient at times,” Roberts said. “But he’s done a good job of showing that consistency.”
Earlier this week, Ohtani insisted such discipline was not a problem for him, despite his reputation for being more of a free swinger (as evidenced by the 15 he already has, as well).
“I try to really stay with a simple approach,” he said through interpreter Will Ireton. “If they’re not throwing me strikes, I’m happy to take a walk.”
Did Roberts –– who last week contrasted Ohtani with the notoriously selective Barry Bonds –- believe that claim?
California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedInCalifornia Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, XCalifornia Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!California Post App: Download here!Home delivery: Sign up here!Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!
“I think he’s trying to convince himself,” the skipper quipped. “Players like to hit, they like to swing the bat, but he’s smart enough to know that if they’re not going to pitch to him, they’re going to pitch around.”
Thus, in the meantime, the Dodgers will keep finding other sources of offense to fuel what’s been a league-best start.
The bottom of their lineup is raking. Pages, in particular, has found an almost unconscious level of production. And though Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Will Smith and Freddie Freeman are all batting under .275 (as is the injured Mookie Betts), they’re also doing enough little things to keep wearing down opposing pitching staffs.
There’s a reason why Friday was already the Dodgers’ sixth come-from-behind win.
“I’d say that’s a sign of a good team,” Roberts said. “And a good trait for our ball club.”
The Dodgers, of course, are undoubtedly the best version of themselves when Ohtani is more potent. Just look at Friday’s bobblehead, which commemorated his three-homer, 10-strikeout explosion in last year’s National League Championship Game clincher.
“I think it’s going in the right direction,” Ohtani said of his swing this week, after a three-homer road trip that looked closer –– but not all the way –– to his normal self at the plate.
“I think (getting to) May is a good goal, to see where I’m at (and evaluate then),” he added.
Who knows, maybe his on-base streak will still be going by then too.
Right now, it’s the one thing he is doing consistently, helping him quietly complement the team’s most electrifying victory so far on Friday.
“Sho’s in a good place, he really is,” Roberts said. “But it’s good that other guys can pick him up at times too.”
