LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts knows what it’s like to be a former league MVP who is not meeting expectations.
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Now multiply that by four with Shohei Ohtani.
“I couldn’t imagine really kind of having the expectations that he has and falling short in a way that is not normal for him,” the Dodgers shortstop said of Ohtani’s prolonged slump. “Then having to come back and be present in this postseason, knowing how important he is to the boys.
“He’s trying. It’s just really, really hard. It’s really hard to make these slight adjustments in this short amount of time. Like I said, it took me almost two years. I feel for him. I know he’s grinding, he’s working. … I know he’s giving it his all. We know he’s giving it his all.”
The Dodgers gave indications that they considered sitting Ohtani for Game 3 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night. Pointing to mechanical adjustments he is making in his swing, Ohtani convinced Dodgers manager Dave Roberts that he is “on to something” that will help him break out.
Ohtani was in the starting lineup on Wednesday but dropped to sixth in the batting order, as low as he has hit in any game since 2020 with the Angels.
Betts has pointed to a fractured hand in June 2024 as the catalyst for his offensive decline over the two seasons that followed. He finally found something in early August this year and hit .315 with a .961 OPS over his final 46 regular-season games.
Betts sees Ohtani struggling to make swing adjustments – either to compensate for injuries or to undo adjustments he made to keep playing when he was hurt – and recognizes the struggle.
“Yeah, it’s really, really hard. It took me almost like two years before I was able to really kind of feel normal again and get those bad habits out,” Betts said. “When you’re hurt, you just want to play. So you’ll make adjustments to the swing or to your body so you can play. Then you don’t want to hurt while you play, so you make the adjustments to where your body doesn’t feel it. Sometimes it’s to the detriment of who you are as a player, and you don’t really realize it.”
Pitcher Tyler Glasnow said Ohtani is “very consistent” in the clubhouse and as a teammate, going through his “same preparation, same stuff” and laughing with his teammates whether he is hitting well or not.
“It’s impressive to see,” said Glasnow, who is scheduled to start Game 4. “I think most people put in that situation, you’d have a lot more emotional volatility. So it’s just impressive to see him just be a good dude always.”
Glasnow said Ohtani’s teammates don’t feel obligated to try and reassure Ohtani during the difficult times.
“Stay out of his way,” Glasnow said. “I mean, if I were to be like, ‘You got this, Shohei,’ he’d be like (confused look). It’s not like – I think everyone knows it’s not like you go up and like, ‘You got this.’ … You have your normal conversations and you can tell how someone is.
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“I don’t think he needs reassurance or anything. He’s confident in himself. It’s just business as usual and a lot of smiles and the same laugh. It’s kind of just that vibe.”
GAME TIME
Due to weather in the Cleveland area expected on Thursday, the American League Championship Series game between the Guardians and the Tampa Bay Rays has been changed to a 10 a.m. PT start time.
As a result, Game 4 between the Dodgers and Brewers has been moved up one hour to a 5 p.m. PT start at Dodger Stadium.
OLD FRIENDS
Brewers manager Pat Murphy told the story of how he met and became friends with former Dodgers catcher and Angels manager Mike Scioscia. Murphy was the head baseball coach and an assistant football coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College at the time.
“His car broke down,” Murphy recalled. “It was very late. I was coming back from somewhere, and I had a little Jeep, and I just saw this guy was broken down in this little sports car. (I) pulled over to the side of the road. Get out. Guy’s got a suit on, heavyset guy. Didn’t recognize him. I said, ‘Hey, man, can I help you?’ He said, ‘Yeah, man, can you get me to a phone?’ This was 1986. … I said, Yeah, my office is right down the street.
“He jumped in my car. My friend was with me. She sat on his lap because the Jeep was small. Went down to my office. He had a tan suit on, sat in my office for a while. He’s like, ‘Hey, man, you’re a baseball coach,’ and he starts going into it. … He starts talking about all this kind of stuff. He’s kind of a chunky guy, you know what I mean? You’re not picking out major-league player right here, you know what I mean?
“So I go into my rhetoric, what I do for a living, all this kind of stuff. I said, What do you do? He goes, ‘I work for the Dodgers.’ I go, ‘Oh, what do you do?’ He goes, ‘I catch.’ I feel like a total fool.
“I gave him a ride home that night and got his car fixed, and we became friends ever since.”
Scioscia and Orel Hershiser are scheduled to throw out ceremonial first pitches before Game 4 on Thursday.
UP NEXT
NLCS Game 4 – Brewers (RHP Dustin May, 0-0, 4.50 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP Tyler Glasnow, 0-0, 1.93 ERA), Thursday, 5 p.m., FS1, 570 AM
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