LOS ANGELES -- Shohei Ohtani is in the midst of one of his worst hitting slumps, and the Los Angeles Dodgers hope extra time off shakes him out of it.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani will be out of the lineup for Thursday's series finale against the San Francisco Giants, adding that he is "leaning toward" also giving him the day off as a hitter Wednesday, when he will serve as the starting pitcher.
Ohtani entered Tuesday's game with just four hits in 36 at-bats this month -- none of them homers -- bringing his slash line down to .233/.363/.404. Lately, the Dodgers have become concerned with the quality of Ohtani's at-bats. His four hits in the past 10 games are his fewest in a 10-game span since 2022, which also marks the last time he tackled two-way duties for a full season.
That's probably not a coincidence.
"A lot of times, mechanics is a result of fatigue, injury, experience with a pitcher that you don't want to get jammed, and you start cheating, and those things kind of affect your mechanics going forward," Roberts said. "I think in this particular case, it's the load of thinking about the pitching, which he's used to, but also the load on the pitching side as far as the tax on the body. So I think that giving him one day, for sure, potentially two days to reset the body, the mind, there's only upside."
The Dodgers have been more conscious of giving Ohtani additional rest, particularly by keeping him out of the lineup on his start days. Ohtani has been strictly a pitcher for three of his past four starts. In the past two instances, the Dodgers have been limited to just one run. The offense as a whole has struggled lately, scoring three runs or fewer in nine of its past 12 games. A big reason for that, though, is Ohtani not creating a spark from the leadoff spot.
The hope is that by letting him focus on pitching, allowing his body to recover and giving him time to get his mechanics back in sync, Ohtani, who has a 0.97 ERA in his first six starts, can be an offensive force again.
"I think the fatigue is bleeding into the mechanics," Roberts said. "I think that most players get that towards the end of the summer. And now I'm learning, managing Shohei, it has probably shown itself a little earlier as far as the tax on pitching and all that comes with it to the hitting too."