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- Shohei Ohtani is showing encouraging signs after returning from the injured list, delivering harder contact and better strike-zone judgment.
- If Ohtani has truly gotten over his knee and biceps injuries, he should play a key role in the Dodgers challenging for a third consecutive World Series title.
Good eye, good eye, everybody.
You knew Shohei Ohtani wasn’t right. You could see it.
And what do you know now that Ohtani has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list?
He’s back, but is he back?
After the second of a five-game snippet to find his rhythm and timing before the Dodgers play Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Oct. 3, Ohtani looks close.
Like, to-the-warning-track close.
And if you don’t think so, look closer: He’s not hitting it out, but he’s hitting it hard. And he’s not reaching and chasing. Not grimacing or wincing.
Tyler Glasnow delivers five no-hit innings before running into trouble in the sixth as the Dodgers lose to the San Diego Padres 4-2 to drop the three-game series.
The two-way Japanese sensation also won’t be dealing from the mound again this season. But he is standing tall at the plate, tattooing balls at the letters, double-fisting his follow-throughs and, importantly, generally showing discernment about the strike zone.
He’s bringing his mound-like focus every time he approaches the plate with Michael Bublé crooning on Ohtani’s behalf: “I’m feelin’ good...”
In two games since returning, he’s three for nine with a double, an RBI (his first since Aug. 18), a walk and three strikeouts.
In Thursday’s 4-2 loss to the San Diego Padres, Ohtani went two for five (his first multihit game since Aug. 26) with a run-scoring double in the ninth inning off Mason Miller’s 102.6-mph fastball.
“That ball,” Freddie Freeman said, “was special.”
It took the sting off the loss — as did the Atlanta Braves’ loss to the Cincinnati Reds, a result that secured a first-round bye for the Dodgers.
Proof of concept for the three-peat chase around the corner?
We won’t have to see much more, but we’ll have to see it to believe it, of course.
Because women lie, men lie — numbers don’t.
So while the star’s communication to the Dodgers about how he actually was feeling was “maybe not so awesome,” as club president Andrew Friedman put it, Ohtani hit just .130 (seven for 54) between Aug. 18 and Sept. 7.
And while general manager Brandon Gomes publicly blamed the “ebbs and flows” of the season and not knee inflammation or biceps tightness, Ohtani waved wildly at pitches and piled up 22 strikeouts in 14 games.
As if a healthy Ohtani ever would ebb so dramatically.
But while turnstiles spun — on Thursday, the club announced a record 4,034,219 fans showed up this season to witness Ohtani’s greatness — everyone forged foolishly forward. Testing fate and credulity.
Finally, mercifully, the team and the player called a full timeout — after Ohtani missed four consecutive games and then played on Labor Day, the Dodgers placed him on the IL on Sept. 11 (backdated to Sept. 8) for some rest and recovery that everyone saw was much-needed.
For the first time this season Wednesday, the Dodgers fielded the 10 men you might well see in Game 1 of the playoffs next week.
Friedman acknowledged to reporters Wednesday there was “no question” the injuries “affected” Ohtani. “You end up making subconscious adjustments where you’re protecting yourself,” Friedman said. “And there’s just slight degradation as that’s happening that compounds over time.”
No Sho-Time, but the show went on. In Ohtani’s absence, the Dodgers went 10-3 and hit .273 as a team with 24 home runs. Mookie Betts caught fire, Kyle Tucker came alive, Will Smith found his groove after missing nearly three months because of a neck injury.
And now Ohtani is back too.
He was the Dodgers’ No. 2 hitter Wednesday and led off Thursday. Your eyes don’t deceive you; he appears measurably improved.
His average exit velocity Thursday was 101.9 mph. He knocked a 384-foot flyout — rated “majestic” on announcer Joe Davis’ scale — to the center-field track Wednesday, and came right back and smacked another flyout 382 feet in the first inning Thursday.
“I hope that’s a sign of things to come,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Even ... taking the first slider from Robbie Ray [on Wednesday] for a ball got him into a good count. Whereas the last couple weeks, [it was] really hair on fire, swinging and chasing. It’s a hard way to make a living that way, right?”
Roberts said Ohtani would play all three of the Dodgers’ remaining regular-season games — “to accrue as many at-bats as he can” — against the San Francisco Giants.
The number Ohtani and the Dodgers are visualizing now? Eleven. As in 11 postseason victories to accrue a third consecutive World Series crown.
