CHICAGO — So often when the Dodgers needed it last year, Shohei Ohtani could bail them out.
During stretches where they were scuffling at the plate, or battling injuries to the pitching staff, or just not playing with sound fundamentals, it was the superstar slugger who came to their rescue.
At times, he almost seemed to single-handedly carry them with high-leverage, momentum-shifting, season-defining swings.
On Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, with the Dodgers again trying to snap out of an early-season lull, Ohtani came to the plate with the chance to do it again.
Runners were at second and third base in the top of the sixth. The Dodgers were down one run with two outs in the inning. And even with first base open, the Chicago Cubs didn’t signal for an intentional walk, allowing left-handed starter Matthew Boyd to face Ohtani for a fourth time.
In the Dodgers’ eventual 7-6 defeat, what ensued became a game-deciding sequence of a very different kind.
Despite working a 2-and-0 count, Ohtani chased on a fastball that was well up and well inside. He hit a soft pop out to shortstop, extinguishing the Dodgers’ best chance to rally. And after quietly slumping through the last couple of weeks, his opening-month struggles were suddenly much more pronounced.
“Just got too big with the swing,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Where all you need is a base hit right there.”
As the Dodgers (16-9) return from their second-straight losing trip already this season — after going 2-4 in Philadelphia and Washington earlier this month, this week’s two losses at Wrigley left the club with a 2-3 record on this five-game swing through Texas and Chicago — Ohtani is far from the only problem for them to address.
Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts are both batting in the .250s to this point (despite a three-hit night from Betts on Wednesday that snapped a one for 22 slump). Everyone at the bottom of the order is hitting under .200 (despite the Nos. 6-9 hitters on Wednesday combining for five hits, including a home run from Andy Pages).
A once-stout relief corps has also started to waver, following up a late-game collapse on Tuesday with a creaky showing in Wednesday’s pre-determined bullpen game (recently recalled right-hander Noah Davis was knocked around in a three-run fourth; burgeoning rookie left-hander Jack Dreyer was punished for walking the bases loaded in a four-run fifth).
And other smaller mistakes continue to plague the team, as well, including on Wednesday: The Cubs (16-10) successfully stealing a base on five of six attempts; Pages throwing to the wrong base from center field during Chicago’s fifth-inning rally, allowing Dansby Swanson to take second on a single and get in position for an extra run later in the inning; and Austin Barnes getting picked off at first in the fifth — even with Miguel Rojas on second base in front of him — three batters before Teoscar Hernández hit a two-run homer that would have otherwise scored three.
“We got some things to clean up,” Roberts said. “We gave them extra outs.”
Yet, when Ohtani came to the plate in the sixth, he had a golden opportunity to erase such frustrations.
Even though he was just one for his previous 10 since returning from the birth of his daughter last weekend, and had been generally scuffling since the team’s opening homestand, it was the kind of moment tailor-made for his typical heroics.
Instead, he fell victim to his biggest bad habits recently: Over-swinging at a pitch nowhere near the middle of the strike zone.
“It’s something we’re not used to,” Roberts said of Ohtani, who finished the night batting just .261 on the season (compared to his .310 average last year) and .224 over his last 14 games.
“I don’t know if he’s trying to do something, trying too hard,” Roberts added. “There’s a couple walks [he has taken recently]. But there’s other times where he’s getting himself out instead of taking a walk if given to him.”
Indeed, another example arose in the ninth, when Ohtani once again got ahead 2-and-0 before striking out on a sweeper well out of the strike zone.
“He’s human,” Betts said. “I think we’re all so accustomed to him never doing anything bad.”
As Betts noted, there’s very little doubt that Ohtani — who has not addressed reporters since returning from the paternity list on Sunday — will get going again sooner or later. At some point this season, he is also expected to resume two-way duties, although that remains several months off still, according to Roberts.
“Tomorrow, he can hit four homers,” Betts said. “He’s one of those people that may go through a stretch, but we’ve all seen the other side of it.”
In the meantime, however, it leaves the Dodgers trying to compensate for Ohtani’s lack of performance on top of all their other recent shortcomings For so much of his Dodgers tenure, it’s been the other way around.
“If Shohei touches it, it’s a chance to slug it,” Roberts said. “But I think a little bit this series, and even that last game in Texas when he came back, there was a little over-aggressiveness. The swing is a little bit longer than it typically is.”