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Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Shohei Ohtani's Ruthian feats are not enough as bullpen melts down against Cardinals
Only one player in the last 110 years has tried to do what the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani is doing this season, which is to pitch and hit successfully at the big-league level. Babe Ruth twice won more than 20 games and led the American League in ERA and starts before the Red Sox, then the Yankees, decided pitching was distracting from Ruth's hitting and put him out to pasture in right field. Over the next three seasons, Ruth broke the major league record for home runs three times. The Dodgers and Ohtani insist he'll remain a two-way player for the time being, but recent performances suggests both the Red Sox and Yankees may have been on to something when they took Ruth off the mound. Ohtani made his eighth start of the year Wednesday and it was his best as a Dodger, with the right-hander giving up just a tainted run on two hits and striking out a season-high eight in four innings. Perhaps more important, he also slugged his first home run in 10 games in the third inning of a 5-3 matinee loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the first truly Ruthian two-way performances for Ohtani since he joined the Dodgers but it was one the team's bullpen wasted, with three relievers combining to allow four runs on 10 hits over the final five innings. The two most important ones came in the eighth, when the Cardinals turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead, greeting Alex Vesiawith a pair of singles before a two-out hit from Jordan Walker drove in the tying run and the winning one scored on a throwing error by third baseman Alex Freeland. As for Ohtani, while he has posted an 2.37 ERA and struck out 25 in 19 innings in his eight starts, his offense has suffered. In the same eight games, he has batted .219 and in his last six starts, he's gone just 3 for 24 at the plate. That's part of a slump that began in mid-June, when Ohtani made his pitching debut for the Dodgers. At the time he led the majors in runs and led the National League in homers and slugging percentage. Since then, his strikeout rate has risen, his average has plummeted more than 20 points and he's clubbed just 14 homers, one fewer than he had in May alone as a designated hitter. 'I do think that there's something to it,' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the difficulty and hitting and pitching at the big-league level. 'Obviously, when he's pitching, there's an added emphasis, understandably so, on pitching. There's a calibration that needs to happen.' Ohtani both pitched and hit on his way to two MVP awards with the Angels. But last season, the first in five years in which he didn't pitch while recovering from a second elbow surgery, Ohtani sent career highs in virtually every offensive category and led the NL in runs (134), homers (54) and RBIs (130) while becoming the first player in history to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in a single season. That won him a third MVP award and a World Series ring, replicas of which were handed out Wednesday to the 44,621 sun-splashed fans who came to see Ohtani pitch. But in 2021, when he topped 10 starts for the first time with the Angels, he hit a full-season career-low .257 and struck out a career-high 189 times. Hitting and pitching are both full-time jobs, Roberts said, with bullpen sessions in between starts, batting practice, video to study and strategy meetings to attend. That's one reason no one has tried to do both since Ruth. For Ohtani, the manager said, the challenge now is finding comfort in the crowed new routine. 'It's not the norm,' he said. 'It's been over two years since he's done this, so he's still sort of getting adjusted to this lifestyle, as far as kind of the day to day.' Ohtani breezed through his longest start as a Dodger, topping 100 mph multiple times and retiring the first six Cardinals in order. It would have been seven but shortstop Mookie Betts and second baseman Miguel Rojas lost Walker's popout in a high sky leading off the third. That went for a hit and Walker came around to score on a stolen base, a ground out and Brendan Donovan's infield single. Ohtani struck out the next four hitters he faced while giving his team the lead in the third, following Alex Call's leadoff double — his first hit as a Dodger — with a two-run homer to center. The hit was the 1,000th in the majors for Ohtani while the homer was his 39th of the season. The Dodgers added another run in the fourth when Andy Pages led off with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch, stole third and continued home when the throw from catcher Pedro Pagés hit the bat of Miguel Rojas and ricocheted toward the Dodger dugout. Then came the daily bullpen meltdown, with the Cardinals pushing a run across against Justin Wrobleski in the sixth, setting the stage for their eighth-inning rally against Vesia. Brock Stewart gave up the final run in the ninth.
USA Today
01-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Aaron Judge is off to his best start ever. What happens now? 'Buckle up'
Aaron Judge is off to his best start ever. What happens now? 'Buckle up' Show Caption Hide Caption CC Sabathia on entering the Hall of Fame and wearing a Yankees cap on his plaque CC Sabathia will be enshrined into the Hall of Fame this July and tells USA TODAY Sports why his plaque will feature him wearing a Yankees cap. Sports Seriously BALTIMORE – Aaron Judge already possessed several otherworldly attributes within the baseball universe: Two-time American League MVP, author of an AL-record 62-homer season, and the sort of Ruthian feats that can only come from a man who stands 6-foot-7, weighs 280 pounds yet still moves with grace and athleticism. So, what happens when the AL's most formidable weapon gets off to the greatest start of his career? We're about to find out. Judge is known for plenty of things, but scalding starts aren't necessarily one of them. Until now: Judge just completed the most productive and dominant March and April of his career, a notion that becomes even scarier when seasoned observers believe he hasn't totally rounded into his MVP form just yet. 'I say this and I'm not being cute or funny – but I don't think he's been that hot yet, honestly,' says Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who has managed Judge since the slugger's second season in 2018. 'He's getting his hits and I think it's a credit to how great he is. 'When he gets really going and starts hitting balls in the seats, buckle up.' Opposing pitchers might already want to get off this ride. After hitting a two-run home run, a pair of singles and reaching base four times Thursday night against the Baltimore Orioles, Judge finished April batting .427, with an even more absurd .521 on-base percentage, 10 home runs and a 1.282 OPS, all of which lead the major leagues. While those video game numbers might be shrugged off as an early-season sample, consider this: Judge's adjusted OPS is 250, meaning he's 150% more productive than 2025's league-average hitter. "I guess he's kind of like a great three-point shooter at the plate right now. They shoot around 43% for an extended period," says Boone. "It's remarkable, obviously. "I always say we're running out of superlatives or things to say about it, but what he's doing – he's playing a different game." And it's by far the hottest he's come out of the gate. April shower of home runs Consider this: Judge won his second MVP last season, finishing with a .322 average, 1.159 OPS and 58 home runs, equaling the 10.8 WAR he produced in his 62-homer 2022 MVP campaign. At the end of April 2024? He was batting just .207, with a pedestrian 116 adjusted OPS. Judge referenced that rough stretch Thursday night, simply as a tool to quell any buzz surrounding his current hot streak. He was batting .174 through 23 games last year, and faced different sort of inquiries. "I try not to look at that stuff until the season's over," says Judge after the Yankees, now 18-13, dropped the series finale 5-4 at Camden Yards. "You just gotta go up there with confidence. And I felt the same when I was hitting .170 and you guys were asking all the questions about when you were gonna turn things around. "I can't focus on results; you gotta focus on the process and getting the job done. If you do that for 500 at-bats, good things are going to happen." Yet it's never been this good for Judge this early. You have to go all the way back to 2017, Judge's Rookie of the Year campaign, to find a March-April sequence that comes close. That year, he put up a .303/.411/.750 line, with 10 homers and a 1.161 OPS. And 2017, along with 2019, famously was a juiced-ball season producing an overheated hitting environment. Judge's adjusted OPS at the end of April was 'merely' 214, still fantastic but well off this year's 250 mark. Judge finished that year with an AL-best 52 home runs, a .422 OBP and 1.049 OPS, finishing second to Jose Altuve in MVP voting, a result that stung two years later when that Houston Astros team was found to have engaged in an elaborate sign-stealing scandal. Twisting the knife, the Astros eliminated the Yankees in a seven-game ALCS that autumn. Judge is still searching for his first championship, a drive that may play some small role in this spring's white-hot start. 'History right in front of us' When we last saw Judge afield, he was muffing a fly ball in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series, the key breakdown in a disaster inning that saw the Yankees blow a 4-0 lead and get eliminated that evening. Judge, who batted .184 (9 for 49) in the Yankees' 14 playoff games, said that gaffe 'will stay with me until I die.' At the least, it seems to have further locked him in in 2025. 'I wanted to come out, especially after how we ended the year last year not winning the World Series, and a lot of work (still) to be done,' Judge said Wednesday. 'All you can do is look in the mirror and try to figure out ways to get better and improve.' For two-time MVPs, those improvements can be granular. But they are significant. Judge, who turned 33 earlier this week, isn't hitting the ball quite as hard – an elite 95.5 mph – as past seasons, such as the 2023 campaign when he averaged 97.6 mph. But his swing decisions are improving. Judge's 20% strikeout rate would be the lowest of his career, and his 68.1% mark on swings in the strike zone would be the highest. His chase rate of 19% aligns with the 18.7 and 19.5% marks the past two years but is down significantly from 22.9% in his 62-homer 2022 season. 'That's what makes him great: He never settles,' says James Rowson, the Yankees' hitting coach and their minor league hitting coordinator as Judge worked his way through their system a decade ago. 'It's tough because he's so good, and how do you improve? 'He does it with his brain. He does it by studying the game. He watches how guys attack him. He knows what he wants to do the next time. In baseball and hitting, it's a neverending process of learning. Every time you go out there, the guy may do something different. 'He does a great job preparing himself for anything that can happen.' Yet if baseball is an endless game of cat-and-mouse, it's starting to look like Judge is the feline with his quarry cornered. He's working on his fourth consecutive season with an OPS north of 1.000 and an OBP of at least .406; this would mark the third time in four years he's led the majors in those categories as well as slugging. And if this season concludes with Judge claiming another MVP? He'd join a very inner ring of Yankees as three-time MVPs: Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle. Certainly, there's a long way – and 131 more games, specifically – to go. Judge might be working on a fourth consecutive MVP had he not suffered a grim toe injury making a catch at Dodger Stadium in a June 2023 game; the unforeseen is always lurking. Yet there's already a lot of hay in Judge's barn. May, historically his most productive month, with 59 career homers and a 1.130 OPS, has arrived. And every plate appearance only seems to add crucial data points in the mind of a slugger both prodigious and painstaking in his preparation. 'It's hard to match what he's doing up to anybody, ever, because he's doing historical things,' says Rowson. 'Every time he steps up to the plate, we're watching history right in front of us.' The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
New York Times
01-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
As Shohei Ohtani embarks on year two in Dodger blue, a unique encore begins
GLENDALE, Ariz. – Planning for the extraordinary takes a special kind of audacity. Nobody points to center field and clears the wall with the next swing. One guy might have done it, but that was Babe Ruth, and nobody's really sure, anyway. Then came Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani, the walking miracle of the Los Angeles Dodgers, will resume his two-way Ruthian feats this season. His right elbow is healthy enough for pitching, and his left shoulder looks a whole lot sturdier than it did in the Bronx last October. Advertisement In his first at-bat this spring training, on Friday night against the Angels, Ohtani launched a homer into the left-field bullpen at Camelback Ranch. He also popped up and struck out in a 6-5 victory. 'Regardless of the results, I think the biggest takeaway was being able to go through my three at-bats without any issues,' Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. 'Physically, (I) felt really good.' Shohei Ohtani homers in his first at-bat of spring. Carry on. — Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) March 1, 2025 Ohtani did not call his shot on Friday, but his latest MVP effort seemed to be planned from the start. Knowing he could not pitch last season after elbow surgery in Sept. 2023, Ohtani decided to explore new territory for offense-only brilliance. So he created the 50/50 club, population: 1. Fifty-four home runs. Fifty-nine stolen bases. League leader in runs scored, runs batted in, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and total bases. It was a season to savor – and the fun has started again. 'Obviously he's fine, after that home run he hit,' said the Angels' Yusei Kikuchi. 'He had the ability to hit it that far. I'm sure he's going to be able to put up the same numbers this year.' Dodgers manager Dave Roberts isn't so sure, and that's important to remember as Ohtani embarks on year two in blue. What can he do for an encore? Not what he did last season. Once he returns to game action on the mound, likely in May, Ohtani simply will not have the chance to match the mind-bending numbers of 2024. Ohtani achieved last season's masterpiece in 731 plate appearances. Only three players have topped that total in the Dodgers' 141-year history: Pee Wee Reese in 1949, Maury Willis in 1962 and Rafael Furcal in 2006. And none of them added 76 more plate appearances in the postseason, as Ohtani did. Advertisement It won't happen again. It can't. Science may not confirm this, but Ohtani is a human being. And when humans pitch every five days, it's wise not to let them hit 800 times from March until November. 'I think he can be as productive,' Roberts said. 'I don't think he's going to get the same number of at-bats, plate appearances, given that he's going to be pitching. I don't think he's going to steal as many bases, just appreciating the fact that he does need to pitch and saving his legs. But as far as kind of performance per plate appearance, I still think he can be just as productive. And I'm sure Shohei is expecting the same thing.' For now, Ohtani is mostly concerned about his left shoulder, which he jammed into the dirt on a stolen base attempt in Game 2 of the World Series. He willed his way through the next three games in New York (1 for 11 with a single) and underwent surgery to repair a torn labrum on Nov. 5. If you notice Ohtani making subtle shoulder movements between pitches or at-bats, it's probably no cause for alarm. 'It's no discomfort, it's more just checking to make sure it's okay,' Ohtani said. 'My last at-bat, the last swing. I was pretty late and my shoulder felt great, too. So that was a good test.' Ohtani has won two MVPs as a two-way player, for the Angels in 2021 and 2023. The latter ended early when his right elbow gave out, requiring his second major reconstructive surgery in six years. But 2021 could be an instructive example for how he'll be used this season. In 2021, Ohtani made 23 starts and played 155 games overall, which worked out to 639 plate appearances. So that could mean about 100 fewer times at bat for Ohtani. 'The only thing we have to go on is when he was with the Angels and kind of doing the two-way thing with them,' Roberts said, though he conceded he had 'no idea' how many plate appearances Ohtani will make. Advertisement Likewise, none of us have any clue about the Dodgers' fate this season. By winning the World Series and pushing their payroll near $400 million, they've upended their image. Once a team that regularly disappointed in October, the Dodgers now seem unbeatable, all but certain to become baseball's first repeat champion in a quarter-century. If you think that, though, you're not really paying attention. In baseball, if you're forced to choose between one superteam or any of the other 29 teams to win the World Series – always, always take the field. In a league without a salary cap, the sheer unpredictability of baseball saves it from being a flag-raising contest among the very rich. 'That is the thing about our sport,' said Stan Kasten, the Dodgers' president and a former top executive with Atlanta's NBA and NHL teams. 'With everything that we've done, no one thinks we have more than, what, a 25 percent chance to win the World Series? That means it's a 75 percent chance that we won't. That's because of two things: we are both a marathon and a sprint. You've got to do both. You've got to be good in the marathon, which is 162 games, and the sprint, which is the short-season postseason. 'That's number one. Number two is the disparity in this sport between the importance of one player and success. Like you can have a hot goalie (in hockey) and be more successful than you might otherwise. You could have one superstar basketball player and be more successful than you might be otherwise. Here, one person doesn't do it. You need not just the players, but you need a player-development apparatus, one that is successful in continuing to supply players to the major leagues. 'So when we got here that first day, we thought we had a market that was big enough with a fan base deep enough where we could do both. We know not every market can do that, and we said that up front – but we can, and because our market allows that, we thought it would be wrong to not do that.' Nobody disputes the Dodgers' advantages. But they don't have to spend or emphasize player development the way they do. That's a choice we should celebrate. Advertisement Signing Ohtani to his heavily deferred contract, and then adding almost $1 billion in new commitments since then, only seems like overkill. For the Dodgers, it's just common sense. 'If you know baseball, you're not going to complain, because what the Dodgers are doing is trying to put the best team on the field,' outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said. 'If they have the power to do that, why not do it?' (Top photo of Shohei Ohtani:)
