There is an interesting part of this season’s record of Shohei Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ running 50-50: The batting average in scoring position.
Ohtani joined the 40-40 club for the sixth time in his history by stealing his 40th base of the season and hitting his 40th home run in a row in a home game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Dodger Stadium on the 24th (Korea time). He achieved it in 126 games of his season, becoming the fastest player in history.
This is the moment when the record was achieved at that time.
Ohtani got on base with an infield hit as the leadoff hitter in the fourth inning when his team was losing 0-3, and was safe when left-hander Tyler Alexander’s 78.1-mile sweeper penetrated the outside strike zone at Freddie Freeman’s at-bat. When Tampa Bay catcher Rob Brantley tried to throw the ball, Ohtani was bloodless at second base. He stole his 40th base of this season.
Then, his 40th homer was the most monumental walk-off in history. Taking the batter’s box with the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning when the score was tying 3-3, Ohtani hit an 84.3 mile slider from left-hander Colin Forsche to lead it to a grand slam that slightly crosses the right-center fence.
It was Ohtani’s third walk-off hit in his career, his first walk-off home run, and his third grand slam in his career.
Local media are paying attention to the incident. The Athletic said on Sunday that the walk-off grand slam that put Otani at the 40-40 mark was his 16th homer with a runner on the board this year, and his third homer in the scoring position. “He had an OPS of 0.696 before hitting the homer, which is a significant drop from the OPS of 1.063 when he was in the Los Angeles Angels.” 먹튀검증
In other words, Ohtani moved to the Dodgers this year, and he became very vulnerable in scoring. The right to score is a situation in which runners are at least second base. It includes second base, third base, 1-2 base, 1-3 base, 2-3 base, and the bases loaded. It refers to a situation in which a runner can come in with just one hit.
As of Tuesday, Ohtani has a batting average of 0.224 (26 hits in 116 times at bat), three homers, 42 RBIs and an OPS of 0.696. Among 136 hitters in the two leagues, who have passed the fixed number of times at bat, Ohtani ranks 116th in batting average and 108th in OPS. His batting average for this season is in stark contrast to his 0.292 and OPS of 0.993. Ohtani has not been able to display strength in the scoring position since the beginning of the season. His batting average in scoring position was one hit in 16 times at bat, below 10 percent as of April 16. Although his performance has improved since then, he is still lagging far behind in terms of batting average and OPS for this season.
The Athletic said, “Otani’s weakness in scoring position may seem temporary. He is not getting more strikeouts in scoring position than before. The small sample size shows that Ohtani is more sluggish in scoring position.”
“Everyone knows what Ohtani can do in scoring position. However, I can bet he will get better in those situations,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in an interview with local media on Tuesday, a day after Ohtani’s 40-40 victory. “Ohtani has that capability and is just demonstrating it here.”
Even after Mookie Betts returned from injury, Ohtani has been taking the leadoff position. There are more at-bats without runners than at-bats with runners, and as a result, home runs are more common when runners are absent. Of the 41 home runs, 16 have two-run or higher, far less than half. However, the batting average and low OPS have nothing to do with the situations in which players are entitled to score points.
It remains to be seen whether the Grand Slam, which marked 40 home runs, will enhance Ohtani’s scoring clutch ability at the end of the season.