The two-time defending World Series champions have hit a rough patch. The lost again to the on Tuesday () and have lost four straight games by at least four runs for the first time since July 1-4, 1936, when they still played in Brooklyn. Los Angeles has lost 14 of their last 23 games and has slipped into second place in the NL West behind the .
It was not all bad news on Tuesday, though. snapped his 11-game home run drought with an opposite-field shot in the third inning. The 11-game drought was tied for Ohtani’s longest as a Dodger. Overall, Ohtani has two home runs in his last 27 games.
“Relief,” manager Dave Roberts said about Ohtani’s reaction to the homer (via ). “He smiled, he laughed. I just think that he’s gonna feel good about the offensive side tonight. When your best player is doing what he’s capable of doing, it just adds that energy into the dugout and frees guys up a little bit too.”
Even after Tuesday’s homer, Roberts said he still plans to have Ohtani out of the lineup as a hitter Wednesday and Thursday to manage his workload. He will pitch but not hit on Wednesday, his third time doing so in his last four pitching starts, then he will be out of the lineup completely on Thursday. Roberts believes fatigue is contributing to Ohtani’s power outage.
“I think the fatigue is bleeding into the mechanics,” Roberts said (via ). “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.”
Ohtani, 33 in July, , pitching to a 0.97 ERA with 42 strikeouts and only nine walks in six starts and 37 innings. At the plate, though, he is hitting .240/.370/.427 with seven homers, output that would be great for most players but represents a down year for Ohtani.
This is Ohtani’s first season as a full-time two-way player since 2023, when he was still with the and before he had his second UCL surgery. He hit exclusively in 2024 and the first half of 2025. Ohtani returned to pitching last June and was slowly built up in MLB games.
Ohtani is in Year 3 of his heavily deferred 10-year, $700 million contract.
