Mike DiGiovanna has been covering Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Times since 1995 and spent 19 years as the Angels beat writer and two seasons on the Dodgers.
If there is one reason for the Dodgers to feel confident that Shohei Ohtani will break out of a mini-slump in the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, it is this: The Mets do not have Yu Darvish. Darvish was like kryptonite to Ohtani’s bat during the NL Division Series, the San Diego Padres veteran right-hander holding the Dodgers slugger hitless with three strikeouts in six at-bats in which Ohtani failed to hit a ball out of the infield in Games 2 and 5.
But they seemed to put a drag on the bat of Ohtani, who hit .200 with one home run and four RBIs and struck out 10 times in the series, his biggest hit a three-run homer off Dylan Cease to erase an early three-run deficit in an eventual 7-5 Game 1 victory. Ohtani went two for 15 with eight strikeouts after Game 1. “I don’t know what it’s like facing my childhood hero or idol — obviously that’s a better question for Shohei as far as the emotions behind that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
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