Shohei Ohtani Hitting Slump Discussed By Dodgers' Dave Roberts, Plans for Rest Revealed

Shohei Ohtani is slumping. The Los Angeles Dodgers are going to give him a break.

Manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Tuesday the team will give Ohtani a day or two off to help snap him out of his recent struggles at the plate.

"A lot of times, mechanics is a result of fatigue, injury, experience with a pitcher that you don't want to get jammed, and you start cheating, and those things kind of affect your mechanics going forward," Roberts noted. "I think in this particular case, it's the load of thinking about the pitching, which he's used to, but also the load on the pitching side as far as the tax on the body. So I think that giving him one day, for sure, potentially two days to reset the body, the mind, there's only upside."

The 31-year-old has been spectacular on the mound, going 2-2 in six starts with a 0.97 ERA, 0.81 WHIP and 42 strikeouts in 37 innings. But he came into Tuesday's game hitting just .111 in May with a .358 OPS, managing only four hits and 10 strikeouts in 36 at-bats (he did homer on Tuesday, however). The Dodgers, meanwhile, are just 4-8 in their last 12 games.

So something had to give.

"I think the fatigue is bleeding into the mechanics," Roberts told reporters. "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."