Chosun Ilbo wrote on October 15 that the Dodgers are being dragged along by Shohei Ohtani's slump while Milwaukee's manager made a bold call, reportedly sitting even his captain. The Brewers lead the NLCS 2-0, and Game 3 is set for Wednesday evening in Los Angeles.
Milwaukee beat Los Angeles 2-1 in NLCS Game 1 and 7-4 in Game 2 to lead the series two games to none. ESPN lists Game 1 as played on October 11 at American Family Field, and MLB.com said William Contreras drove Game 2 as starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto struggled. The Brewers won 103 games to lead the majors and the Dodgers 100, and since Los Angeles swept Milwaukee in last year's NLCS, the script has flipped.
광고 문의 · 300×250Chosun Ilbo's October 15 piece carried the headline that the Dodgers are being dragged along by Ohtani while the Brewers manager boldly even left out his captain. The headline implies the Milwaukee manager sat the team captain, but which game and which player we could not confirm without the original text, so that detail is unverified here. MLB.com's Game 2 coverage quotes manager Pat Murphy only saying the Dodgers are hungry and does not mention a captain being benched.
Ohtani's October struggles
Ohtani has struggled all postseason. Ilgan Sports reported he hit .154 with no homers or RBIs in the four-game division series against Atlanta and had gone 102 plate appearances without a homer since his 30th of the regular season, so Los Angeles moved him from leadoff to the cleanup designated hitter spot for Game 1. MLB.com says that through Game 2 he is 3-for-20 (.150) this postseason with no extra-base hit.
Manager Dave Roberts has backed him, saying Ohtani remains a threat whenever he is at the plate, and Ohtani reportedly took live batting practice against pitchers for the first time in five months before Game 1, hitting six balls with home-run distance. In Game 4 of last year's NLCS he hit three homers and struck out ten over six scoreless innings to win series MVP. Brewers Game 1 starter Jacob Misiorowski (1.80 ERA, 252 strikeouts) held the Dodger lineup in check.
Looking to Game 3
The series now moves to Dodger Stadium for Games 3 and 4. Per MLB.com, Game 3 is Wednesday at 5 p.m. Pacific, which is 9 a.m. Thursday in Korea, with Blake Snell set to start for Los Angeles against Robert Gasser. Teams up 2-0 in a best-of-seven have advanced about 83 percent of the time, though the Game 3 result was not confirmed when this was written.
The Dodgers have lost two on the road but still have a home base to hit back from. The questions are whether Ohtani's bat wakes up in the four hole and whether Snell can contain a contact-heavy Milwaukee lineup. The Brewers, who won 55 games at home, now need to show they can stay steady away from Milwaukee as well to move closer to the World Series.