Roberts: Ohtani can 'make his mark' on NLCS as Game 4 starter

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani is in a significant slump at the plate this October. The three-time MVP hasn't contributed much to the Los Angeles Dodgers with his bat during their otherwise impressive playoff run to the brink of another World Series.

Unlike any other star slugger in roughly the past century, Ohtani also can help his team on the mound — and his manager believes Ohtani will do just that when he pitches in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday.

"I think this is his opportunity to make his mark on this series, and so we're going to see his best effort," Dave Roberts said several hours before Game 4. "I feel good that he's pitching for us, and there's going to be some serious focus and compete tonight."

Roberts said Ohtani has "no limitations" on his second career postseason start, although the manager went on to describe what he called "soft parameters."

"He's built up (and) he can throw seven innings," Roberts said. "I think that I feel comfortable if it looks right to getting him to 100 pitches."

Ohtani returns to the mound with the defending champion Dodgers on the brink of their fifth World Series appearance in nine years. After rolling to five wins in six playoff games against Cincinnati and Philadelphia, they've won their first three over the 97-win Brewers by a combined 10-3 in the NLCS.

But Ohtani is 6 for 38 as the Dodgers' leadoff hitter in the postseason, The fearsome slugger who was third in the majors with 55 homers during the regular season has just two in the playoffs — both in the Dodgers' opening win over the Reds on Sept. 30.

Ohtani's eight-game homer drought is two games shy of his longest in a Dodgers uniform. Although he tripled and scored in the first inning of Game 3 against Milwaukee, that was his only extra-base hit in the last eight games — and just one of his six postseason RBIs came in the past five games.

Ohtani went 2 for 11 with three walks in his first three games against the Brewers.

While his two-way role requires him to do extensive off-field work to stay ready for both jobs, Ohtani probably wouldn't blame his plate struggles on his pitching responsibilities. In fact, he had pitched in only two games over the past 30 days before Game 4, thanks to the permutations of the Dodgers' schedule.

In his last regular-season start, Ohtani pitched six scoreless innings of five-hit ball against Arizona on Sept. 23, throwing a season-high 91 pitches. In his MLB postseason mound debut Oct. 4, he gave up three runs over six innings with nine strikeouts to earn the victory in Los Angeles' 5-3 win at Philadelphia in the division series opener.

Ohtani also will have the motivation of matching his fellow Dodgers mound starters, who have been phenomenal ever since the playoff race got serious.

The Dodgers' rotation held batters in September to an MLB record-low .173 average for a single month. Since the postseason began, Los Angeles' four starting pitchers — Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani — had allowed just 10 earned runs while pitching 58 1/3 innings with 71 strikeouts over those nine games.

What's more, only three Brewers had ever faced Ohtani on the mound heading into Game 4.

"It's always a little advantage (to the) pitcher when they haven't seen you before," Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said. "But they're 170 games in. They understand that you're not facing Shohei, you're facing the ball."

Roberts said Roki Sasaki is available out of the bullpen in Game 4 for what would be his first back-to-back appearances since the rookie rejoined the Dodgers' roster as a reliever.

Sasaki has been mostly outstanding since he became the Dodgers' de facto closer, picking up three saves while allowing just two hits and one run in seven innings of relief across six playoff games.