Shohei Ohtani's terrible World Series performance has been overshadowed by injury and Aaron Judge
Freddie Freeman's historic hot streak aside, the dominant narrative so far in this World Series has been the continued struggles of Aaron Judge. After a sensational regular season that will almost certainly bring him a second AL MVP Award, the New York Yankees captain has been mired in a funk all playoffs long. But things have hit rock bottom against the Los Angeles Dodgers: Judge has just two hits and one RBI over the first four games, compared to seven strikeouts — including three apiece in Games 1 and 2.
It's been the story in headlines and on airwaves for days. What's wrong with Judge? Will he ever come through when it matters most? Is he driving Juan Soto into the waiting arms of the New York Mets? But all that attention has obscured the fact that Judge isn't the only superstar who hasn't been able to produce in this series so far. And if the Yankees can send things back to L.A. with a win in Game 5, the pressure might start cranking up on his MVP counterpart: Shohei Ohtani.
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Shohei Ohtani is having some World Series struggles of his own
While Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez were busy carrying the Dodgers to a 3-0 series lead (with a big assist from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler on the mound), Ohtani was doing his best Judge impression. The $700 million man hasn't struck out as much (four Ks across the first four games), but he's hitting an identical .133, with just two walks and not a single homer or RBI. He delivered a big double and came around to score the tying run in the eighth inning of Game 1, but other than that, it's been radio silence.
Of course, some caveats are necessary here. Ohtani has only been at full health for 1.5 out of four games, thanks to a separated shoulder he suffered while trying to steal a base in Game 2. He's had that shoulder wrapped up tight over both games in New York, and he's clearly not at 100 percent right now: He seems visibly uncomfortable swinging the bat at times, and he makes sure to hold his collar as he runs the bases.
But Ohtani is choosing to remain in the lineup, and his team is choosing to continue hitting him leadoff. So if they think he's good to go — and a better choice than whoever would replace him in the lineup — then we can evaluate his production accordingly. And so far that production has been virtually non-existent. Again, that doesn't have to be an indictment of Ohtani as a hitter; he's the most talented player in the history of the sport, after all. It's just to say that the Dodgers have a looming superstar problem of their own, one that could get bigger and bigger the longer this series goes on.