While Cy Young award is tough, Dodgers Shohei Ohtani making run at NL batting title

In a game in which Shohei Ohtani lowered his earned-run average to 0.74, the race in which he gained the most ground wasn’t for the Cy Young Award.The four-time most valuable player award winner and two-time home-run leader is now a contender for another major prize.Ohtani is positioned to make a run at the batting title.His 3-for-4 night at the plate in the Dodgers’ 7-0 victory over the Diamondbacks raised his season average to .301 – ninth-best in the National League.At this point, the two-way player might have a better chance of becoming the second batting champion from Japan than he does of becoming the first Cy Young Award winner from his country.While the Dodgers’ use of a six-man rotation has kept Ohtani from being overworked, it has also placed him at a major statistical disadvantage against the league’s other elite pitchers.Christopher Sanchez of the Philadelphia Phillies has pitched 86 ⅓ innings in 13 starts and Jacob Misiorowski 71 innings in 12 starts.Including the six scoreless frames he pitched on Wednesday, Ohtani has logged only 61 innings in 10 starts, one inning short of the threshold to be a qualified pitcher. Regardless of whether Ohtani is named the NL’s best pitcher, he figures to be a lock to win the league’s MVP award, considering what he’s also done in the batter’s box.That offensive performance now has Ohtani within striking distance of doing something that was once considered unthinkable — even for him.Ohtani is a power hitter.In his first two seasons with the Dodgers, he hit 109 home runs.In the team’s first 62 games this year, he’s homered only 10 times.

That doesn’t mean he’s not hitting well.Ohtani might be underwhelming as a home-run homer, but he’s thriving as a leadoff hitter.He was batting just .233 on May 11 but has raised his batting average by almost 70 points since then.In his last 19 games as a designated hitter, he’s batting .438.“He’s swinging at good pitches,” manager Dave Roberts ...