Dodgers Shohei Ohtani gamble has blown up in their faces at the worst possible time
The Dodgers are on the doorstep of elimination, and they deserve to be.The Brewers are better.They hit better, they pitch better, and they field better.Beating these Brewers would have required a superhuman performance on the part of the Dodgers, and the possibility of them producing such a miracle vanished months ago.The Dodgers didn’t lose the chance to win their third consecutive World Series in this National League Championship Series, which they now trail by a three-games-to-none margin after a 6-2 defeat in Game 3 on Wednesday night.The chance was lost when they lost Shohei Ohtani.The Dodgers will be eliminated some time over the next several days, perhaps as early as Thursday.Knowing what is known now, it’s evident the Dodgers couldn’t have avoided this crash-and-burn ending without a version of Ohtani they rarely had this season.The Ohtani who became the first player to homer 50 times and steal 50 bases in the same season in 2024.The Ohtani who launched a career-high 55 home runs last season.The Ohtani who hit three home runs to eliminate the Brewers last year at this stage of the postseason.And even that might not have been enough.But the Dodgers’ mismanagement of Ohtani ruled out that series-altering player from ever showing up in October.
Once it was clear that he couldn’t knock the ball over the fence, the Dodgers lost the offensive firepower they would have needed to win a third consecutive World Series.The problem wasn’t the Dodgers’ support of Ohtani’s early-season efforts to become a full-time two-way player again.The Dodgers knew what they were in for when they signed him.They knew playing both ways was central to his identity as a baseball player.Nor was it unpardonable for them to initially allow him to attempt to pitch through the discomfort in his left knee.As the team’s decision makers pointed out, no team had ever managed a two-way player who was turning 32 in the middle of the season.
Testing the waters was reasonable.Some...