Dave Roberts Prefers Shohei Ohtani ‘Stick To His Approach’ Amid Bad Stike Calls

After sitting out Sunday’s game due to back tightness, Shohei Ohtani was in the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup for all three games against the San Francisco Giants this week.

Ohtani had another productive series, going 7-for-12 with one double, one home run and three RBI. He reached base three times in the finale at Oracle Park, but also struck out twice looking on a couple of questionable calls by home-plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged that the Dodgers will have some calls go against them and is more concerned with Ohtani sticking to his approach, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:

“Those balls could have gone either way. So I’d rather him do that and stick to his approach,” Roberts said. “There’s gonna be some borderline calls that are gonna go against us. But Shohei, his at-bat quality has been fantastic, and he still threw out a couple hits tonight, took a walk.”

Earlier this season, Roberts made a point of Ohtani staying true to his approach amid his struggles with runners in scoring position. Roberts specifically wanted the two-way star to take more pitches as opposed to being aggressive.

Ohtani has improved in that department, but is still hitting just .239/.289/.304 with runners in scoring position this year.

Aside from that, the 29-year-old has enjoyed an MVP-caliber season at the plate. Through 43 games, he is batting .364/.431/.676 with 16 doubles, one triple, 12 home runs and 30 RBI in 198 plate appearances.

Ohtani leads baseball in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base plus slugging (1.108), doubles and hits (63).

Dodgers will continue to monitor Shohei Ohtani after back issue

While Ohtani has shown no lingering signs of back issues, the Dodgers will continue to monitor him going forward.