During the offseason, Shohei Ohtani signed a historic contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but just as he was making his debut for the Dodgers, he found himself near the center of a gambling scandal that involved his finances and former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara. And despite a bizarre set of circumstances involving his new star player, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he hasn’t spoken to Ohtani about the situation.
On the latest episode of the “Windup Podcast,” Jason Stark asked Roberts if he had sat down with Ohtani to discuss the drama of his interpreter being charged with stealing millions from him to cover gambling losses and how it has affected him.
“I have not,” Roberts said. “I could have, I can, I just feel that he’s gone through enough. I’m more taking and being of the mind to just move on from it, and not to kind of rehash things. Nothing from his demeanor or performance has shown that we need to have that conversation. I’m sure he’s had it with other people; his agent, his wife, but for me, we just talk baseball.”
Shohei Ohtani’s incredible season despite controversy
Shohei Ohtani came to the Dodgers from the Los Angeles Angeles, with whom he proved himself to be a dynamo two-way player. Ohtani has not and will not do any pitching this season after undergoing elbow surgery, though, meaning his plate appearances would be even more important than usual this season.
Things did not start off particularly well. As the scandal involving his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara unfolded, which led to fan conspiracy theories and MLB investigating if Ohtani was involved, Ohtani struggled. Through his first eight games in Dodger Blue, Ohtani posted batting splits of .242 AVG / .297 OBP / .333 SLG / .631 OPS and had yet to hit a home run.
In the ninth game of the season, against the San Francisco Giants, Ohtani found his groove. He homered for the first time as a Dodger and sent another yard in the next game. Since breaking out of his beginning-of-season slump in early April, Ohtani is batting .400 at the plate, has a slugging percentage of .800, and his OPS is 1.274. Additionally, before Tuesday’s win against the Miami Marlins, Ohtani had hit four home runs and drove in seven RBIs in the last three games.
For the season, Ohtani has splits of .365 AVG (leads MLB) / .435 OBP / .696 SLG (leads MLB) / 1.131 OPS (leads MLB). He also leads the majors in hits, doubles, home runs, and total bases, in addition to leading the NL in runs.
While Ohtani has settled in and began to leave his mark, the Dodgers are also clicking as a team. Since a rough week-and-a-half stretch in mid-April in which they went 2-7, the Dodgers have won 13 of their 15 games. The team is currently on a six-game winning streak after winning the series-clinching game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, sweeping the Atlanta Braves, and winning the first two games of its series with the Marlins.
With this hot streak, the Dodgers (25-13) have opened up a 6.5-game lead on the San Diego Padres, the second-place team in the NL West, which is the largest gap between first and second place in any division in MLB at this point.
The Dodgers will attempt to complete the series sweep against the Marlins and extend their streak to seven wins in a row today. First pitch is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. PT.
