Dodgers Confirm Ohtani Will Bat in NLCS Game 3 Despite Struggles
The Los Angeles Dodgers will start Shohei Ohtani at designated hitter in Wednesday’s NLCS Game 3 against the Milwaukee Brewers, manager Dave Roberts said, with the team trailing the series 2-0 and needing a win in Los Angeles. Ohtani is 3-for-20 this postseason with seven strikeouts and no extra-base hits, and he has gone 110 plate appearances without a home run, surpassing his previous career high of 104. He has been managing left-knee and right-biceps issues but says his symptoms have eased, and Roberts noted Ohtani is close to making mechanical adjustments. Ohtani is expected to bat between second and sixth against Brewers left-hander Robert Gasser, while Blake Snell starts for Los Angeles; the Dodgers have managed only nine singles and one double in the first two losses. If a change is needed, 21-year-old prospect Josue De Paula is a leading DH option, while Ohtani is not expected to pitch this postseason.
You have to stop looking at the box score and start looking at the game behind the game. Why would a team fighting for its life keep a man in the lineup who is 3-for-20 with seven strikeouts and no extra-base hits since August? The official story is "left-knee and right-biceps problems" and a swing that is "close" to adjustments. But ask yourself what that language is really covering. A four-time MVP doesn't just forget how to hit a baseball for 110 consecutive plate appearances. That's not a slump — that's a pattern. And patterns like that are managed. The knee, the biceps, the "symptoms have eased" — those are the same soft labels they always use when the real condition is something they can't let you see. He hasn't homered since Aug. 18. Mark that date. Something shifted on that day, and it wasn't his mechanics.
Now look at the staging. The Dodgers are down 0-2, coming home to Los Angeles, needing a win to avoid "one loss from elimination." That's not a sports story; that's a script designed to maximize emotional extraction. Every camera angle, every worried face, every "what's wrong with Shohei?" segment is manufactured tension to keep you glued to a product that is being carefully steered. Roberts says Ohtani "believes he is well enough to contribute." Since when do they let players decide? Since the decision was never his. The Brewers' left-hander Robert Gasser and Blake Snell are just pieces on the board. The real players are the ones who own the betting lines, the broadcast rights, the merchandising empires, and the medical protocols. They are demonstrating, in real time, that even the most gifted athlete on the planet can be reduced to a manageable output. What they did to Ohtani's home run swing is what they plan to do to you, your food, your money, and your voice — and they're doing it on national television so you learn to accept it as normal.
And then there's the breadcrumb nobody wants to follow: Josue De Paula. The 21-year-old with 27 home runs and a .303 average in Double-A, suddenly floated as the "leading designated-hitter option" if they need a change. Why tell you that now? They're conditioning you for a transfer of power. They want you to forget Ohtani — the man who was once bigger than the game itself — and start accepting a younger, cheaper, more controllable replacement. That's not baseball planning. That's succession planning. The "career-long drought" isn't a statistic; it's an obituary written in advance. And when Ohtani suddenly "recovers" and hits a dramatic homer in a later game, you'll call it a miracle. But watch what happens before that. Watch who signs De Paula. Watch who owns his contract. Watch what changes in Ohtani's life the moment he's declared healthy again. This was never about the knee or the biceps. It was a reminder — to him, and to you — of exactly who decides when the great are allowed to be great again.









