“I’m Pretty Good”: Shohei Ohtani Responds to Dave Roberts’ “Aggression” Demand After Dodgers Lose Again

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts has had quite a few words for Shohei Ohtani lately. While he has always been full of praises for his $700 million star, Roberts feels Ohtani can “do better” in certain situations. The skipper specifically pointed out how the aggressive ways of Ohtani are proving to be a little counterproductive for the team. Now, the two-way phenom has shared his thoughts on that topic.

Lately, the Dodgers haven’t been enjoying the best of times. While their pitching staff was always going to struggle this season, the team’s hitting too has underwhelmed in the past few games. Amidst all of this, Ohtani too has struggled with bipolar performances. When he’s alone he excels but when the bases are filled Shotime’s effectuality reduces. With the Dodgers dangerously close to a losing record, Ohtani has commented on how his approach has changed during the latest homestand.

The Dodgers Bleed Los Podcast posted the postgame interview of Shohei Ohtani recently. The superstar was as usual quite candid about his approach and team’s present situation. When asked about Roberts’ “aggression” complaints, Ohtani shared that he has talked to Doc about it. “I think it’s just that the zone is expanding. It’s not that the aggression is bad, it’s just that the aggressive zone is expanding,” Ohtani said.

“We’ve been able to do a good job in situations where we’re not in a scoring position, so we’ll continue to do that. The zone I’m swinging is a little bit larger with runners in scoring position. So with nobody on base, I’m pretty good at it. It’s really just winding down the zone,” Ohtani shared.

The superstar understood where the issue lay and is working at it. However, when he was asked about continuously leaving the runners stranded, Ohtani gave an interesting answer that showed his mindset

Shohei Ohtani explains how no change is also a change 

One of the biggest issues with Ohtani this season has been his abject failure during scoring positions. Whenever he has arrived with bases loaded, the superstar has almost always failed to capitalize on the situation. So, when he was asked about what changes he’s looking at to fix that, Ohtani said he was not making any changes and that’s a change.

“Nothing specifically. It’s just more of regardless of the situation, just sticking to my approach no matter what. That’s more of the change that I did, which is no change,” Ohtani said. Perhaps, what Ohtani meant is that he’s trying to play his natural game even during high-stress situations. That isn’t a new philosophy, players have always talked about staying true to their ways during nervous moments.

But while that is a great philosophy, one wonders when will it start working. After all, while the superstar is in fine form, a little improvement on the runner situation can turn things completely around for the Los Angeles Dodgers. That’s something that they desperately need.