Shohei Ohtani's batting average after pitching is 0.109. Dodgers' manager Roberts: I don't think it's related to pitching.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani is expected to make his second pitching appearance after undergoing elbow ligament surgery tomorrow. It is still uncertain how many innings he will pitch, and his poor batting performance since resuming pitching has raised concerns.

Ohtani returned to the mound on June 17, throwing 28 pitches in one inning, and also had 2 hits and 2 RBIs at the plate. However, since then, in the last 5 games, he has only managed 2 singles out of 19 at-bats, resulting in a batting average of just 0.109, with 9 strikeouts.

After today's game, some media were curious if this was related to his pitching. In response, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, "We'll see how it goes; he is set to pitch tomorrow. He has indeed struggled a bit at the plate this past week, with a lot of swings at bad pitches. I don't know; I don't think it's related to pitching, but as he continues to pitch and plays more games, we will know more. Right now, I don't have an answer."

So far in June, Ohtani has a batting line of 0.260/0.363/0.442 over 77 at-bats, hitting 3 home runs, with a strikeout rate of 27.5%. This is a noticeable decline compared to his performance before June, where he had a batting line of 0.298/0.395/0.667 over 225 at-bats, hitting 22 home runs, with a strikeout rate of 24.7%.

For tomorrow's game, Roberts stated that he will start, but did not disclose the expected pitch count, saying that how long he pitches will depend on his pitching efficiency. It could be just 1 inning, or they might test him to pitch another inning. Before the last game, Roberts also only mentioned that he would pitch 1 or 2 innings, and it was only after the game that the pitch count was confirmed to be set at 30 pitches.