Ohtani's Game 3 Dilemma: Should He Sit or Play for Dodgers?

This whole series is going to hinge on game three, and game three has one really big Ohtani Watch. This segment was created to talk about the best player in the history of the game. Ohtani Watch was about epic performances, was about his dominance, both on the mound and at the plate. But there are real conversations going on right now about benching Ohtani for game three, The bicep and knee injuries are clearly taking a gigantic toll. Shohei Ohtani has not hit a home run since August 18th. He has three hits in 20 at-bats during these postseasons, and over the last two months, his slash line is .156, .283, and .200. In game two, he goes 0-4 with two Ks, and Dave Roberts said today they'll have a conversation about whether or not Otani will play in game three of the National League Championship Series. That is an unbelievable thing to read, to say, to think that the best player in baseball, the multi-time MVP the most electric bat and the most dynamic baseball arm could sit for the biggest game of the 2024 season i disagree eric i don't know if you're kidding or not i don't think he's cold i think he's hurt and i think he really needs to sit down i i think there's a lot going on here i think Recon is on something look at the De La Cruz kid try to spark something i think there needs to be that type of change and dave roberts is gonna have to make a really tough decision but i think sitting down Ohtani if you watch him at the plate he had some of the worst at bats i've ever seen him have yesterday like he is fooled he is in his own brain but when your knee hurts and your bicep hurts and you want to play because he's a player you have to do what's best for the team and to get somebody else in there to try to kickstart this offense for the Dodgers I think is a must for Dave Roberts it just comes down to whether or not he's willing to go to Ohtani and to tell him you're sitting we're not playing you today in game three of the National League Championship Series we're not going to play you because what does that do long term Ohtani is not going anywhere he's going to play another 10 years and the Dodgers would like him to be in a Dodger uniform for the next 10 years they've won back-to-back championships has he earned the right to play it out yes and i think what do i think Dave Roberts is going to do i think Dave Roberts is going to play him because i think the Dodgers are going to say hey if we go down we're going down with Ohtani we're going down with the guy if we're going out and we're going to lose we're going to lose with the players that got us there we're not going to you know have a big meltdown over this we're not going to freak out if we lose we lose and if Ohtani needs to come back and be you know a bigger part gets rehabbed gets surgery whatever he needs to be back next season we'll play for next year and that's fine and we'll try to win three and four years look back to back to back championships is ridiculous okay they played so much baseball the Dodgers the whole team looks tired the whole team just looks exhausted and it's you know Yamamoto yesterday the Dodgers finally lose a game started by Yamamoto and he I don't know like it was interesting like he was pressing for calls from the umpire he was pressing for abs challenges I just I felt like he looked uncomfortable like he felt like there was a lot of pressure on him to perform and he got hit up and he got, you know, not lit up, but he got hit pretty good by this Brewers offense and that ballpark, the environment, the Brewers just want it more. And there's nothing wrong with saying that. I don't think that's an insult to Dodger fans by saying that because you've won back-to-back championships. The Brewers are desperate. Their fans are desperate. This is such a big opportunity. You have Pat Murphy, who is the two-time National League Manager of the Year. you've got a lineup that is unrelenting you have a pitching staff led by Misurakovsky and a bullpen that it's the best in the game everything is lined up for this Brewers team they were the best team in the in the regular season they're currently the best team in the postseason everything is lining up for this and Brewer fans know it Brewer fans are feeling it and they're like my god this could happen.