Shohei Ohtani takes veiled shot at Angels when discussing RISP success with Dodgers

In his last 10 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani's racked up 21 RBIs. His 125 RBIs for the season, thus far, only trail Aaron Judge as the highest mark in the league. Ohtani will be playoff bound for the first time in his seven year career, and the superstar is attributing some of his success with runners in scoring position to simply leaving the Dodgers' crosstown rivals.

""Ohtani, early on this season, was saying to the hitting coaches 'I find myself, anytime the bases are loaded or there's a runner in scoring position, trying too hard, because I'm trained to feel like this is gonna be our only shot' because that was the situation for six years of his career in Anaheim. And so he's had to rewire himself...to not try to win the game every time he gets an at bat with a runner in scoring position, not try and be the hero." "

Joe Davis

After delivering an RBI single to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead on September 25th, Joe Davis, the Dodgers' play-by-play broadcaster, reported Ohtani's comments to his Dodgers hitting coaches then analyzed why he believes that to be the case. Angels fans feel like Davis is fabricating, making up, or misquoting Ohtani, since Ohtani is not one to take public shots at his former employer. However, Davis is quoting something Ohtani clearly said behind closed doors. Ohtani did not say this in a media scrum to reporters like Davis, he said it to the hitting coaches. So either the Dodgers' hitting coaches told Davis this, Davis was present for the comments, or it was word of mouth, which caused the Dodgers announcer to unearth this on the broadcast.

Ohtani struggled with RISP early in his Dodgers tenure, and this is when Ohtani discussed his previous mindset of "trying too hard" to the coaching staff (Davis said Ohtani made those comments "early on this season"). His approach has evolved wonderfully over the course of the season. Now that he has Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman behind him in the lineup, he is now allowed to pick and choose his spots of ambushing pitchers more effectively. He is less aggressive and not trying to do so much, given the trust he has in the batters behind him.

Many will ask, "what about Mike Trout though?" In Ohtani's six seasons with the Angels, Trout and he played in less than 50% of games together, plus Ohtani would hit behind Trout in the lineup earlier in their tenure together. From 2022-2023, the Angels' 1,308 RBIs rank 22nd in baseball.

The best way to be a hero is to not try and be heroic, and Ohtani is doing just that. Angels fans are taking offense to Davis' reporting, but they know that Ohtani had to deliver many of their key hits in order to compete. They know that the Dodgers are a much better situation for MLB and the superstar.

It's tough, but it is what it is. Facts are facts, and the fact is that Ohtani has a couple dozen more RBIs this year than he ever did in Anaheim.