Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman issued a warning to MLB during a rare cold streak from Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani hasn't been his best since returning from an injury at the end of September, and has just two hits through four games so far in the postseason. He has a .421 OPS through those four games, and his only two hits in October were singles.
Despite his slow start to the postseason, though, Friedman has complete faith that Ohtani will turn it around. Injuries hampered his 2026 season, but he still managed 30 homers and 81 RBIs over the course of 139 games as a batter with a .889 OPS. A healthy Ohtani is the most dangerous player in MLB, especially given his track record with the Dodgers prior to this year.
He hit more than 50 homers in each of his first two seasons in the National League, posting an OPS north of 1.000 in each and earning two NL MVP awards in the process. The Dodgers took a 3-1 series win against the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS, setting up a rematch of last season's NLCS with the Milwaukee Brewers, who won their series against the San Diego Padres. The Dodgers swept the Brewers in last season's NLCS, punctuated by a monstrous Ohtani performance in which he hit three home runs and struck out 10 batters.
Milwaukee will want to avoid the same fate, but have a tall task in front of them with the best Dodgers' pitching staff in a long time. The Dodgers are yet to announce their pitching staff for the series, but two-time Cy Young winners Tarik Skubal and Blake Snell are sure to be there, as are World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto and All-Star Tyler Glasnow. Game 1 of the NLCS comes Sunday at 8 a.m.
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