The Dodgers Are in the NLCS and Their Best Player Can't Buy a Hit

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2026 — The Dodgers are in their third straight NLCS. They won the series in four games. Andy Pages had the biggest at-bat of his life. And their best player — the most talented player on the planet, per his own front office — couldn't buy a hit. The Dodgers just won a playoff series without Playoff Shohei Ohtani. Which is incredible. Which is also, depending on what happens Sunday in Milwaukee, the whole story.

Let's get the numbers on the table. Ohtani hit .200 in the NLDS against Atlanta with no extra-base hits. Through three games he was 2-for-10. Fox Sports reported that over his last 10 games entering the clincher, he'd managed just eight hits and a .211 average. He hasn't homered since August. His chase rate in Game 2 was 53 percent, per Athlon Sports' tracking. For the four-time MVP — the guy who signed for $700 million — this is not a slump you shrug off. It's the worst sustained stretch of his career at the worst possible time.

The demotion that wasn't supposed to happen

Dave Roberts did something on Tuesday that he had never done in Ohtani's three Dodgers seasons: he dropped him to fifth in the batting order for Game 3 against Atlanta. It was the lowest Ohtani had hit anywhere since 2020, back with the Angels. Teoscar Hernández moved up into the two-hole. The official reason, per the Associated Press: a one-game adjustment to get a different look against Braves ace Chris Sale, against whom Ohtani was 3-for-15 with five strikeouts in his career.

It was a one-game move — Roberts told reporters he'd discussed it with Ohtani the night before and that the four-time MVP "completely understood" — and the Dodgers won 3-1 behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto's seven innings. Roberts said afterward, per AP: "I still thought his intent, the at-bats were better. It's good to know that we can still win games without him doing a whole bunch. But he's going to come to life. It will happen."

Ohtani went right back to cleanup for Wednesday's Game 4 clincher. The Dodgers are not moving him down the card permanently. And per The Athletic's Andy McCullough, they aren't doing anything more drastic either: "Dodgers officials have not considered removing him from the lineup, even as the feeble at-bats pile up," McCullough reported. You can argue the bench should be on the table. It isn't.

This is an injury story, not a mystery

The most important context on Ohtani's season is also the least complicated: he's hurt, or at least recently was. He landed on the injured list in September with lingering left knee and right biceps injuries, was activated again before the postseason, and hasn't pitched since July 3. He played only 135 games this season, slashing .275/.377/.512 with 30 home runs and 81 RBI — strong numbers for a mortal, and for Ohtani, the first time his OPS has dipped below 1.014 since 2022, per Athlon Sports. That's not decline. That's a body that didn't get a runway.

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said as much this week, though he's not panicking. "I think Sho is the most talented player who has ever played this game," Friedman said, per ClutchPoints' aggregation of the McCullough reporting. "He was obviously going through it over the summer. Took time off, which I think helped in a lot of ways. That being said, some bad habits were formed. But every time he steps to the plate, I have all the confidence in the world that something big's going to happen."

Read that carefully: "some bad habits were formed." That's a front-office executive saying the rushed return cost Ohtani his mechanics, and that the org decided to live with it rather than shut him down. For a team that just won 100-plus games and a series without him at his best, you can see the logic. For Ohtani, the bill comes due in Milwaukee.

How LA won without him

Here's the wildest stat of the Dodgers' postseason: per MLB.com's Sarah Langs, LA's first 10 runs of the playoffs all came via the home run — the most consecutive runs via homer to start a postseason in MLB history. The previous record was eight, shared by the 2025 Dodgers and the 2022 Padres. All 10 came in this NLDS. Teoscar Hernández, Kyle Tucker and Max Muncy went deep in Game 1; Freddie Freeman and Muncy in Game 2; Kiké Hernández and Freeman in Game 3.

The streak broke in the second inning of Game 4 — and it was Ohtani who broke it, just not with his bat. He walked, stole second, took third on a Sean Murphy throwing error, and scored when Muncy reached on shortstop Mauricio Dubón's fielding error. Two Braves errors, one unearned run, no hits. The Dodgers tied the game 1-1 without a single hit, then won 4-1 on Pages' two-run single in the seventh and Muncy's solo shot in the ninth. That's the version of this team that terrifies you: they can beat you ugly now.

The Brewers problem

None of this matters if Ohtani stays at .200. Atlanta had a good team and an ace, and the Dodgers could survive a cold Ohtani because the margins were small and the bullpen held. Milwaukee is a different animal: 103 wins, the best record in baseball, home field for Games 1 and 2 Sunday and Monday, a pitching staff that doesn't need its ace to be perfect. The Dodgers swept these Brewers last October, but this Milwaukee team is better — and the Dodgers' margin for a dead spot in the order is thinner. (Full NLCS preview here.)

Roberts isn't worried, at least publicly. After the clinch, in the champagne-soaked locker room, he told the team chasing a third straight title: "There's no more talented team than the Los Angeles Dodgers... We're smarter. We're better. We're tougher." And then the kicker: "We have eight more wins. Stay focused."

That confidence is either championship swagger or the most expensive wishful thinking in sports. The Dodgers won a series with Ohtani as a passenger — a passenger who, to his credit, took the Game 3 demotion well. ("He said, 'I was going to come to you in September and say, why don't you hit me seventh?'" Roberts told reporters, describing a player who wants whatever helps the team.) But passengers don't win seven-game series against 103-win teams. At some point this October, the most talented player who ever played has to play like it.