With Phillies’ offense now hot, Ohtani needs to start hitting

The familiar sound reverberated throughout Dodger Stadium. Crack!

- DYLAN HERNÁNDEZ

SHOHEI OHTANI carried a big bat in the regular season but is one for 14 with seven strikeouts in the NLDS.

ROBERT GAUTHIER Los Angeles Times

The baseball soared into the October sky, Shohei Ohtani gliding down the first base line as he watched it travel back, back, back... only to be caught a few inches in front of the left-field wall by Max Kepler.

So close.

So close to a seventh-inning homerun that could have made Game 3 a game. So close to a home run that. could have revitalized baseball’s best player in this National League Division Series.

Ohtaniis now one for 14 with seven strikeouts in this best-of-five series, in which the Dodgers’ lead was reduced to two games to one after an 8-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

While Ohtani was hitless in five at-bats on Wednesday night, Phillies counterpart Kyle Schwarber launched two homers, including a 455-foot blast in the fourth inning that changed the complexion of the game and the series.

The heart of the Phillies’ order awakened, the Dodgers’ didn’t, and that was more or less the difference inthe game.

Ohtaniis the Dodgers’ fail-safe, and the fail-safe is failing. The Dodgers remain in control of this NLDS, but considering the shortcomings of their present roster, they almost certainly can't wina World Series with him being as ineffective at the plate as he was for extended stretches of the postseason last year.

The Dodgers did everything in their power to ensure Ohtani’s transformation into Oh-fer-tani wouldn't become an annual event.