It took all of three innings on opening day for Shohei Ohtani to steal his first base of the season.
Then, the Dodgers waited three weeks to look at him swipe one once more.
It’s simply forgotten now, with Ohtani stealing baggage on an virtually nightly foundation and padding a complete that’s reached gaudy heights, however there was a time early this season his stole bases felt uncommon.
“I think there was a bit, for him, of feeling out the initial part of the season,” first base coach Clayton McCullough stated. “New team. New kind of lineup. I think he just kind of eased his way in.”
After stealing his first base with the Dodgers’ of their South Korean season-opener on March 20, Ohtani performed 15 extra video games earlier than swiping his second. 4 steals got here in a six-game stretch from April 13-19. Then, there was one other 10-game drought that wasn’t snapped till Could 3, when Ohtani recorded his first two-steal effort of the 12 months.
This pattern continued by means of your complete first half.
On the finish of April, Ohtani’s 5 steals ranked simply twenty fifth within the majors.
On the finish of Could, he’d barely cracked the highest 10 with 13 steals.
By the season’s halfway level in late June, Ohtani’s stolen base whole had solely climbed to 16. Neglect concerning the 40-40, 50-50 and (doubtlessly) 60-60 milestones he has pursued this 12 months.
At that time, it didn’t appear sure that 30-30 would even be achieved.
“I think there was a feeling out period,” McCullough stated. “Like, ‘If I’m gonna go, I want to be safe.’”
However then, circumstances modified.
Mookie Betts’ damaged hand thrust Ohtani into the leadoff spot of the batting order. And with a shorthanded lineup behind, his aggressiveness on the bases started to extend.
All of the sudden, as if there was some turbo change the $700 million star forgot to hit, or a self-imposed governor he determine to lastly flip off, Ohtani’s base-stealing exploded, turning into his most unexpectedly harmful attribute throughout a monstrous efficiency to shut the season.
“I think that Shohei realized how good of a base-stealer he has become or can become,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated.
“It seemed like in July and August, every time he got over [to first base], he went,” McCullough added. “And he was safe.”
Certainly, in 69 video games going again to July 4, Ohtani has stolen 39 bases and been caught solely twice. He hasn’t gone greater than 5 video games in that interval with out a minimum of one steal. And coming into Tuesday’s pivotal Nationwide League West showdown with the San Diego Padres, he’d recorded stolen bases within the crew’s earlier 5 video games.
“He’s on a mission,” Roberts stated. “It’s hard to imagine him being this focused ever before for this stretch of time.”
That latter level applies to Ohtani’s complete recreation in the intervening time.
He has all however assured himself of a 3rd profession MVP award, main the Nationwide League in house runs (53), RBIs (123) and OPS (1.023) whereas rating third in batting common (.301).
He simply earned the obvious NL Participant of the Week award possibly ever, following a seven-game stretch that noticed him go 16-for-32 with six house runs, 17 RBIs and a historic efficiency in Miami final Thursday by which he turned the primary participant in MLB historical past to have 50 homers and 50 steals in the identical season — with sufficient time remaining for a 60-60 season to stay narrowly doable, too.
And now, with the Dodgers having clinched a postseason berth and shutting in on a NL West title, he’s gearing up for his first look within the MLB playoffs, quickly to finish an October wait that has lasted seven years and greater than 850 profession video games.
“Since I’ve come to the United States,” Ohtani stated in Japanese, “it’s the stage I’ve dreamed of.”
And one the place his burgeoning base-stealing skillset must be on full show.
“Postseason games are more important,” Ohtani added final week. “And if I can steal bases later, I think it will be good for the team.”
Coming into this 12 months, it was clear Ohtani would run extra usually. Unable to pitch whereas rehabbing from Tommy John surgical procedure, it was a straightforward manner for him to spice up his manufacturing on the offensive aspect.
Within the spring, he started working with the membership’s participant efficiency and power and conditioning workers on enhancing his quickness and refining his working stride. He talked about to coaches his need to steal extra usually, after eclipsing the 20-steal simply mark twice in his first six MLB seasons with the Angels.
“He’s just so powerful, with strength and quickness,” Dodgers particular assistant Ron Roenicke stated earlier than the season, mesmerized by Ohtani’s uncooked foot pace and explosivness. “I’m sure they see that in the NFL. But you don’t see that very often in baseball, not with that kind of speed and strength.”
What Ohtani had so as to add, nonetheless, was the cerebral part of realizing when to steal and the best way to time it.
McCullough was key in that course of, delivering scouting reviews on opposing pitchers’ tendencies to all Dodgers hitters earlier than every sequence. Because the season unfolded, Ohtani took specific curiosity in making an attempt to determine such cues himself, typically reviewing video within the dugout with a stopwatch in hand.
“I think he likes the challenge of studying pitchers, learning the tendencies,” Roberts stated. “I think that’s something that intrigues him.”
Nonetheless, it wasn’t till the second half of the season Ohtani actually began to step on the fuel.
The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani has not been caught stealing since July 22, a stretch of 32 consecutive steals heading into Tuesday’s recreation.
(Mark J. Terrill / Related Press)
Ohtani has talked about no particular impetus for the change, saying merely that in terms of stealing bases, “the feeling is that if I can go, I go aggressively.”
Roberts and McCullough insisted there was no directive from the crew, both.
“It wasn’t [us telling him] like, ‘Hey, you need to be more aggressive. You need to go,’” McCullough stated.
As an alternative, the first-base coach observed a gradual shift in Ohtani’s base-stealing mindset.
Whereas early within the 12 months Ohtani appeared cautious of getting thrown out — when Ohtani set his earlier career-high of 26 steals in 2021, he was additionally caught stealing a serious league most 10 occasions — he grew extra aggressive by the second half of the season, coinciding together with his transfer as much as the leadoff spot following Betts’ hand damage.
“To me, he almost kind of got on a heater, like a hitter or a pitcher,” McCullough stated. “You get in this run where you’re going and you’re safe and you’re feeling good about things, you got the rhythm of it, and it’s lining up.”
Quickly, stolen bases began feeling like a given for Ohtani, whose common dash pace ranks within the top-third of all main leaguers.
Whereas he’s been picked off or thrown out on the bottom paths a handful of occasions in the midst of reside motion, Ohtani hasn’t been caught on a stolen base try since July 23 — 55 video games and 32 steals in the past.
“In years past, watching him, I don’t think he was a great base stealer. I don’t think he got great jumps,” Roberts stated. “But now when I watch him, especially from the third-base dugout at home, where I have a good visual of the pitcher and the runner, his jumps are on point.”
He figures to provide the Dodgers a distinct October dynamic as nicely, after they stole no bases in final 12 months’s sweep to the Arizona Diamondbacks and had been simply two-for-three of their 2022 elimination to the San Diego Padres.
“I don’t think he’s prepared any differently,” McCullough stated of Ohtani’s base stealing. “I think he’s just more self-assured now.”
And naturally, there’s slim however doable pursuit of a 60-60 season, with Ohtani coming into Tuesday with 53 house runs and 55 steals — a mark topped solely by Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz, who additionally occurs to have 16 unsuccessful steal makes an attempt.
“I think he realized that he was on track to have a really special season,” Roberts theorized. “And what can make it a little bit more special and unique, is adding some more stolen bases.”
