Seriously, folks, what even *was* that from Shohei Ohtani in the 2026 postseason? The guy, who literally won World Series titles in his first two years with the Dodgers, hit a shocking .192. It’s an average you almost never see from a player of his caliber, and it’s got to sting hard after the Dodgers crashed out.
Ohtani’s 2026 Playoff Nightmare
Look, we all know Ohtani joined the Dodgers to play on the biggest stage, and he delivered in 2024 and 2025 with those Fall Classic rings. We’ve seen him blast multi-homer games, even in the World Series, and he even struck out 28 hitters back in the 2025 run alone. But 2026? That was a whole different story. The dude was battling injury issues and went through what’s being called a massive slump in October. His stat line for the whole 2026 playoffs tells you everything you need to know: 5-for-26 at the plate, just 3 runs, ZERO doubles, a measly 1 home run, and only 3 RBIs. His OBP was .313, SLG .308, for a total OPS of .630. Yikes.
It got so bad the Dodgers reportedly discussed benching him because of the injury issues. Can you imagine? Shohei Ohtani, benched! He played through it, but his performance against the Braves in the NLDS was rough: 2-for-13 with no RBIs, and honestly, the Dodgers made it past Atlanta more *in spite* of him than *because* of him. He hadn’t hit a home run since mid-August until NLCS Game 4 in mid-October. That drought? It drove home just one run in that entire span. This was, hands down, one of the worst cold stretches of his career. He finally got one out of the park in NLCS Game 4 against Milwaukee, but even that felt like too little, too late, with his overall numbers still hitting below the Mendoza line and him struggling to connect.
The Career-Long Rollercoaster
Here’s the kicker, though. While 2026 felt like a gut punch, this isn’t his first rodeo with a cold October. When you dig into his career playoff stats, you see a bit of a pattern. Overall, he’s got 37 hits in 155 at-bats for a .239 average, with 30 runs, 4 doubles, 1 triple, 12 home runs, and 27 RBIs. Not terrible, but it definitely doesn’t scream ‘regular season dominance,’ right? He’s been streaky in the postseason as a hitter, even if his power has shown up in flashes.
And get this: a huge chunk of those career postseason numbers are propped up by *just two games* from 2025. Yeah, you heard that right. In NLCS Game 4 and World Series Game 3 of 2025 combined, Ohtani went absolutely nuclear, hitting .875 with five home runs and six RBIs. Five homers in two games! Seriously, without those two insane outings, his numbers before 2026 NLCS Game 4 were hitting under .200 with six home runs and 18 RBIs in all his other playoff games. That’s a wild difference! His up-and-down offense didn’t sink the Dodgers in 2024 and 2025 because they were busy hoisting trophies. But his 2026 slump? The source says it “certainly correlated with the Dodgers’ NLCS exit.” No kidding. It feels like Ohtani’s true postseason hitting form finally caught up to him when it mattered most.
So, yeah, Ohtani’s 2026 postseason was a tough pill to swallow for Dodgers fans. When a player who has given you two championships has a career-worst cold streak at the exact moment your team gets bounced, it’s brutal. It just goes to show, even the biggest stars can go ice-cold when the lights are brightest, and sometimes, those previous heroics were just epic flashes in the pan. The stakes were high, and the bat just wasn’t there.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by The Sporting News.
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