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The story
Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts has racked up multiple hits in three straight games, pushing his batting average this month up to .396. Over on 5ch’s “Live Everything G” board, posters piled on with theories crediting the hot streak to Shohei Ohtani’s absence from the lineup, and the thread spiraled into debates over batting order, avoiding double plays, and Ohtani’s hitting tendencies with runners on base. Plenty of the “it’s all because of Ohtani” takes were light on statistical backing, but the thread still drew a lively mix of agreement and pushback.
What people said
Ohtani left
Guess it really was suffocating, huh
Put Ohtani second since his knee's banged up
Does this team even need Ohtani?
Betts was basically an MVP-caliber player the season right before Ohtani arrived — hitting .300 with 40 homers
Then the second Ohtani showed up, he dropped to like .200 with 20 homers
And now that Ohtani's gone, he's right back to form
We've figured out who the real problem is
Same story with Tucker and Skubal
Without him, the team pulls together and overall production goes up
Oh, Ohtani… 😭😭
get down to the two-hole
He's leadoff because he can't hit with runners on
Little too obvious, huh 🤣
Now that you mention it, the Dodgers used to rack up 100 wins year after year
Seems like they've fallen short of 100 the last few seasons though
Actually, recent entries in the series don't assign those traits to real players anymore anyway
Nah, he can't even stay healthy enough to hold a rotation spot, so that's moot
Ohtani got moved from second to leadoff because he kept making outs with runners in scoring position…
That'd make it righty-lefty-lefty — Roberts probably wouldn't like that (manager Dave Roberts)
Just make him stop hitting altogether
If he stops hitting, does that actually let him hold a rotation spot?
At least he'd stop with the reckless baserunning too
Guys who can't stay healthy enough for the rotation don't get to start anyway — they'd just make him a full-time hitter
I wonder if it's really breaking even…
Saw data yesterday showing the team's winning percentage was only in the .400s in August with Ohtani around, but it's been in the .800s since he left
15-4, on pace for a 120-win season
They were winning 100 games a season before Ohtani even joined, so that tracks
.261, 22 HR, 67 RBI, .785 OPS, 3.2 WAR
Muncy (36)
.253, 29 HR, 75 RBI, .846 OPS, 4.2 WAR
Tucker (29)
.235, 17 HR, 70 RBI, 11 SB, .728 OPS, 1.1 WAR
Betts: ¥4.8 billion
Muncy: ¥1.5 billion
Tucker: ¥9 billion
The Dodgers really aren't great at spending money — feels like they're exploiting these guys' love of the game at this point
Background and key points of this discussion
This thread grew out of the sense that the team’s hitting picked up while Shohei Ohtani was out of the lineup. That said, figures thrown around in the thread — like winning percentages supposedly being wildly different with and without Ohtani — are drawn from narrow, cherry-picked stretches, with no accounting for sample size or opponent strength. Treating them as proof of a season-long talent gap would be premature. The debate over batting Betts or Ohtani leadoff also involves several tangled factors, from Ohtani’s hitting tendencies with runners on base to Dave Roberts wanting to avoid stacking same-handed hitters — it’s not something a simple compatibility theory can fully explain. What is real, though, is Betts’s .396 average this month and his three straight multi-hit games, and that’s the core of what got people talking.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Live Everything G) thread “Mookie Betts goes 4-for-4 wwwwwwwwwww.”
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