Chris Bassitt has had an overwhelmingly favorable record against Otani since their first match in 2021.
Bassitt is a pitcher with good control and power. Ohtani also has the weakness of not being able to hit the ball clearly when the ball is thrown close to his body. Of course, when he was young, Otani had the ability to hit back without any difficulty even when hitting close to his body, but from around 2020, his muscles became gigantic, but at the same time, his mobility decreased and the courses he could hit were limited.
Anyway, Bassitt has been cooking up Ohtani by throwing pitches to zones near and far from Ohtani's body.
However, things didn't go well in 2024. As usual, he threw a fastball inside the strike zone and easily hit a home run. Even though Bassitt's pitching power has declined a little this year, he probably never expected that he would be able to hit a home run so easily.
Otani's tactical change
The Dodgers' hitting coach offered the following suggestions to Ohtani, who is unable to hit balls close to his body.
Change your standing position in the batter's box depending on the pitching tendency of your opponent's pitcher. That way, they can respond even if they attack the inside zone.
The coach then studies the pitching trends of all pitchers on the opposing team and tells Ohtani where to stand.
It's amazing how successful this tactic can be. It's so simple that the other party's battery will immediately understand. As a battery, you can tell how Otani will hit based on the position he stands on and the shape of his steps, so all you have to do is play behind the scenes.
However, major league baseball teams were unable to adapt to the Dodgers' tactics and were beaten by Otani, so the low level of baseball is astounding.
It may also be that there aren't many pitchers with good control like Bassitt, so they can't do much. Even major league pitchers will have to improve their control by practicing pitching a little more.
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