Oct 13, 2026 · 23 min · 14 segments
We awoke this morning to find the entire baseball world speculating on whether a struggling, injured Shohei Ohtani should be benched for Game 3 of the NLCS against the Brewers. Richard contextualizes…
On top of that, this morning we awake to the entire baseball world [laughs] weighing in on whether or not Shohei Ohtani should be benched for game three.
Shohei has been struggling this entire postseason and going back to August.
You could even trace some of his struggles all the way back to around the All-Star break, honestly.
He has a problem with, uh, his left knee, and that's what took him off the mound in about the middle of the season.
And quite a bit later on in the season, we also heard that his right bicep is hurt, which affects his hitting.
And you can put two and two together the reasons why a player might not be completely forthcoming about all of the ways he's hurting throughout a season.
And then even if the team and the organization knows, there's another layer of secrecy where it might be kept from the media for various reasons.
Generally speaking, by this time of year, if a team is still in it, just about every player is playing with some kind of injury.
They're getting all kinds of treatments just to be able to stay in the game if they want to be and if the team wants them there.
Which is the main sticking point for this whole kind of ridiculous conversation about whether Shohei should be benched or not.
Uh, he's been able to put together some decent at-bats, and he's gotten a few hits, and he's stolen a base.
That said, he has really been struggling since about mid-August at the plate.
On top of that, this morning we awake to the entire baseball world [laughs] weighing in on whether or not Shohei Ohtani should be benched for game three.
Shohei has been struggling this entire postseason and going back to August.
You could even trace some of his struggles all the way back to around the All-Star break, honestly.
He has a problem with, uh, his left knee, and that's what took him off the mound in about the middle of the season.
And quite a bit later on in the season, we also heard that his right bicep is hurt, which affects his hitting.
And you can put two and two together the reasons why a player might not be completely forthcoming about all of the ways he's hurting throughout a season.
And then even if the team and the organization knows, there's another layer of secrecy where it might be kept from the media for various reasons.
Generally speaking, by this time of year, if a team is still in it, just about every player is playing with some kind of injury.
They're getting all kinds of treatments just to be able to stay in the game if they want to be and if the team wants them there.
Which is the main sticking point for this whole kind of ridiculous conversation about whether Shohei should be benched or not.
Uh, he's been able to put together some decent at-bats, and he's gotten a few hits, and he's stolen a base.
That said, he has really been struggling since about mid-August at the plate.
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