Shohei Ohtani is finally looking mortal as he struggles to readjust to two-way duties for Dodgers

Shohei Ohtani, the pitcher, showed his first real cracks on Tuesday night against the Astros. It was still a quality outing — seven innings pitched, two runs allowed — but both of those runs scored on homers, the first he's given up this year so far.

The Dodgers' (and Dodgers' fans) concerns aren't really about Ohtani, the pitcher, though. Ohtani, the hitter, was out of the lineup for the third time this season. Ohtani, the hitter, is 0-for-17 in his last five games.

This is his first full year back to fully fledged two-way duties, and the Dodgers are still trying to figure out the right balance, hence his continued absences from the lineup. His slump at the plate has begged the inevitable question: is he really still capable of doing both well at the same time?

Ohtani said he doesn't believe his intensified focus on pitching has affected his hitting, but, "at the same time, (this slump) has been a little bit longer than my expectations, in terms of the hitting side of things."

Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic speculated that Ohtani could be dealing with some sort of fatigue, as his bat speed is down to 74.8 MPH from 75.8 year over year.

Shohei Ohtani is still excelling as a pitcher, but his offense is taking a hit the Dodgers might not be able to afford

Ohtani's struggles were undoubtedly a huge contributor the Dodgers' overall offensive slump, which they briefly came out of on Sunday against the Cardinals and Monday against the Astros but went straight back into on Wednesday. They were only able to provide Ohtani a single run of support.

Dave Roberts dismissed the idea that the Dodgers might prioritize Ohtani in one field over the other. "I try not to get too far in the weeds on that," he said. "Because it's moot. He's gonna do both. He's one of our best pitchers. He's one of our best hitters. So I don't spend too much time on it. It's a good exercise for others. But not for me."

Still, the Dodgers are toying with the idea of giving Ohtani rest days after his starts.

It's been years since Ohtani was tasked with doing both for an entire season. This very well could be a case of him just needing to get back into his groove again. But for the first time as a Dodger, he's starting to look human.

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