Dodgers fall 6-2 in Game 3, trail NLCS 3-0 as article blames loss on Shohei Ohtani

The Dodgers dropped Game 3 of the National League Championship Series 6-2 and now trail the series 3-0. Coverage of the loss focused sharply on Shohei Ohtani, who the articles say remained in Los Angeles’s lineup despite a prolonged hitting slump and reported injuries to his right arm and left knee.

The New York Post reported the team discussed benching Ohtani before Game 3 but ultimately kept him in the batting order, and ibtimes.com.au said manager Dave Roberts confirmed Ohtani would play despite the slump and lingering injuries.

Both outlets documented Ohtani’s poor offensive numbers in the postseason: the New York Post noted he entered the postseason 3-for-20 with no extra-base hits or RBIs as of its report, and that he had not hit a home run since Aug. 18.

The coverage linked that slump and his reported physical issues to the wider narrative that Ohtani’s continued presence in the lineup factored into the Dodgers’ inability to win the home game. The New York Post explicitly described internal discussions about sitting him, while ibtimes.com.au framed Roberts’ decision as confirmation that Ohtani would bat in Game 3.

Garrett Mitchell of the Milwaukee Brewers was quoted in the New York Post saying he would be surprised if Ohtani were not in the Game 3 lineup and calling Ohtani "the greatest player in the game," adding that "it takes one swing to come back." That comment appears in coverage that simultaneously underscored Ohtani’s slump, reflecting competing views inside and outside the Dodgers clubhouse about whether he was a net negative or still the team’s best chance to change outcomes quickly.

The reporting does not supply independent medical confirmation of the reported right arm and left knee injuries, and no outlet in this pack published injury details from team medical staff.

The sources also do not provide pitch-level or play-by-play analysis tying particular Dodgers failures in Game 3 to specific at-bats by Ohtani; they present his slump and the decision to play him as central elements in postgame explanation and critique.

Headlines from other outlets cited here echoed the same concerns: some urged a longer-term conversation about Ohtani’s availability and offseason handling, others framed the season as hinging on whether he and the Dodgers were right to play him.

Those pieces reinforce that the debate over Ohtani’s status is widespread in beat and opinion coverage, even as game reporting records the concrete result — a 6-2 defeat that put Los Angeles down 3-0 in the best-of-seven series.

For the Dodgers, the immediate question from these reports is whether the club’s choice to keep Ohtani in the lineup paid off at the plate in Game 3; for commentators and rival players quoted in the pack, Ohtani’s presence remains a live strategic variable because a single swing could change a game’s outcome.

The available reporting ties the narrative of the Game 3 loss to Ohtani’s slump and reported injuries but leaves medical confirmation and direct causal attribution between his at-bats and the final score unestablished in the sources provided.