Shohei Ohtani’s bat has gone quiet, but the Dodgers keep winning for now

Shohei Ohtani is scuffling at the plate, and so far the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar is coming up mostly empty in the postseason.

After stumbling into the playoffs battling biceps and knee injuries, he was 2 for 13 (.154) with two walks, four strikeouts and one stolen base in their four-game NL Division Series win over the Atlanta Braves, to go with a .421 OPS and .154 slugging percentage.

Clearly not up to the four-time MVP's standards.

“He’s a very good self-evaluator, a very extremely high competitor and expects a lot from himself,” manager Dave Roberts said this week.

As Ohtani goes, so go the Dodgers. They weren't much better, hitting just .203 against Atlanta.

Ohtani was dropped to fifth in the order — his lowest as a Dodger — for Game 3 of the NLDS. He reached base twice — on a catcher’s interference and a walk. He moved up to the cleanup spot for Game 4. He had previously only started in the first or second spot.

Not postseason punishment, just tactical moves based on opposing pitching.

Some of Ohtani's offensive slump can be traced to nagging injuries that limited him to just 139 games in the regular season. He went on the injured list, with right biceps and left knee issues, for the first time as a Dodger in September.

Ohtani has admitted he's still not 100% healthy. At times, he doesn't appear comfortable at the plate.

“I haven’t been able to get a good grasp of the root cause of all this,” he said through a translator last week. “I think that process is going to happen during the offseason when I’m going to have a little bit more time to be able to address it. But as of now, it’s something I’m just going to have to manage.”

However, health is only part of the equation. He's been uncharacteristically aggressive swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone, something Roberts hopes he improves going into Game 1 of the NL Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.

“He can still do a better job of staying in the strike zone,” Roberts said. “It's hard to have success when you're out of the zone.”

Roberts has maintained unwavering trust in Ohtani and believes his bat will come to life as the Dodgers' bid for a third consecutive World Series championship continues.

Bolstered by their pitching, the Dodgers are in the NLCS against the Brewers for the second straight year.

Ohtani led the Dodgers to a four-game sweep of Milwaukee last year, when the Brewers hit a measly .118 against Dodgers pitching.

He was 5 for 14 (.357) with three home runs, four walks and five strikeouts as NLCS MVP — all three homers came in a memorable Game 4 clinch in which he also struck out 10 as a pitcher. He had a 1.643 OPS and 1.143 slugging percentage.

Ohtani won’t be pitching this time because of his injuries, with his place in the rotation taken by two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow return.

Elite pitching can carry a team deep into the postseason, but poor hitting often leaves a team with a thin margin for error, especially when its biggest star is struggling.

“Hitting homers, slugging, it’s part of his hallmark in the batter’s box,” Roberts said. “He’s very in tune with what’s being said, what he hasn’t done.”

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani reaches for his waist after taking a swing during an at-bat in the eighth inning in Game 3 of baseball's National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani celebrates winning Game 4 of baseball's National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) strikes out as Atlanta Braves catcher Sean Murphy (12) makes the catch during the fourth inning in Game 4 of baseball's National League Division Series, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) strikes out during the fourth inning in Game 4 of baseball's National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

PARIS (AP) — A 29-year-old Indian man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday in a Paris trial over his alleged involvement in an international criminal network that targeted vulnerable children in the U.S., Britain and Canada and coerced them into producing violent and sexual videos.

The child victims were recruited via the online platform Discord to become “slaves” to a group known as CVLT, according to court documents in the case obtained by The Associated Press. At least three other members of the group have been arrested in the U.S.

Rohan Rane, one of the international online group's leaders, was found guilty of sexual extortion and acts of torture against a minor, according to lawyer Hippolyte Marquetty, representing five U.S. victims. The 20-year sentence was the maximum possible for the charges he faced.

Rane showed no reaction when the jury's verdict was announced Friday night, according to those in the courtroom. Judges had ordered the trial held behind closed doors in a rare move because the case involves abuse of children.

Following alerts from U.S. authorities, Rane was arrested by police in Antibes in southern France in 2021. While he initially claimed the situation was a “misunderstanding,” court documents show that he later admitted to being the administrator of the Discord group and stated that he enjoyed watching violent videos, specifically those depicting murders, self-harm and corpses.

A lawyer for five U.S. victims, Hippolyte Marquetty, described “extremely damaging consequences for the victims; they have shattered lives.”

“What the victims expect from the court is a sentence that matches the severity of the actions,” Marquetty told The Associated Press. "And a sentence that, in some way, also protects society a bit and says no, this is truly unacceptable, and prevents this man from being released immediately and potentially reoffending.”

Rane’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

Rane, originally from the Indian city of Pune, was studying in France at the time. French authorities chose to complete criminal proceedings in France before considering extradition.

An examination of videos found on his computer and phone showed young girls engaging in self-harm on his orders, including carving the name “Rohan” or swastikas into their skin or damaging their genitals, according to the court documents.

The psychiatrist who evaluated him described the suspect as being in a state of denial, saying Rane understood the allegations against him but refused to accept any responsibility and projected the blame onto others.

Rane told authorities that he had arrived in France in 2016 to pursue studies. He stated that he relied financially on his parents, who lived in India, and had a girlfriend living in the United States, whom he had met online but never met in person, for several months. In reality, she was one of the CVLT victims whom Rane and others were threatening, the court documents said.

The documents said that since his detention in 2021, Rane has continued to communicate with others via Discord, and similar types of images were discovered on his phone while in custody. In June 2021, he was still corresponding with minors aged 15 and 16, urging them to join “his cult.”

In February 2022, writings covered in swastikas were found in his cell. He has since been placed in solitary confinement.

Kaleb Christopher Merritt, 26, another senior member of the group, is currently in federal custody in Los Angeles but is also serving a 33-year prison sentence in Virginia, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement. Merritt, of Spring, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise. He faces a sentencing hearing in January.

Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge, 42, of Pahoa, Hawaii, and Collin John Thomas Walker, 24, of Bridgeton, New Jersey, were other members of the group, according to the statement.

Intelligence from various countries helped identify other accomplices, including a British national, a New Zealander, an Australian, and another American. Others could not be positively identified.

The U.S. Justice Department statement said CVLT sought to create an army of followers, and espoused neo-Nazism, nihilism, and pedophilia as its core principles.

Among the civil parties in the case is ECPAT 360, an NGO that fights sexual exploitation and trafficking of children. A representative for the group, Anna Rodriguez, attended the trial, in which some of the children's videos were shown as evidence. She described the abuse that the child victims suffered, such as being coerced to drink their own urine during a livestream.

“There is an explosion of violence and cruelty in the sexual violence committed against children and minors online,” she told AP.

Rodriguez said the civil parties advocated for an open trial to bring public attention to what’s happening in the dark corners of the internet.

"This violence is currently minimized because it is digital, because they are happening online, we tend to consider them virtual, confined to a bubble that supposedly doesn’t impact the victims themselves," she said. "This case demonstrates the exact opposite.”

Vaux-Montagny reported from Saint-Etienne, France.

FILE - The Palace of Justice is pictured Monday, April 28, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)