The Los Angeles Dodgers may be in a rough stretch, but Shohei Ohtani just gave fans a reason to smile. On Tuesday night, the two-way superstar snapped an 11-game home run drought with a beautiful opposite-field blast in the third inning against the Giants. That drought was tied for the longest of his Dodgers career, and it's been a quiet power stretch—just two homers in his last 27 games.

"Relief," manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani's reaction. "He smiled, he laughed. I think he's going to feel good about the offensive side tonight. When your best player is doing what he's capable of, it just adds that energy into the dugout and frees guys up a little bit too."

The timing couldn't be better. The two-time defending World Series champions have hit a rough patch, losing 14 of their last 23 games and slipping into second place in the NL West behind the Padres. Tuesday's 6-2 loss to San Francisco marked the first time since 1936 that the Dodgers have lost four straight games by at least four runs—back when they were still in Brooklyn.

But Ohtani's power display is a bright spot in an otherwise challenging stretch. Despite the homer, Roberts plans to give his star some rest. Ohtani will be out of the lineup as a hitter on Wednesday and Thursday to manage his workload. He'll still pitch Wednesday—his third time doing so in his last four starts—but won't hit. Thursday will be a full day off.

Roberts believes fatigue is playing a role in Ohtani's recent power outage. "I think the fatigue is bleeding into the mechanics," he said. "Most players get that towards the end of the summer. And now I'm learning, managing Shohei, it has probably shown itself a little earlier as far as the tax on pitching and all that comes with it to the hitting too."

Ohtani has been brilliant on the mound this season—a 0.97 ERA with 42 strikeouts and just nine walks in six starts. At the plate, however, his .240/.370/.427 line with seven homers would be a career year for most players, but it's a down year by his own high standards.

This is Ohtani's first full season as a two-way player since 2023, before his second UCL surgery. He hit exclusively in 2024 and early 2025 before returning to pitching last June. Now in Year 3 of his heavily deferred 10-year, $700 million contract, the 33-year-old is still finding his rhythm as a true dual threat. If Tuesday's homer is any indication, that rhythm might be coming back just in time.