Shohei Ohtani Just Proved the Rich Eisen Show’s Chris Brockman 100% Wrong, Right???

Chris Brockman went on the show and said Shohei Ohtani should stop pitching, claiming the rotation work was killing his hitting. Forty-eight hours later, Ohtani went out and broke the slump, then took the mound and threw seven shutout innings.

Rich is not the type to let that pass.

The setup was a separate guest segment. Ice Cube was in the Dodgers booth on his low-rider bobblehead night. He threw out a first pitch to Mike Epps.

"He bounced it a little in the dirt," Rich said. "Better than some pro quarterbacks."

The cast clarified.

"He wasn't even close to Malik Willis," Rich said.

Cube was still in the booth when Ohtani broke out of his slump and homered.

"We was broke as a joke," Rich said. "When I say we, it's me."

Rich took zero credit for the bobblehead night and zero credit for Ice Cube. He had a different name in mind.

"With all due respect to Cube, he's got a power as we know," Rich said. "He ended World Series Game 2 just by showing up. It wasn't Cube being in the booth that got Ohtani out of a slump on Tuesday night."

This was Rich's setup for the subject matter Brockman had floated on a recent Overreaction Monday.

"Enough with the pitching sideshow," Rich quoted Brockman as saying. "Otani needs to go back to hitting only or the Dodgers not going to make the NLCS."

The Brockman argument had teeth at the time. Ohtani was hitting around .240. He had been off for a couple of weekends. Brockman's frame was that pitching prep was eating into hitting prep.

"It's just baseball, man," Rich said. "It happens. It just happens."

The next night made the whole take age in real time.

"Otani took to the mound," Rich said. "What did he do? Because it's no big deal. Seven shutout, eight strikeouts. To lower his ERA to 0.82 on the season."

That math is where Rich planted his flag.

"There's many things that I like, as you know," Rich said. "Being right is way up there."

He clarified the only thing that ranks higher.

"Slagging on Brockman when he's not here and can't respond," Rich said. "And him being the cooler and way wrong. Good lord."

Rich worked the rhetorical question.

"Let's take somebody who's thrown 0.82 ERA out of the rotation," Rich said. "Any team should do that, right?"

The answer wrote itself.

"Why? Because we need him hitting, which he did anyway," Rich said. "The night he said he should stop pitching because it's affecting his hitting, he hits a home run and then throws seven shutout. So Dodgers fans, thank Chris Brockman."

Rich did soften slightly on what Brockman actually believes. Brockman's standing position for two years has been that the dual role is what got Ohtani hurt. The point Brockman keeps making.

"He believes a lot of it, I'd say," Rich said.

The conclusion was unilateral.

"You cannot take somebody who's throwing like that out of the rotation," Rich said. "You just simply cannot do that."