Have the Mets figured out the code to stop Shohei Ohtani?

Entering Thursday's game, Ohtani is hitting just .208 (5-for-24) with two home runs, three RBI, and a .744 OPS against the Mets. Those numbers are significantly worse than how Ohtani has fared against the rest of the league, where he has hit .301 with 21 homers, 36 RBI, and a 1.070 OPS in 226 at-bats.

MLB.com's Anthony DiComo did a deep dive into the Mets' success against Ohtani, who has struck out 10 times against them this season. A big part of the Mets' strategy has been due to a team-wide approach to mix up their approaches against Ohtani, giving him different looks every time he steps into the box and avoiding fastballs in the heart of the plate.

The Mets as a team rely more on breaking pitches, which makes it more difficult for a hitter who mashes fastballs like Ohtani to capitalize on mistakes. Several members of the Mets' pitching staff have familiarity with Ohtani from their time in the American League West, including Paul Blackburn and Ohtani's former teammate Griffin Canning, who told DiComo that the key to taking on Ohtani is changing things up "every time you face him".

Part of the credit surely belongs to the Mets' overall approach to pitching, which has been much smarter since the organization poured a ton of resources into their pitching lab. While most assume the benefits of the pitching lab are "fixing" pitchers who have struggled like Canning, the analytics the Mets use play a key role in coming up with the ideal game plan for each pitcher to attack an opposing lineup.

While it is true that six games is a small sample size, the Mets clearly have a strategy to pitch to Ohtani that has frustrated the reigning MVP. Not everyone is capable of executing this strategy as well as the Mets have, so this plan could be a pivotal weapon if the two National League superpowers meet again in October with another trip to the World Series on the line.