The Los Angeles Dodgers are down 0-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS, with their hopes of a three-peat in peril before they've even hosted a game in the championship series.

One of the big reasons for the team's struggles through the first two games is that Shohei Ohtani is clearly laboring through multiple injury issues. It got so bad that there was speculation he could be benched. But the Dodgers are sticking with Ohtani.

Andy McCullough of The Athletic highlighted Dave Roberts and the Dodgers' decision to stick with Ohtani through injury. While the Dodgers are on board with him playing, Ohtani is putting the team in an awkward spot that could come back to haunt them.

Shohei Ohtani puts Dodgers in awkward spot amid insistence he can play through injury

"He was adamant that he can help us," Dave Roberts told reporters. "He's well enough to help us win a baseball game, so that's all I needed to hear."

The Dodgers are sticking with Ohtani despite there being some clear issues with his health. But, as Ohtani told reporters: "The symptoms shouldn't be the reason why I can't hit."

He's currently dealing with problems with his upper body and his knee. As Roberts said, "It's everything." The Dodgers superstar is dealing with a lot of injury issues right now.

But despite all of the injury issues he's dealing with and his clear struggles on the field in the NLCS, Ohtani is playing through it.

His insistence that he's good to go is putting the Dodgers in an awkward spot. Will they really bench Ohtani when he believes he's good to go?

Ohtani has become the face of the Dodgers' franchise and is arguably the face of baseball as a whole right now. Benching him in the middle of the NLCS is a massive decision for the Dodgers to make.

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Based on his play so far, benching him might not be the worst decision. If he wasn't Ohtani and instead was an ordinary player, the Dodgers would likely not have let him play through injury as he has so far.

But because Ohtani insists he's good to go, the Dodgers are put in a bad spot, as benching Ohtani, down 0-2 in the NLCS, would be met with a ton of scrutiny even if it might be the best decision for the team.

Ohtani could prove the worrywarts wrong with a strong performance at home to salvage the Dodgers' NLCS chances, but if his struggles at the plate from Milwaukee continue, Ohtani might be one of the reasons why Los Angeles is eliminated this postseason.

This situation is a very tricky one for the Dodgers. While Ohtani isn't 100% and he's struggling at the plate, benching the $700M superstar is something that would be very difficult to do.

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