ST. LOUIS -- Shohei Ohtani is in the midst of another stellar season at the plate, flirting with the possibility of a Triple Crown in his first season with the Dodgers.

But even as Ohtani puts together another impressive campaign, the two-time unanimous American League Most Valuable Player has cooled off a bit over the last two weeks, at least by his standards. The ups and downs are common in a Major League season, even for one of the game’s biggest stars.

On Saturday, however, Ohtani showed some signs of life, hammering his 38th homer of the season and stealing a pair of bases, accounting for all the Dodgers’ runs. Unfortunately for Ohtani, the rest of the Dodgers’ lineup was unable to get much going, losing to the Cardinals, 5-2, at Busch Stadium.

“It was an offspeed at the heart of the plate, so it was something I was able to handle,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I do want to improve the other at-bats, just overall quality.”

Ohtani came into Saturday with a .164 batting average and 14 strikeouts in 14 games this month. The power hasn’t gone away for Ohtani as he now has six homers in August, but he’s not getting the consistent results he has shown throughout the year, especially with runners in scoring position.

Part of those struggles, according to the Japanese slugger, is because his mechanics are “a little off” right now at the plate.

“I think having the right posture when I’m looking at the pitcher is something that’s really important,” Ohtani said. “I feel like it’s a little off. But in the meantime, when things are off, there’s also something I can make up for by having a better approach at the plate.”

His fifth-inning solo shot off Cardinals right-hander Andre Pallante gave him a home run against all 30 MLB teams, making him one of just 19 active players to achieve the feat.

One area where Ohtani has excelled this season is being a force on the basepaths. Saturday was his seventh game this season with multiple swiped bags. He is now at 38 homers and 37 stolen bases, making it almost a certainty that he’ll become the Dodgers’ first 40-40 man and just the sixth in Major League history.

Ohtani could achieve that feat in record time, given his current pace. He has played in 121 games this season; the fastest any player has ever reached the 40-40 club was Alfonso Soriano, who did it in 147.

“I thought he took really good at-bats tonight,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “And he was active on the bases again, which was great. I thought offensively, he did a really nice job tonight.”

While Ohtani had a positive day, the Dodgers, as a whole, struggled to get much going against Pallante, who allowed two runs over seven innings. On the other hand, Dodgers right-hander Bobby Miller had some command issues in his first start back in the Majors after getting demoted last month. He allowed four runs over 4 2/3 innings, and it took him until the fourth to record a strikeout, when he got Paul Goldschmidt swinging on a full count.

“I’ve obviously been working on a lot,” Miller said. “I’ve been working on my delivery, my mechanics, trying to get my velocity back. Might have been chasing that a little too much instead of pure pitching. … I feel if I had gotten strike one on more batters, started 0-1, it would have been a completely different ballgame.”

The Dodgers are going to need Miller to find that next gear over the next week or two. Miller is expected to remain in the rotation to fill in for Tyler Glasnow, who landed on the injured list on Friday with right elbow tendinitis. For the Dodgers to hold on in the National League West, they’ll need hitters like Ohtani to get going at the plate and pitchers like Miller to perform up to their potentials.

But once again, it was an uneven evening for the Dodgers.

“There are some injuries that happen that we just can’t really control,” Ohtani said, when asked about some of the team’s struggles. “I don’t doubt that each and every single player is doing the right care, and just spending time on, making sure that we’re all ready to go to the field.”