Alden Gonzalez
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- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the LA Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the LA Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
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LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani threw a season-high 110 pitches in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ win Friday night over the San Diego Padres, then left the lineup with the score still close in the seventh inning. Cause: The right bicep became tight on the swing in the bottom of the sixth.
Ohtani, speaking through a translator, said he encountered a similar illness “a couple of months ago.”
“It went away relatively quickly,” Ohtani added, “so I expect it to happen again.”
However, the Dodgers will not include Ohtani in the lineup on Saturday to give him additional time to recover.
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Ohtani visibly struggled with his command during the nine-day rest, throwing his first six pitches on balls and working nine baserunners in six innings. But he struck out nine, allowed just three runs, threw his fastball into triple figures deep in his game and kept the deficit manageable enough for Teoscar Hernandez to hit a game-winning grand slam in the seventh, giving the Dodgers a 4-3 victory and handing the Padres their seventh straight loss.
Three batters after Hernandez’s homer enraged 49,578 fans, Miguel Rojas came off the bench to pinch Ohtani, a move Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called a precaution. After the game, Ohtani developed an ice bubble on his left knee that required repairs in recent weeks, but Roberts said it “didn’t bother him” even though he threw his most passes since 2023.
Roberts also downplayed the severity of a biceps injury that only seemed to bother Ohtani during his swing.
“He’s dealt with this before,” Roberts said. “He heals quickly and finds a way to come back. But I think it’s really important for us to read and react and hear what his body is telling him, given the price his body has to pay playing a two-way game.”
The Dodgers initially moved Ohtani’s pitching start from Wednesday to Friday, a move the team said was more a result of starting him against the division rival Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks on consecutive Fridays before the All-Star break. The decision, Roberts acknowledged, made it unlikely that Ohtani would play in the All-Star Game, given that he would do so while on short rest.
But now the Dodgers are wondering whether Ohtani should start before the break.
“I think it should be on the table,” Roberts said when asked about the possibility of him missing his next start, which would give him extra time away from the mound before the second inning. “Obviously we’re not going to make that decision right now. But, of course, anything should be on the table.”