Alden Gonzalez
Close
- ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the LA Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the LA Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
Several authors
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani will be in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup when he starts pitching on Friday, with Dalton Rushing as his catcher.
Eight days ago, while Rushing was behind the plate in Minneapolis, Ohtani was visibly irritated with his pitch selection and passivity on difficult pitches, at one point violently tapping his head to trigger a video review of a boundary call.
As the game progressed, the 25-year-old Rushing, now in his second year in the big leagues, was consoled on the bench by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and first baseman Freddie Freeman, among others. Rushing then admitted guilt and called it “embarrassing that I needed that kind of support.”
Ohtani has a 4.34 ERA in three pitching starts for Rushing and a 0.74 ERA with Will Smith as his catcher.
Editor’s Choice
1 Related
With Smith out indefinitely with a neck injury, the Dodgers have no choice but to have Ohtani and Rushing be on the same page.
“I think it will,” Roberts said Thursday before the start of a four-game series against the San Diego Padres. “I think they will be bigger than they were in his last start. They don’t think the same way, so it takes time. But Dalton knows this is what he signed up for. The catcher’s job is to be the pitcher’s servant. That’s the point.”
Ohtani was originally scheduled to start Wednesday in Sacramento, but the Dodgers pushed his start back two days so they said he could face the Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks before the All-Star break rather than the Athletics and Colorado Rockies. However, giving him extra time between starts is also helpful given the left knee that forced him to miss the game and continues to require care.
Roberts said he spoke with Ohtani earlier Thursday and that he was “feeling better every day.”
“It’s just the way he’s moved the last couple days that’s gotten better,” Roberts said.