LOS ANGELES — Everything for the Los Angeles Dodgers starts with Shohei Ohtani, which meant alarm bells went off when Ohtani felt something in his right biceps during a swing in the sixth inning of Friday’s game against the San Diego Padres.

“More precautionary reason,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I was a little concerned with my biceps with the last at-bat that I took.”

Ohtani is pursuing his first full-time two-way season since 2023, which has meant having to deal with the added injury risk that comes with doing something no one else in Major League Baseball is attempting. Ohtani downplayed his exit in the seventh inning of Friday’s 4-3 win and said he felt it only while swinging. Still, this will put the focus on how the Dodgers manage him going forward.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani will not be in the lineup Saturday. It’s not clear what the path is from there.

“He’s a quick healer and finds a way to get back,” Roberts said. “But I do think that for us to read and react and hear what his body is telling him is really important, given the toll it takes on his body to be a two-way player.”

The manager did not commit to Ohtani making his final scheduled pitching start before this month’s All-Star break.

Teoscar had the stadium on their feet. 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/eWQ3d4XXHc

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 4, 2026

“It should be on the table” that the Dodgers skip that start, Roberts said, as the organization nurses what is already a 14-game lead in the National League West.

Ohtani threw 110 pitches across six innings Friday, the most he’s thrown since 2023, while working on a season-most eight days of rest between starts. The four-time MVP went hitless through his three at-bats as most of the Dodgers’ lineup went quiet against Padres starter Michael King. Ohtani felt something on his final swing.

It’s the same thing Ohtani felt briefly “a couple months ago,” he said. Ohtani said the discomfort dissipated “pretty relatively quickly” then, and he anticipated the same this time around.

That past issue was something minor enough that Ohtani did not divulge it at the time, and Roberts himself did not know about it until Friday evening, when he ultimately pinch hit Miguel Rojas for Ohtani in a one-run game.

Ohtani has been wearing some of the toll on his body during the season’s first half. The two-way star, who turns 32 on Sunday, spoke Friday night with a heavy bandage on his swollen left knee to go with his usual ice wrap around his pitching arm. He’s pitched for at least a month with a blister on his right middle finger.

Ohtani is involved in nearly everything the Dodgers do, and no one has more opportunities to affect the game than he does. Miami Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara is pacing all pitchers in the majors with 486 batters faced, while Washington Nationals outfielder James Wood leads all hitters with 416 plate appearances. Ohtani the pitcher (340 batters faced) and Ohtani the hitter (377 plate appearances) have combined for 717 batter-to-pitcher interactions this season. He has produced, with a .927 OPS and a 1.79 ERA on the season.

It will take a lot to sustain this workload. Ohtani had 915 such interactions during the 2025 regular season as he worked his way back to two-way play.

This needs to be managed, as every bump and bruise he picks up along the way shows. It was already unlikely that Ohtani will pitch in the All-Star Game (a matter of scheduling, with Ohtani’s next scheduled pitching start coming four days before the game). Ohtani was voted the starting designated hitter for the National League in the game, though it remains to be seen how much his right biceps changes that plan, if at all.

Ohtani wasn’t too concerned.

“I can always play, and my desire is to always play,” Ohtani said. “I feel good enough to be able to do so.”