{"id":807691,"date":"2026-07-18T06:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807691\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T06:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T06:28:12","slug":"ohtani-has-lubricant-injected-into-knee-likely-to-pitch-vs-phillies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/807691\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohtani has lubricant injected into knee, likely to pitch vs. Phillies"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Shohei Ohtani<\/a> had a lubricant injected into his left knee, but the Dodgers two-way star did not have fluid drained, Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said Friday.<\/p>\n

Ohtani was 0 for 4 with a pair of warning-track flyouts as the leadoff batter and designated hitter in Friday’s\u00a02-1 win over the New York Yankees\u00a0that opened the second half. The four-time MVP is not slated to pitch this weekend and likely will make his next start Wednesday at Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Roberts said Ohtani had the procedure after Sunday’s game against Arizona. Ohtani last pitched on July 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives him some relief in his knee, which we were hoping to get, and then the four days off from activity, which gets it all to kind of settle in,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI think we are certainly more prepared to back off on the workload if it calls for it, but Shohei wants to be out there as much as he possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani is batting .293 with 22 homers and 58 RBIs while going 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA and 95 strikeouts in 85 2\/3 innings over 14 starts on the mound. The\u00a0four-time MVP skipped Tuesday night\u2019s All-Star Game.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of his wear and tear, just part of being an athlete, being a baseball player, the running, the pitching, the swinging of the bat, all that stuff has effects on the body,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

He will try to give Ohtani days off after his pitching starts if possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cSafe to say that even if there isn\u2019t an off day behind it, I would like to give him that next day off,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cSo ideally, yeah, he would have the scheduled off day behind it. But that\u2019s not always possible, kind of with the schedule and also where he\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani probably will throw off a mound in the next few days to test the knee. He has been landing more in an open stance to lessen torque on the left knee, which Roberts said likely will not need offseason surgery.<\/p>\n

Roberts said he doesn’t know whether catcher Will Smith, who hasn’t played since June 5 because of neck inflammation, will return this season but hopes the three-time All-Star can contribute this year. Roberts said Smith \u201cdidn\u2019t feel like he was making any improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s taking a week, at least a week of just really doing no activity to hopefully calm his neck down, to then build up,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cEarly on we\u2019ve been trying to get him ready, moving around, doing some baseball stuff, but he hasn\u2019t been able to get over the hump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dodgers closer Edwin D\u00edaz, recovering from surgery on April 22 to remove loose bodies from his right elbow, was to pitch Friday in his third minor league rehab appearance and then throw again Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got to assure us that he\u2019s in a good spot to close out,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

Left-hander Blake Snell, sidelined since his season debut on May 9 because of loose bodies in his pitching elbow, is to start for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Tyler Glasnow, a right-hander out since May 6 because of lower back spasms, has been throwing bullpens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Shohei Ohtani had a lubricant injected into his left knee, but the Dodgers two-way star…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-807691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}