{"id":879096,"date":"2026-09-04T00:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T00:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/879096\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T00:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T00:58:09","slug":"shohei-ohtani-gets-a-night-off-as-his-biceps-and-neck-issues-linger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/879096\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani gets a night off as his biceps and neck issues linger"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Shohei Ohtani<\/a> got the day off Thursday after appearing physically uncomfortable while striking out four times during the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 10-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals a night earlier.<\/p>\n

Manager Dave Roberts texted Ohtani after the 8-6 defeat<\/a> Wednesday to let him know he would not be starting in the series finale. The two-way superstar responded with an emoji salute.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows that it was the right decision,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

Ohtani told the training staff that his right biceps and neck were bothering him. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I think you saw some grimacing and some kind of shaking of the arm, just trying to get it to fire, and he couldn\u2019t do that,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

Ohtani’s symptoms haven’t improved in recent weeks, and a potential stint on the injured list isn’t off the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlikely, but not impossible,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

The manager said he would talk to Ohtani and team trainers later Thursday to see how he responded before deciding his status for Friday’s series opener against Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to be in there, but I\u2019m not going to just put him in there because of the name on the back of his jersey,\u201d Roberts said, describing Ohtani’s health as day to day.<\/p>\n

Center fielder Tommy Edman was in Ohtani’s leadoff spot against the Cardinals, while Alex Call took over as the designated hitter, batting eighth.<\/p>\n

Ohtani hasn\u2019t pitched in a game since July 3 because of lingering pain in his left knee and the right biceps. At the plate, he’s hitting .279 after striking out four consecutive times for the first time this season.<\/p>\n

Before being shut down, Ohtani was 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 14 mound starts.<\/p>\n

He threw a 20-pitch bullpen session last Friday but was scratched from a potential start at Detroit two days later. Roberts said that until he sees Ohtani throw another bullpen, he won\u2019t know the next step in his pitching progression.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers want a healthy Ohtani in October as they chase a third consecutive World Series championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to us to kind of figure out how we navigate these next three-and-a-half, four weeks,\u201d Roberts said, \u201cbut I\u2019m very confident that we\u2019ll see the guy we all expect to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\n See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here\n <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Shohei Ohtani got the day off Thursday after appearing physically uncomfortable while striking out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[141525,5930,125041,141524,3979,64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-879096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ap-online-sports-headlines","tag-ap-top-news","tag-ap-top-news-l-twc-regions","tag-ap-top-news-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879096","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=879096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}