{"id":884118,"date":"2026-09-08T06:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T06:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884118\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T06:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T06:10:09","slug":"dodgers-star-shohei-ohtani-returns-to-lineup-after-4-day-break-but-wont-pitch-again-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884118\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani returns to lineup after 4-day break but won’t pitch again this season"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Shohei Ohtani<\/a> went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and a walk in his return to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup Monday night after a four-day break to deal with lingering left knee and right biceps soreness. The two-way superstar isn’t expected to pitch again this season.<\/p>\n

He was in his usual leadoff spot as the designated hitter for the series opener against the Cincinnati Reds, a 6-3 win<\/a> by the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ll be focusing on hitting,\u201d Ohtani said through a translator after the game. \u201cI’m confident that my overall performance should be better moving forward. The thing that I was more focused on was to make sure that the pitching wouldn\u2019t cause the worse scenario, which was for me to not be able to play at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani hasn\u2019t pitched in a game since July 3 and hasn\u2019t thrown since a bullpen session in Detroit on Aug. 28.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the media for the first time in three weeks, Ohtani said he’s disappointed not to be pitching.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I want to make sure that when I look back this season that I use this as a learning experience and use that as something to improve upon for next season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he would see how Ohtani felt after the game before deciding on his status for Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was certainly good to get him back out there, but there was certainly nothing to kind of write home about,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cTo take four days off, to come out of it feeling good, I think that\u2019s a win in itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NL West-leading Dodgers won all four games during Ohtani\u2019s absence, including a sweep of the Washington Nationals.<\/p>\n

By taking pitching off Ohtani’s plate, the Dodgers hope the four-time MVP will lock in on hitting and get back on track after not appearing to be himself at the plate. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as I\u2019m playing in games, it\u2019s not exactly the best way to recover and heal,\u201d Ohtani said. “Of course, the best mode of recovery is to completely not play. But right now I just want to make sure that I\u2019m playing, playing well and just focusing on the now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani is hitting .277 with 30 homers and 80 RBIs this season. Since the All-Star break, however, he\u2019s batting .246 with eight homers and 22 RBIs in 42 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, he loves pitching, loves being a two-way player,\u201d Roberts said before the game, \u201cbut right now it just doesn\u2019t make any sense. It\u2019s more of what\u2019s best for the team, number one, and 1A, what\u2019s best for him.”<\/p>\n

Utility player Tommy Edman<\/a> took Ohtani’s place as the leadoff hitter for four games. He went 7 for 17 (.412) with one home run, four RBIs and five runs. Edman started at second base and batted third on Monday.<\/p>\n

Asked why he doesn’t move Ohtani out of the leadoff spot, Roberts replied: \u201cI think he\u2019s our best hitter. I think the best player should have the most latitude. Is it forever? I don\u2019t know. Is it until the end of the season? I don\u2019t know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,4034,591,6784,85],"class_list":["post-884118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884118","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=884118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}