{"id":85808,"date":"2025-08-21T08:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/85808\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T08:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:44:14","slug":"rocky-and-painful-outing-for-shohei-ohtani-as-dodgers-lose-to-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/85808\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocky, and painful, outing for Shohei Ohtani as Dodgers lose to Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dodgers<\/a> lost a game Wednesday. But it could have been worse.<\/p>\n

They could have lost Shohei Ohtani.<\/p>\n

The final score was 8-3 in favor<\/a> of the Colorado Rockies, although the game was far more one-sided than that. And the result, combined with San Diego\u2019s win over the Giants, cut the Dodgers\u2019 lead in the National League West to just a game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Yet the word the team used most often to describe the night was lucky because two hours after Ohtani took a line drive off his right leg, the reigning National League MVP said he had dodged serious injury when the ball missed his knee and struck him in the thigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we avoided the worst-case scenario,\u201d he said through an interpreter. \u201cSo I’m going to focus on the treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was in the thigh, fortunately, and not off the knee,\u201d added manager Dave Roberts. \u201cBut it got him square.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ll see how it comes out. But I’m hopeful, confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani was struggling through his worst pitching performance in nearly five years, one that would see him give up a season-high five runs and a career-high nine hits, when Colorado\u2019s Orlando Arcia added injury to insult by lining a two-strike shot back up the middle.<\/p>\n

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The ball came off the bat at 93 miles per hour and struck the pitcher just above the right knee before caroming across the first-base line for an RBI single. Ohtani winced in pain and took a practice throw from the mound before being allowed to continue.<\/p>\n

Read more: ‘He looks much more confident.’ Hard-throwing Edgardo Henriquez settling in with Dodgers<\/a><\/p>\n

He limped off the mound three batters later with the Dodgers trailing 5-0 and after drawing a walk as the designated hitter in the top of the fifth, Roberts pulled him from the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took him out a little bit because of the score [and] because it was getting stiff and there was some swelling there,\u201d the manager said. \u201cI felt as the game was going to go on, it was going to stiffen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With the Dodgers in the midst of a stretch that will see them play a season-high 19 games without a break, Roberts had already planned to give Ohtani a day off Thursday before the opener of a three-game series Friday in San Diego. That plan, obviously, won\u2019t change.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now it feels pretty good,\u201d Ohtani said. \u201cI’m going to do everything in my ability to make sure that it doesn’t affect me moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Ohtani\u2019s health was the Dodgers\u2019 primary concern Wednesday, worries over his last two pitching performances \u2014 in which he gave up nine runs and 14 hits in 8 1\/3 innings, nearly doubling his season ERA from 2.37 to 4.61 \u2014 probably aren\u2019t far behind.<\/p>\n

The game against Colorado, his first regular-season start at Coors Field, was his 10th\u00a0start as a Dodger and it didn\u2019t go well from the start, with the weak-hitting Rockies bunching three hits to score two runs in the second.<\/p>\n

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Colorado, which finished with 16 hits, made it 5-0 in the fourth, with the first five batters reaching base, the last of those coming on Arcia\u2019s line drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put the team in a bad spot,\u201d Ohtani said. \u201cIt was just a very regrettable outing that I wish I could have done better.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball doesn’t move quite as much as it does in normal sea level, but that’s not an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: Dodgers Dugout: The 10 best center fielders in Dodger history<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of not making excuses, Roberts promised earlier in the week that the Dodgers would not experience a letdown against the last-place Rockies even through the four-game series comes between six crucial games with the Padres. Now the Dodgers need a win Thursday to earn a split and guarantee they\u2019ll land in San Diego this weekend with the division lead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou know, the results are the results. The performance is the performance,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI’d like to think it’s not a letdown, but yeah, I don’t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s nothing I can do to change it. It certainly leaves a sour taste in your mouth. But we\u2019ve got to win tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Etc …<\/p>\n

Utility player\u00a0Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez\u00a0made a rehab appearance as the designated hitter for triple-A Oklahoma City on Wednesday, going two for three with a double and an RBI before leaving for a pinch-hitter in the seventh.\u00a0Hern\u00e1ndez has been\u00a0on the injured list since July 7 with left elbow inflammation,\u00a0but\u00a0he\u00a0could return to the Dodgers early next week. …\u00a0Relievers Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott both threw hitless innings in rehab appearances for Oklahoma City on Tuesday and could rejoin the team in San Diego this weekend. … Before Wednesday\u2019s game, the Dodgers\u00a0recalled right-hander\u00a0Paul Gervase\u00a0from\u00a0triple A\u00a0and optioned right-hander Alexis Diaz. Gervase, 25,\u00a0acquired from Tampa Bay at the trade deadline,\u00a0appeared in five games with the Rays this season, striking out six batters in 6 1\/3 innings.\u00a0He made his Dodgers debut against the Rockies, giving up a run and two hits in two innings.<\/p>\n

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.<\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dodgers lost a game Wednesday. But it could have been worse. They could have lost Shohei Ohtani.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[14709,49,48,4021,499,51024,511,51026,12415,462,51025,51023,7673,4783,14556,482,82,3973,1495],"class_list":{"0":"post-85808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-alexis-diaz","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-colorado-rockies","12":"tag-dave-roberts","13":"tag-david-zalubowski","14":"tag-dodgers","15":"tag-kike-hernandez","16":"tag-kirby-yates","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-national-league-west","19":"tag-orlando-arcia","20":"tag-padres","21":"tag-rays","22":"tag-san-diego","23":"tag-shohei-ohtani","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-tanner-scott","26":"tag-the-dodgers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}