LOS ANGELES \u2014 Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani will pitch \u2014 and only pitch \u2014 on Wednesday against the New York Mets, two days after he was hit by a pitch on his right shoulder while serving as a designated hitter.<\/p>\n
It marks the first time as a Dodger (and first time since May 28, 2021, while with the Los Angeles Angels) that Ohtani will pitch, but not hit in the same game.<\/p>\n
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said this spring that the organization would \u201cdefinitely explore\u201d having pitch-only days for Ohtani in his first full season removed from a second major elbow procedure. The impetus for Wednesday\u2019s decision, however, appears to be less about keeping Ohtani fresh and more about the state of his bruised right shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for the hit by pitch, he would\u2019ve been DHing and pitching tonight,\u201d Roberts said on Wednesday. \u201cBut I do think that, just to be able to pitch and focus on that, will be a benefit for the mind and the body, and hopefully, we\u2019re just in a little moment of fatigue and we can get past it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohtani took a 94 mph David Peterson sinker off of his right shoulder to lead off Monday\u2019s Dodgers win over the Mets, letting out an audible yell afterwards even with a sold-out crowd. Ohtani remained in the game as a designated hitter and served as the DH again in Tuesday\u2019s 2-1 win.<\/p>\n
Roberts stressed in recent days that Ohtani would still be able to pitch. He was still able to go through his typical routine Tuesday afternoon in anticipation of Wednesday\u2019s start. Ohtani\u2019s first full-fledged season as a pitcher with the Dodgers has gone swimmingly, with the right-hander allowing just one unearned run over his first 12 innings.<\/p>\n
The shoulder could have affected Ohtani at the plate. He has gone 0-for-7 since the hit by pitch, drawing an intentional walk in the eighth inning to extend his regular-season on-base streak to 48 games \u2014 the longest active streak in the majors. That streak remains active, so long as Ohtani doesn\u2019t log a plate appearance on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust feeling what gives him the best chance to stay loose during the outing, feel good,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cHe got hit on the scapula, the back of the shoulder, a couple days ago. There\u2019s still some soreness in there. When he\u2019s hitting, there\u2019s a component that he\u2019s in the cage getting ready to hit, and if we can take that off his plate and just focus on one thing tonight, we felt \u2014 training staff, pitching coaches, myself \u2014 we just felt it was the best thing for him. So, once I told him, he completely understood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts said he expects Ohtani to hit and pitch during his next pitching start, which is tentatively scheduled for next Wednesday in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Dalton Rushing will serve as the team\u2019s designated hitter in Ohtani\u2019s place, with Kyle Tucker sliding up into Ohtani\u2019s typical leadoff spot. This is just the 15th time someone else has hit leadoff for the Dodgers since Ohtani was moved into the spot on June 17, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani will pitch \u2014 and only pitch \u2014 on Wednesday against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,53,1334],"class_list":["post-270528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}