{"id":404592,"date":"2026-07-19T19:15:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T19:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404592\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T19:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T19:15:21","slug":"shohei-ohtani-wont-make-next-pitching-start-return-to-mound-unclear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404592\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani won’t make next pitching start, return to mound unclear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dodgers<\/a> don\u2019t know when Shohei Ohtani<\/a> will take the mound next.<\/p>\n

He was tentatively scheduled to start Wednesday against the Phillies, after promising initial reports on his recovery from an injection in his left knee. But after seeing his knee\u2019s response to playing catch, the team decided to give him more time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to continue to give it the best chance to kind of get into a good spot,\u201d manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said. \u201cAnd as he said, as we feel, it\u2019s the pitching and the torque of landing on that leg that kind of gets it upset.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was clear enough from catch play that Ohtani\u2019s start would have to be pushed back and that Ohtani did not feel the need to test it by throwing off a mound, Roberts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we\u2019re at right now, how we\u2019re proceeding, I would say that it\u2019s going to be some time,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a day-to-day thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That left a wide range of timeline possibilities, from days to weeks. Roberts did, however, rule out shutting Ohtani down from pitching for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess anything is possible, but I just don\u2019t think that\u2019s a possibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To fill Ohtani\u2019s spot in the rotation this week, the Dodgers moved right-hander Emmet Sheehan\u2019s start to Monday. Before the rainout bumped the second game of the series against the New York Yankees, Sheehan was scheduled to start Saturday.<\/p>\n

For Sunday\u2019s doubleheader, right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> will take the mound in the first game. The bullpen, and potentially multiple innings from the 27th man, will cover the nightcap.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, a lot of it is where we\u2019re at and how we\u2019ve put ourselves in a good spot,\u201d Roberts said of the MLB-leading Dodgers. \u201cCould [Ohtani] probably do it? Sure. But right now, the benefits just don\u2019t seem to outweigh the cost at this time of the season. So I think we still have plenty of time to get him to a good spot to then pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani, who went hitless in four at-bats as the designated hitter in Friday\u2019s 2-1 win<\/a>, was set to DH and hit leadoff in Sunday\u2019s first game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The Dodgers don\u2019t know when Shohei Ohtani will take the mound next. He was tentatively scheduled to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[10952,426,162300,88966,48,52,51,54956,47,50,49,24246,10252,162299,424,278,52936,422,428,162298,430],"class_list":["post-404592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-catch","tag-dodgers","tag-doubleheader","tag-good-spot","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-left-knee","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-more-time","tag-mound","tag-right-hander-emmet-sheehan","tag-roberts","tag-season","tag-second-game","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-start","tag-timeline-possibility","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404592","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=404592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}