NEW YORK \u2014 Shohei Ohtani won\u2019t make his next scheduled start on the mound because of left knee irritation and isn\u2019t expected back in the Los Angeles Dodgers\u2019 rotation for a while.<\/p>\n
The two-way superstar received a lubricant injection just before the All-Star break last week and had been expected to pitch Wednesday in Philadelphia against the Phillies.<\/p>\n
Ohtani, however, still didn\u2019t feel 100% while playing catch this weekend, so he and the Dodgers decided not to even test the knee with a bullpen session.<\/p>\n
The four-time MVP hasn\u2019t pitched since July 3, when he threw a season-high 110 pitches over six innings in a no-decision against San Diego. Now, it\u2019s unclear when he\u2019ll return to the mound.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say that it\u2019s going to be some time,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Sunday before his team split a day-night doubleheader with the New York Yankees. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a day-to-day thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts reiterated that Ohtani feels no knee pain when hitting. The slugger went 2 for 5 with two RBIs and a run during an 8-2 victory in the opener Sunday, and was back in the leadoff spot as the designated hitter for the nightcap.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to continue to give it the best chance to kind of get in a good spot,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cAs he said, as we feel, it\u2019s the pitching and the torque on landing on that leg. That kind of gets it upset. So I think that hitting doesn\u2019t do that. So I think that for us, we\u2019re trying to give it as much time as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohtani went 1 for 4 with an infield single in the nightcap and struck out with two runners aboard in the eighth inning of a 2-1 loss. He also threw in the outfield between games and ended a long day at Yankee Stadium feeling fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, I think a good day for Shohei,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n
The two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers have the best record in the majors at 63-37 and an 11 1\/2-game lead in the NL West. Roberts indicated that\u2019s playing into the team\u2019s approach with Ohtani, who skipped the All-Star Game last Tuesday in Philadelphia to treat and rest his balky knee.<\/p>\n
The right-hander has been dealing with the ailment for more than a month. He had an outing cut short against Pittsburgh on June 11 because of inflammation in the knee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for us, it\u2019s more like we\u2019ve done many times over, erring on the side of caution,\u201d Roberts explained. \u201dA lot of it is where we\u2019re at and how we put ourselves in a good spot in the sense of, could he probably do it? Sure. But right now the benefits don\u2019t seem to outweigh the cost of this time in the season. So I think that we still have plenty of time to kind of get him in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts said he\u2019s sure Ohtani will return to the mound this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s two weeks or three weeks then that\u2019s kind of why we\u2019re trying to do this, so we don\u2019t have to worry about it throughout the end of the season,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n
Emmet Sheehan had been expected to start during the Yankees series, but his next outing was pushed back to Monday night in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles is off Thursday this week and Monday next week, providing some short-term flexibility in the rotation while left-hander Blake Snell works his way back from an injury.<\/p>\n
Snell, sidelined since his season debut on May 9 because of loose bodies in his left elbow, made a rehab start Saturday for Triple-A Oklahoma City and threw 32 pitches in 1 1\/3 innings. He\u2019s expected to pitch again Friday and will need to get up to about five innings and 75 pitches in the minors before returning to the big league rotation, Roberts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that once we moved Emmet, the rotation can keep going forward without Shohei for the time being. I can\u2019t speak for how long that\u2019s going to be,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was on the schedule when we broke for the All-Star break and then it was more of the training staff talking to him about, `Hey, coming out of the break, how does Wednesday look? How do you feel? If you don\u2019t feel 100%, we have the opportunity to kick the can,\u2019\u201d Roberts added. \u201cI think it\u2019s more driven by the organization saying, hey, if you\u2019re not 100% right, we don\u2019t have to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohtani is batting .290 with 22 homers, 60 RBIs and a .938 OPS. He is 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA and 95 strikeouts in 85 2\/3 innings over 14 starts on the mound and has won his past six decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he does swing the bat, it\u2019s the back knee versus the land knee where you\u2019re kind of driving off of it to create torque when you pitch,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cAnd so there\u2019s no feeling of any sensation or any reason why we feel he\u2019s got to stop hitting.\u201d<\/p>\n
AP freelance writer Larry Fleisher contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Shohei Ohtani won\u2019t make his next scheduled start on the mound because of left knee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[83845,48,52,51,47,53,50,49,5443,422],"class_list":["post-404959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-dodgers-rotation","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-shohei-ohtani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404959","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=404959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}