{"id":217091,"date":"2026-06-12T03:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217091\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T03:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T03:11:19","slug":"shohei-ohtani-suddenly-leaves-game-vs-pittsburgh-pirates-with-knee-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/217091\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani Suddenly Leaves Game vs. Pittsburgh Pirates With Knee Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> star Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, with the game very much in the balance in the seventh inning, left Thursday\u2019s game vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates early. <\/a><\/p>\n

All of a sudden, when it came to Ohtani\u2019s spot in the lineup, he did not appear from the on-deck circle; instead, it was Santiago Espinal<\/a> who pinch-hit for him.<\/p>\n

Espinal got a base hit single to load the bases with one out, which eventually led to Andy Pages<\/a> scoring on a wild pitch.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, the Dodgers said later on in the inning that Ohtani left with left knee inflammation, an injury that was not immediately clear on the field.<\/p>\n

\"JunJun 11, 2026; Pittsburgh<\/a>, Pennsylvania, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) runs on a hit-and-run against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the fourth inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Ohtani has been hitting the leather off the ball recently, hovering around .300 as a hitter, and his ERA just went up to 1.06 as a pitcher.<\/p>\n

During Thursday\u2019s game, Ohtani was already 2-for-2 with two walks and an RBI, which came on a solo home run blast. He has kicked things up into high gear as a hitter, hitting for power more often, and the swing mechanics look pristine.<\/p>\n

How concerned should fans be about Ohtani\u2019s injury?<\/p>\n

Ohtani is known for being a rock on the field, playing through pain no matter what is happening.<\/p>\n

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Manager Dave Roberts and the staff typically need to force him to leave the field, whether he is at a high pitch count or when questioned about his rest.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers, knowing how much stress two-way play has on the human body, are already on the careful side when handling Ohtani, especially in the regular season, to keep him ready for the postseason.<\/p>\n

\"Jun<\/p>\n

Jun 10, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) pitches against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the second inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

It could also be that the Dodgers are just playing things very safe with the knee issue and do not want to push it even a little bit in early June.<\/p>\n

Given that Ohtani felt he could not stay in the game, there is good reason for concern, but more will surely come out in due time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, with the game very much in the balance in the seventh inning,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[94942,94939,11200,73,75,74,10997,94940,94941,31398],"class_list":["post-217091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-andy-pages","tag-knee-inflammation","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-santiago-espinal","tag-seventh-inning","tag-shohei-ohtani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}