{"id":814308,"date":"2026-08-15T09:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/814308\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T09:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:02:08","slug":"dodgers-ohtani-throws-bullpen-session-in-big-step-toward-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/814308\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers&#8217; Ohtani throws bullpen session in big step toward return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">The <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/lad\/los-angeles-dodgers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> came away encouraged after <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/39832\/shohei-ohtani\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Shohei Ohtani<\/a> threw his first bullpen session in more than three weeks Friday, manager Dave Roberts said after the team&#8217;s 3-1 win over the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/mil\/milwaukee-brewers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Milwaukee Brewers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Ohtani, 32, has not pitched since July 3 as he deals with a left knee injury, but the Dodgers remain hopeful the two-way star will make a return to the mound in the regular season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Roberts said reports from Friday&#8217;s 35-pitch session were positive, adding that Ohtani &#8220;used his entire mix.&#8221; Barring any setbacks, Roberts said, the hope is for Ohtani to throw one or two more bullpen sessions, then at least two live sessions before he pitches in a major league game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Roberts said Ohtani initially would make one-inning appearances upon his return, including as an opener.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;I&#8217;m pretty confident that if we stay the course, he&#8217;ll throw a [bullpen session] in two, three, four, five days, and then if we get out of that, I think we&#8217;ll be out of the woods,&#8221; Roberts said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Ohtani played designated hitter Friday and went 0-for-3 with a walk. He is batting .290\/.390\/.540 with 27 home runs and 74 RBIs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">On the mound, Ohtani is 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA and 95 strikeouts in 85 innings.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Dodgers came away encouraged after Shohei Ohtani threw his first bullpen session in more than&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[345519,352,2323,363,3,105803,99],"class_list":["post-814308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-345519","tag-espn","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-ohtani-shohei","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}