{"id":865631,"date":"2026-09-30T07:50:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T07:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/865631\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T07:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T07:50:21","slug":"dodgers-expect-healthier-shohei-ohtani-for-nlds-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/865631\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers expect healthier Shohei Ohtani for NLDS opener"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">LOS ANGELES &#8212; 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\">Dodgers<\/a> expect a healthier <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> at the top of their lineup for the postseason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The two-way superstar played in the final five games of the regular season after coming off a two-week stint on the injured list with nagging right biceps and left knee issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">With five days off leading up to Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, Ohtani has time to rest and refine his hitting stroke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">He went 5 for 21 with an extra-base hit, eight strikeouts and a walk over the final five games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;Everything is feeling great physically,&#8221; general manager Brandon Gomes said Tuesday. &#8220;The swings, once he came back, overall were in a good place, and using these five days to continue to get reps and feeling good into this series is really important. But feels like he&#8217;s in a great spot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Ohtani hit .275 with an .889 OPS and a team-high 30 home runs in the regular season despite injuries that curtailed his pitching and a slump at the plate that knocked him out of contention for a fifth MVP award.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">During his offensive skid, Ohtani batted .198 with 34 strikeouts in 24 games before going on the IL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;I feel confident that you&#8217;re going to see the best version of Shohei of the last two months,&#8221; manager Dave Roberts said. &#8220;I know that&#8217;s sort of a low bar given his injury, but I do think that he&#8217;s as healthy as he&#8217;s been in quite some time. Every day from the training staff, it keeps getting better. So yeah, number one, he&#8217;ll be a threat being in the lineup, but I do think that the performance piece will be what we&#8217;re hoping for.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Roberts wants to see Ohtani take a handful of live at-bats and hit off the Trajekt machine this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;He did everything he could to manage it, all the while being somewhat compromised,&#8221; the manager said. &#8220;I think that he&#8217;s going to be as healthy and feel as good as he&#8217;s felt.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES &#8212; TheDodgers expect a healthier Shohei Ohtani at the top of their lineup for the postseason.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[365188,352,2323,363,3,105803,99],"class_list":["post-865631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-365188","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\/865631","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=865631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}