CINCINNATI — An ominous sign for the future of the Los Angeles Dodgers came after Shohei Ohtani’s sixth consecutive pitch outside the strike zone Wednesday night. The reigning National League MVP used his glove to shield his frustrations as the rest of the baseball world held its collective breath. Making just his seventh pitching appearance in his return from a second major elbow surgery, Ohtani exited the game alongside a trainer.
Early indications are the Dodgers avoided disaster. Ohtani felt cramping in his right hip in the first inning, pitching through it until the point where it began to impact his mechanics.
“I just tried to work around it,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I was able to do so up until the third, and it didn’t quite work out for me.”
Still, the Dodgers are operating as if Ohtani will be able to make his next scheduled start Wednesday at home against the St. Louis Cardinals, manager Dave Roberts said.
Ohtani was pitching into the fourth inning against the Cincinnati Reds for the first time in his elongated build-up from surgery and had thrown a season-high 51 pitches before Roberts hustled from the visiting dugout. After a brief conversation, Ohtani’s day as a pitcher was over.
“I just saw a funky throw. The follow-through just didn’t look right,” Roberts said, noting that Ohtani was hitting his side trying to get things loose. “I think it was on the one right before that pitch I came out. And then he threw another pitch, and I just didn’t see the finish the right way.”
Ohtani was still in the dugout after being removed and was then seen in the on-deck circle, preparing to immediately hit, though his turn in the order did not come up. When his turn did come up, he struck out looking. He remained in the game for the rest of the night, lining a 104.5 mph fly ball to center field to end the Dodgers’ 5-2 loss and cap a hitless day at the plate.
The slugger and right-hander blamed his cramping on the humidity on a steamy night at Great American Ball Park. It was 90 degrees for Wednesday’s first pitch. Ohtani acknowledged he “didn’t really feel great, to be honest, physically” in the days leading up to his start after starting as the designated hitter in the team’s first two games in Cincinnati.
“The humidity made his body respond a certain way,” Roberts said.
The right-hander had flashed some of his premium stuff in the outing, touching 101 mph in the first inning and striking out four batters before his command eluded him in the fourth inning. After Noelvi Marte led off the inning with a single down the third-base line, Ohtani fired a pair of yanked wild pitches on sinkers in what would be a four-pitch walk of Tyler Stephenson. When a fastball and a sweeper missed the zone against Spencer Steer, Roberts went out to check on his valuable two-way star.
The team has played things slow when it comes to Ohtani’s pitching this season, essentially treating major-league games as a minor-league rehab assignment to keep his bat in the Dodgers’ lineup. He has increased his workload in one-inning increments once every two starts, with Wednesday marking the next step forward.
“The hope and the plan is for him to get through four innings this one as well as the next one,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before Wednesday’s start. “Hot, humid, we’ll see how he is.”
Ohtani has dealt with cramping before, he said, though never in that region. He remained cautious when asked directly if the issue could affect his pitching going forward.
“I just really want to focus on just being able to recover well and feel good,” Ohtani said. He will have an off day Thursday before the Dodgers resume play in humid Tampa on Friday night.
(Photo: AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster)
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