LOS ANGELES -- While inflammation in his left knee caused Shohei Ohtani to miss one game as a hitter on Friday, it is not preventing him from making his next pitching start.
Ohtani will toe the rubber for the Dodgers in Wednesday afternoon's series finale against the Rays, six days after exiting last Thursday's game in Pittsburgh due to his knee. While L.A. feels good about handing him the ball, the team has decided he will not hit, even after his game-winning blast on Tuesday.
In his previous start last Wednesday, Ohtani gave up a season-high four runs (three earned) across 6 2/3 innings against the Pirates, raising his ERA to a mere 1.06, which still leads all Major Leaguers who have pitched at least 50 innings. The next day, his minor knee injury flared up.
Neither Ohtani nor the Dodgers are entirely certain what caused the inflammation in his left knee, but Ohtani believes it may have had more to do with pitching rather than hitting.
"It’s actually hard to pinpoint at what moment this happened," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton over the weekend. "All I can really know for sure is that I think my mechanics weren't quite great in terms of my pitching side, so I believe that had something to do with this."
Ohtani resumed playing catch last Saturday and said afterward that he didn't feel completely normal, but with a few more days, he thought he would feel good enough to start on Wednesday. In the ensuing days, the swelling went down in Ohtani's knee. He checked his final box on Tuesday, throwing a light bullpen session to test out his knee on the mound.
Manager Dave Roberts will keep a watchful eye on Ohtani on Wednesday, as he would with any pitcher dealing with a minor ailment. It complicates matters that Ohtani is not only one of the Dodgers' best pitchers, but one of their best hitters as well.
"Anyone that has anything, kind of potential red flag, certainly will be watching more closely," Roberts said. "But again, he wouldn't start if we felt that we were going to put him in harm's way."
Ohtani, like most superstars, doesn't like to miss many games. He's the type of competitor who wants to be on the field helping his team every night. As an individual, he wants to make a run at the NL Cy Young Award, and missing a start would hurt his case in what is shaping up to be a competitive race.
Roberts has learned that there are some times where he has to be proactive with Ohtani and take the decision out of his hands. This is not one of those times, as Ohtani has progressed well since his knee flared up.
"We're certainly mindful that he wants to be out there, he wants to make his start," Roberts said. "But again, the catch play, how he feels, the swelling is completely dissipated. So those signs right there give us confidence that he's going to be fine."