Shohei Ohtani knocks in two versus Yankees

Roberts added that Ohtani’s left knee doesn’t feel 100 percent following his latest bullpen session earlier this week, but expressed confidence that he’ll pitch again this season. There’s zero incentive for the Dodgers to push Ohtani back out on the mound at this stage of the season, which means that fantasy managers shouldn’t count on him making a significant impact, if any, from a pitching standpoint over the final two months.

Ohtani remains without a definitive timetable to return to pitching for the Dodgers, but he continues to make incremental progress with his throwing progression, which is encouraging. The 32-year-old generational talent is likely to miss at least a couple additional turns in Los Angeles’ rotation after experiencing left knee soreness earlier this month.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn’t offer an update to Ohtani’s potential return timeline to pitching, but the fact that he’s making some strides with his throwing progression is an encouraging sign. The 32-year-old two-way star was scratched from his outing against Philadelphia after feeling discomfort while playing catch over the weekend. He’s likely to miss multiple turns through the rotation while dealing with left knee soreness. Clearly, the Dodgers aren’t going to take any risks that would prevent Ohtani from potentially pitching in the postseason. He remains in Los Angeles’ lineup at DH for Monday’s series opener against the Phillies.

Roberts noted that the team has decided to take a cautious approach with Ohtani’s injured left knee and the 32-year-old superstar will not pitch for an undetermined amount of time. It remains unclear if the Dodgers will stick with a six-man rotation while Ohtani is shelved or go with a traditional five-man alignment for the time being.

Roberts also noted that the two-way superstar received a lubricating shot for his ailing knee over the All-Star break, rather than a draining procedure. If Ohtani is able to slot back into the rotation on Wednesday, the Dodgers will be back to their regular six-man rotation.

He’ll be followed by Emmet Sheehan on Saturday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Sunday. The Dodgers have not announced when Shohei Ohtani will return to the rotation. That makes it likely that it’ll be Justin Wrobleski and Eric Lauer in some order for the first two games against the Phillies in Philadelphia to open next week.

The homer came on the first pitch of the bottom of the first, giving him nine leadoff homers this season. Ohtani was scheduled to have his left knee drained after the game. He’ll sit out the All-Star Game, but he’ll probably be in the lineup when play resumes Friday.

Ohtani is slated to have his ailing left knee drained in addition to receiving a pain-relieving injection later this weekend and will miss next week’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia as a result. The 32-year-old generational talent homered during Friday’s series opener against Arizona and will remain in Los Angeles’ lineup at DH. He added that the issue is impacting his performance on the mound more than at the plate and while he could’ve pushed through the issue he’s going to use the extra time off the be ready for the second half.

Of course he did. It was one of those pretty much only he can hit, too, as he took a fastball low and a few inches inside from Eduardo Rodriguez and somehow sent it out of the opposite field. He also had a 370-foot flyout in the fifth. Ohtani has 21 homers this season. Unfortunately, with Ohtani unable to take the mound tonight, seven Dodgers relievers combined to five up nine runs in 9-3 loss.

He still didn’t give any sort of timeline on how long Ohtani will be held off of the mound for, but he did note that if this were September that Ohtani would still be pitching. Take that for what it’s worth. It sounds like he’ll avoid a trip to the injured list altogether, though it seems likely that he’ll miss at least a couple of trips through the Dodgers’ rotation.