Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to make his fifth start on the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers, this time coming against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on Saturday.
Ohtani last pitched against the Houston Astros on July 5, throwing two scoreless innings and striking out the side in his final frame of work. The right-hander has yet to pitch more than two innings in a game, but that could be changing this time out.
If Ohtani doesn’t run up his pitch count in the first two innings, the plan is for the 31-year-old to pitch three innings this time around, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said on SportsNet LA:
“The plan is two or three. If all goes well and he’s efficient, then three would be great.”
Given the All-Star break begins on Monday, it’s a great opportunity for the Dodgers to stretch Ohtani out just a bit more and then give him a little extra rest, if necessary.
They also seem to be on a schedule of increasing his workload by one inning every two starts. With that, Ohtani and the Dodgers have been cautious not to push him and add unnecessary risk into his build-up coming off a second elbow surgery.
After his first outing where Ohtani threw 28 pitches in one inning against the San Diego Padres, his next three have been far more efficient. He followed that up with 18 pitches in one inning against the Washington Nationals, 27 pitches in two innings against the Kansas City Royals, and 31 against the Astros.
If Ohtani’s pitch count gets too high in the first two innings, the Dodgers are unlikely to leave him in the game. But even just getting into the third would be beneficial as it would represent another up-down of waiting between innings before going back to throw again.
This will be Ohtani’s second start on the road this season with his last one coming on June 28 against the Royals.
Shohei Ohtani pitching stats with Dodgers
The three-time MVP has been highly impressive in his limited opportunities. He’s thrown six innings thus far while allowing just one run, striking out six and posting a 0.83 WHIP on four hits allowed.
With his last outing, Ohtani also dropped his career ERA to 2.99 over 487.2 innings, tallying 614 strikeouts with a 1.08 WHIP.
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