Shohei Ohtani took another step forward in his return to pitching this season by reaching the fourth inning in the series finale against the Cincinnati Reds, but lost his command at the end of the outing and walked off the field with a trainer.
The three-plus innings still represented Ohtani’s longest outing of the year in what was his seventh start as a Dodgers pitcher.
The night began on somewhat of a down note as former Dodgers teammate Gavin Lux hit a leadoff double. He later came around to score on a single from Elly De La Cruz with one out.
Ohtani faced more traffic in the second inning as Will Benson and Santiago Espinal both reached on a single. They were stranded when Ohtani retired Lux to end the inning.
He retired the side in order in the third and after Freddie Freeman’s two-run homer in the fourth inning gave the Dodgers a lead, Ohtani allowed a leadoff single and issued a walk in the bottom half.
The base hit came on a play Alex Freeland typically has made while with Triple-A Oklahoma City. It was compounded by Ohtani throwing consecutive wild pitches that were part of six balls in a row.
That prompted Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and trainer Thomas Albert to visit the mound. Ohtani came out of the game after a brief conversation with the group. He remained in the dugout and didn’t show any signs of injury, which suggests the pitching change was largely due to ineffectiveness and out of precaution.
Ohtani threw 51 pitches, setting a new season high. That previously was the 36 pitches he threw over three innings against the Minnesota Twins last week. He equaled a season high with four strikeouts.
The book closed on Ohtani at two runs allowed, one of which scored with Anthony Banda on the mound.
Is Shohei Ohtani injured?
Ohtani took his next at-bat after exiting the game as a pitcher, but Kirsten Watson said on the SportsNet LA broadcast he did appear to be dealing with some potential issue in the lower half of his body and was seen stretching.
The Dodgers later confirmed Ohtani was removed from the game as a pitcher due to cramps.
Wednesday’s start came on eight days of rest as the Dodgers lined up to not only have Ohtani pitch in the series finale but his next outing isn’t until Aug. 6.
Both games are followed by an off day, which factored into the Dodgers’ planning as they look to manage Ohtani’s workload amid his resumption of being a two-way player.
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