The Los Angeles Dodgers are on a season-high-tying four-game losing streak but will finish their series against the San Francisco Giants without Shohei Ohtani in the lineup.
Manager Dave Roberts revealed prior to Tuesday’s loss that the Dodgers had already decided on not having Ohtani hit in the finale against the Giants. Roberts left open the possibility of Ohtani filling his two-way role Wednesday, but that he was “probably leaning toward not having him hit tomorrow.”
After the Dodgers’ 6-2 loss, Roberts confirmed Ohtani is only going to pitch against the Giants on Wednesday. It’s going to mark a fourth instance out of seven pitching starts that Ohtani was not also in the Dodgers lineup, and the third start in a row that’s been the case.
Dalton Rushing was the Dodgers’ designated hitter and in the leadoff spot when Ohtani pitched on April 28 and May 5.
Why aren’t Dodgers letting Shohei Ohtani hit?
The Dodgers’ decision to not have Ohtani in the lineup for their next two games ironically comes as he just put forth an encouraging effort.
Ohtani hit a home run and reached base base safely in three of five plate appearances on Tuesday night. Ohtani’s opposite-field blast in third inning was his first homer since April 26, which was a stretch of 52 plate appearances. It also represented just Ohtani’s second home run in his last 111 plate appearances.
“You just can’t be reactive over one game. You really can’t,” Roberts said. “I’ve talked about the workload and I’ve talked to him at length about it. It’s tough on days he pitches. I don’t think it’s fair to the player just to assume, he threw out a couple knocks so he should be in there tomorrow. I don’t like playing that game.
“We were both good with it. I don’t like the bait-and-switch. I think that sometimes that might’ve been something where, you know, you get a couple days off of hitting and it might have freed him up. You just never know.”
The stretch this week is going to mark only the second time in Ohtani’s Dodgers career that he is not in their lineup for consecutive games. The first occurrence was last year, when Ohtani missed back-to-back games against the Texas Rangers while on paternity leave.
When excluding injury and the paternity list, it’s going to be the first time Ohtani is out of his team’s lineup two games in a row since he was with the Los Angeles Angels in 2021, and he missed parts of series against National League teams because the universal DH had not yet been implemented.
Managing Ohtani’s workload has become a significant topic this season, particularly with a slow start at the plate and now current slump.
“I’m learning that you have to be proactive, because he’s always going to want to do more,” Roberts explained. “He has that responsibility, that sense of responsibility to his teammates, that he wants to get out there on both ways. So I think I’ve learned that I have to be proactive and take it out of his hands, like most great players.”
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