CINCINNATI — An ominous sign for the future of the Los Angeles Dodgers came after Shohei Ohtani’s sixth consecutive pitch outside the strike zone Wednesday night. The reigning National League MVP used his glove as a shield to his frustrations as the rest of the baseball world held its collective breath. Making just his seventh pitching appearance in his return from a second major elbow surgery, Ohtani exited the game alongside a trainer.
Ohtani was pitching into the fourth inning against the Cincinnati Reds for the first time in his elongated build-up from surgery, and had thrown a season-high 51 pitches before Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hustled from the visiting dugout. After a brief conversation, Ohtani’s day as a pitcher was over.
However, the television broadcasts both showed Ohtani still in the dugout after being removed. Ohtani was then seen in the on-deck circle, preparing to hit, though his turn in the order did not come up.
The right-hander had flashed some of his premium stuff in the outing, touching 101 mph in the first inning and striking out four batters before his command eluded him in the fourth inning. After Noelvi Marte led off the inning with a single down the third-base line, Ohtani fired a pair of yanked wild pitches on sinkers in what would be a four-pitch walk of Tyler Stephenson. When a fastball and a sweeper missed the zone against Spencer Steer, Roberts went out to check on his valuable two-way star.
The team has played things slow when it comes to Ohtani’s pitching this season, essentially treating major-league games as a minor-league rehab assignment to keep his bat in the Dodgers’ lineup. He has increased his workload in one-inning increments once every two starts, with Wednesday marking the next step forward.
“Obviously the hope and the plan is for him to get through four innings this one as well as the next one,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before Wednesday’s start. “Hot, humid, we’ll see how he is.”
(Photo: AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster)