CHICAGO — A day after setting off alarm bells by leaving a game early, Shohei Ohtani was not in the Dodgers’ lineup on Friday. But Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he was feeling “fine-ish.”
Ohtani went for imaging on his left knee in Chicago on Friday, Roberts said, and there were “no findings.”
“It’s just the normal wear and tear,” Roberts said. “I thought initially it was a hamstring. It was the knee. So, it just kind of got upset, swelled up a little bit. So we were kind of getting ahead of it. (It was) smart getting him out of the game which I think was prudent. And then with the travel, it’s just to give him an extra day.
“My hope is that he’s in there tomorrow. But if not, he’ll need another day. But it’s something that I think we can manage. Not an IL situation.”
Ohtani was pinch-hit for in the seventh inning of Thursday’s 8-6 win in Pittsburgh after feeling discomfort in his left knee while running the bases. Initially, Roberts blamed it on an aborted stolen base attempt in the fourth inning (Andy Pages fouled the pitch off). But he said after talking to Ohtani, it didn’t sound like there was any specific cause.
“There is no incident. We don’t know. He doesn’t know,” Roberts said Friday. “I asked him if it was during the pitching (Ohtani threw 102 pitches in 6⅔ innings on Wednesday)? Was it when he was hitting? When he was trying to steal a base? And there was no one incident. So I don’t know. I think that’s maybe a good thing.”
Roberts said Ohtani would be re-evaluated on Saturday but “if it was another time of the season, he’d be in there.” Ohtani is scheduled to make his next pitching start on Wednesday in against the Tampa Bay Rays in Los Angeles. That is not affected “as of now,” Roberts said.
“I don’t think it’s gonna affect (his pitching schedule),” he said. “I expect him to make his start on Wednesday, until I hear otherwise. And I expect him to be in there either tomorrow or the next day, until I hear otherwise.”
Ohtani was not in the lineup – either at pitcher, DH or both – just twice in the Dodgers’ first 69 games this season. Both were games the Dodgers decided to rest him the day after he pitched.
“The running, the swinging, the landing when you’re pitching – that’s just the natural, what happens to your body,” Roberts said. “So I think that something probably just (ticked) it off a little bit. But now we can kind of manage the symptoms and feel good about it going forward.”
REHAB ROUNDUP
Right-hander Brock Stewart joined Class-A Ontario to start another rehab assignment Friday.
Stewart went through a month-long rehab assignment with Ontario and Triple-A Oklahoma City earlier this year as he returned from shoulder surgery last fall. But he went back on the Injured List after just two appearances with the Dodgers when a bone spur in his left foot flared up.
It’s not clear how long Stewart will need to build back up in the minors this time.
“I don’t know that answer,” Roberts said. “I know it’s a buildup situation but it’s also his foot, kind of how that responds to the workload.”
Meanwhile, Tommy Edman is nearing the end of his rehab assignment with OKC and could be activated from the 60-day Injured List as soon as Tuesday.
Edman has played center field, left field, third base and second base in 11 games in Triple-A, batting .225. Roberts has said Edman will primarily be used at second base when he is activated to make his season debut.
Edman had surgery on his right ankle in November to repair a ligament and remove loose bodies in the joint.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Roberts said Tyler Glasnow “feels great” and is going to re-start his throwing program. Glasnow is on the 60-day IL with a lower back issue and had been shut down after experiencing continued discomfort.
And Blake Snell is continuing his throwing progression after starting to pay light catch during the Dodgers’ homestand last week. He had the ‘NanoNeedle’ procedure to remove bone chips from his left elbow on May 19.
UP NEXT
Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 6-4, 2.68 ERA) at White Sox (RHP Sean Burke, 3-3, 3.88 ERA), Saturday, 1:10 p.m.,SportsNet LA, 570 AM