MIAMI — It wasn’t lost on at least two people that the eight-game winning streak the Dodgers took into Saturday was built with Shohei Ohtani missing seven of the eight games and Freddie Freeman the last two.
“‘They don’t need us, Sho,’” Freeman said he joked with Ohtani.
While Ohtani is on the injured list and ineligible to come back until Sept. 23, Freeman was back in the Dodgers’ lineup Saturday in Miami after missing two games (plus the team’s off day on Thursday) with what he described as “patellar tendinitis” in his right knee.
“You shouldn’t be worried. I feel much better. Night and day better,” he said before the game. “I’ve had it before many times, same knee.”
That’s an important knee for Freeman. His swing is dependent on hitting off his front side. As the pain in his right knee built over the past two weeks, it showed in his results. Before being shut down for two games, he slipped into a 3-for-22 slump.
“I need it. It’s very important for me,” Freeman said of a strong front side. “I was just talking to my dad and he said it (Freeman’s swing) was just so loopy and you’re normally so compact. I just said, “Yeah, I just couldn’t sit into it.’ It wasn’t like it was debilitating but it was affecting.
“The thought was we’ve got an 11-game lead, let’s just sit then I have two weeks left to get my swing right for the playoffs.”
Freeman said he was “ready to gut it out like I normally do” and play Friday but thought better of it. He did hit in the batting cage during the game “just to get it moving” and went through his normal pregame routine Saturday.
“I think he’s in a much better spot today,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday. “I think it’s one of those things where we’ve got to manage it, and when I say that, it’s probably, just pick spots to give him an off day here or there, because again, we’ve just got to make sure he’s at optimal health when we finish the season. So I think that he might not love it, but giving him a day off here or there might be beneficial.
“I think with him, like any hitter, where they’re not healthy, certainly on the lower half, their swing is compromised, and that last sort of three games that we saw Freddie last just were atypical of him. So hopefully, if he’s pain-free, then I think he’ll be in a better spot.”
NO SHO
Ohtani did not make the trip with the Dodgers and won’t do any baseball activity this weekend, according to Roberts.
“I think right now just rest and recovery is kind of the thought,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers have shared no specific diagnosis for the biceps soreness that appears to have become a bigger issue than Ohtani’s left knee pain. During his postgame interview with the Japanese media earlier this week, Ohtani said the pain bothers him at two points in his swing – when he starts and when he finishes.
“There’s nothing as far as the diagnosis, as far as anything that’s outside of just it’s bothersome. His right bicep is bothersome when he swings,” said Roberts, who did acknowledge last week that Ohtani had imaging done on his arm earlier in the summer and there were “no findings” other than inflammation.
“The knee is still sore, but right now it’s the bicep arm that’s kind of bothering. But I don’t know outside of what more specific I can say than the bicep.”
Roberts said Ohtani will take “a few days” off from swinging a bat “and then let’s sort of re-evaluate” how soon he can resume activity and when he might return to game action. As it is, Ohtani is on the shelf until Sept. 23 at the earliest, leaving him potentially only five games to play in preparation for the postseason.
SUNDAY STARTS
Roberts said Miguel Rojas will be in the starting lineup Sunday.
Rojas has said he plans to retire after this season, making Sunday his last chance to play in Miami, where he spent eight seasons and became an everyday player for the first time in the majors.
Also, right-hander Emmet Sheehan will pitch ‘bulk’ Sunday though Roberts said it could be as the starter or following an opener.
ALSO
Dodgers broadcaster and former Marlins pitcher Dontrelle Willis will be honored before Sunday’s game and inducted into the Marlins Legends Hall of Fame. Willis was the 2003 National League Rookie of the Year, a two-time All-Star, Cy Young runner-up in 2005 and won 68 games in five seasons with the Marlins.
UP NEXT
Dodgers (RHP Emmet Sheehan, 5-8, 5.08 ERA) at Marlins (RHP Eury Perez, 7-11, 3.94 ERA), 10:40 a.m. PT Sunday, SportsNet LA, 570 AM