Shohei Ohtani took the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays already dealing with questions about his troublesome left knee. By the time his outing ended, attention had shifted to a different issue: a blister on his pitching hand.
Los Angeles still rallied for a 5-4 victory to finish off a three-game sweep of the visiting Rays, but the start was Ohtani’s roughest of the season from a run-prevention perspective.
The outing followed a June 10 appearance against the Pittsburgh Pirates in which Ohtani gave up four runs, three of them earned. In the span of those two starts, his ERA climbed from 0.74 to 1.47. Even with that jump, Ohtani still owns the second-best ERA in the majors among pitchers with at least 50 innings this season, trailing only Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski, who sits at 1.34.
For much of the night, Ohtani looked sharp against Tampa Bay, breezing through four scoreless innings with lively stuff. The game changed in the fifth, when a blister on his right middle finger — a lingering problem since early May — reopened and clearly impacted the effectiveness of his pitches.
With the blister becoming a factor, the top of the fifth quickly unraveled while Ohtani remained on the mound.
- Walk
- Double
- Sac fly
- Single
- Single
- Single
- Ground-out
- Single
- Ground-out (bunt)
He still managed to get through the inning, but not before the Dodgers’ 2-0 lead had turned into a 4-2 deficit. In a potentially positive sign for his knee, manager Dave Roberts sent Ohtani up to pinch-hit in the bottom of the fifth for designated hitter Miguel Rojas. Ohtani grounded out on the first pitch he saw, and the Dodgers forfeited the DH for the rest of the game, a gamble Roberts was willing to make because of Ohtani’s power. Perhaps even more encouraging, Ohtani returned for the sixth after the blister flare-up and retired the side in order, recording one strikeout. His outing ended there after 91 pitches.
Speaking of the knee, Ohtani was removed from last Thursday’s game against the Pirates with inflammation following a stolen base attempt. However, as MLB.com notes, Ohtani himself has attributed the knee problem to an issue with his pitching mechanics. He has been able to DH in recent days, and the Dodgers have repeatedly indicated that the knee soreness is not a major concern.
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As for his fifth-inning mound struggles on Wednesday, Roberts indicated post-game that Ohtani was still “working through some delivery stuff with the knee,” but mostly it appeared to be a blister issue.
Even so, Ohtani downplayed the effects of the blister in his post-game remarks. “Just part of the game,” Ohtani said of his knee and blister problems through an interpreter after Wednesday’s contest. “There’s not a lot of situations where you feel 100%, so I just took it as that, and it’s big that we were able to win a game like this.”
Ohtani also dismissed concerns about the blister affecting his performance following the start in Pittsburgh.
Asked post-game whether extra rest between starts might be a consideration for Ohtani, manager Dave Roberts said “potentially” that would be an option in the future. However, Roberts also said, “So I feel good that right now I don’t see why he won’t make his next start (as scheduled).”
That next start, assuming Ohtani remains on schedule, would likely come against the Twins on Wednesday.
