{"id":795924,"date":"2026-09-03T22:45:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/795924\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T22:45:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T22:45:27","slug":"dodgers-sit-shohei-ohtani-for-series-finale-against-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/795924\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers sit Shohei Ohtani for series finale against Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Shohei Ohtani<\/a> was out of the lineup Thursday, when the Dodgers<\/a> posted their batting order hours before the team\u2019s series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals.<\/p>\n

Ohtani\u2019s health has been scrutinized for much of the season and even more over the last week. He hasn\u2019t pitched since July 3 because of soreness and threw a bullpen session last Friday<\/a> in hopes of pitching one inning Sunday against the Detroit Tigers. But, not feeling \u201c100%,\u201d<\/a> as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> put it, Ohtani didn\u2019t return to the mound, and his throwing progression stalled.<\/p>\n

Though Roberts described Ohtani\u2019s ailment as an overall issue, including his left knee and right biceps, he remained in the lineup. Roberts said then that he\u2019d been given no indication that swinging the bat was affecting Ohtani, but if that changed, the manager would have no problem with sitting the superstar.<\/p>\n

Wednesday, as Ohtani went 0 for 4 in the midst of a two-for-23 skid, seemed to be a turning point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw the same thing that everyone saw,\u201d Roberts said after the Dodgers\u2019 8-6 loss to the Cardinals<\/a>. \u201cI saw the shaking of the arm, I saw the wincing, and clearly the swings aren\u2019t who he is. And so, obviously, there\u2019s some compensation. So I\u2019m going to talk to him, and then I\u2019ll make a decision about his availability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts said a stint on the injured list was \u201cvery unlikely,\u201d noting that he\u2019d talk with Ohtani and the training staff.<\/p>\n

Ohtani has declined requests for comment through a team spokesperson and hasn\u2019t addressed reporters in more than two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe definitely doesn\u2019t want to take the day [off],\u201d Roberts said Wednesday. \u201cSpeaking for him, I know he feels that he needs to post and be in the lineup, and if he\u2019s upright, he should play. I respect that. But if he\u2019s feeling the way that it visibly looks, then it\u2019s really not helping anyone. So that\u2019s the conversation I\u2019ll have with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Managing Ohtani\u2019s health will continue to be a priority for the Dodgers. He\u2019s been dealing with lingering knee soreness and inflammation since at least mid-June, and his biceps issue has flared several times this season.<\/p>\n

Ohtani\u2019s buildup back to pitching has been halted twice since he received an Orthovisc injection to lubricate the knee joint over the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

As valuable as Ohtani is to the Dodgers as a pitcher, his offensive impact is needed far more, especially with left-hander Tarik Skubal added to the rotation<\/a>. If continuing to try to pitch jeopardizes Ohtani\u2019s production with his bat, it may be in the team\u2019s best interest to take pitching off the table for him.<\/p>\n

Tommy Edman was penciled into the leadoff spot and will play center field, while Alex Call will be the designated hitter and bat eighth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani was out of the lineup Thursday, when the Dodgers posted their batting order hours before the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,4357,160,7880,39,1648,5954,1994,4,1258,1602,1479,10973,468,23303,673,67,4311,4310,235,1372],"class_list":["post-795924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-louis-cardinals","tag-baseball","tag-bat","tag-cardinals","tag-dodger","tag-dodgers","tag-health","tag-last-week","tag-lineup","tag-mlb","tag-ohtani","tag-roberts","tag-season","tag-series-finale","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-soreness","tag-st-louis","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-stlouis","tag-stlouiscardinals","tag-team","tag-wednesday"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117209538441584970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}