Shohei Ohtani Ready to Pitch: Dodgers Plan Six-Man Rotation
Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way star Shohei Ohtani is scheduled to take the mound on Wednesday, continuing his preparation following elbow surgery that prevented him from pitching all last season. Manager Dave Roberts announced on Sunday, before the game against the Boston Red Sox, that Ohtani will work four innings in Cincinnati, with a day off to recover before batting in a game. With the Japanese star in the recovery process, along with left-handed pitcher Blake Snell, who pitched 4 1/3 innings on Saturday in his fourth rehabilitation start for Triple-A Oklahoma City, the Dodgers will implement a six-man rotation. The current rotation includes Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Emmet Sheehan. “Shohei will pitch on Wednesday and likely the following Wednesday, which probably lends itself to the six-man [rotation],” Roberts said. In Ohtani’s last start, he allowed one run and four hits in three innings against Minnesota on July 22. He struck out three and walked one, throwing 46 pitches, 30 of them strikes. Roberts indicated that this season is a kind of rehabilitation year in the Major Leagues and does not foresee the team extending Ohtani’s workload throughout the games for a while.“I think this whole year, on the pitching side, is kind of a rehabilitation, maintenance,” he said. “We’re not going to let the reins go and say, ‘Hey, you can throw 110 pitches.’ I don’t see that happening for a long time. I think staying at four [innings] for a while, then going up to five and we’ll see where we can get from there.”
