{"id":107991,"date":"2025-07-31T16:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107991\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T16:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T16:34:11","slug":"shohei-ohtani-has-positive-update-after-leaving-mound-early-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/107991\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani has positive update after leaving mound early \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani is hopeful that he will be able to make his next mound start after his outing Wednesday night was cut short<\/a> by cramping in his right hip.<\/p>\n

Ohtani<\/a> was scheduled to go four innings on a hot, humid night against the Cincinnati Reds, but he left without recording an out in the fourth after he threw six straight balls, including two consecutive wild pitches.<\/p>\n

The 31-year old reigning NL MVP said he started to cramp in the first inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust tried to work around it. I was able to do so up until the third and it didn\u2019t quite work out in the fourth,\u201d Ohtani said through an interpreter after the\u00a0Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 5-2 loss.<\/p>\n

Ohtani and manager Dave Roberts both blamed the cramping on the weather. The temperature at first pitch was 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) with a heat index near 100.<\/p>\n

Roberts went out with the trainer after Ohtani threw a 86.3 mph sweeper that was low and outside the strike zone for a 2-0 count to Spencer Steer. After a conference on the mound, Ohtani left with the trainer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just saw a funky throw. The follow-through just didn\u2019t look right. And then he threw another pitch and I just didn\u2019t see the finish the right way,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cIt was very concerning because I didn\u2019t know what it was. He said it was his hip. I talked to him and he said it was the humidity. So I feel better knowing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani \u2014 who leads the NL with 38 home runs \u2014 remained in the game at designated hitter, but went 0 for 5, a day after he struck out four times. He hit a line drive to Cincinnati center fielder Will Benson for the final out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t play defense. That helped, but at the same time we were playing a close game and I wanted to help the team win,\u201d Ohtani said.<\/p>\n

This was Ohtani\u2019s seventh mound start in his comeback from Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, which occurred after the 2023 season. He did not pitch at all last season, his first for the Dodgers after signing a 10-year, $700 million contract, but he starred at DH \u2014 finishing with 54 homers and 59 stolen bases \u2014 and won his third MVP award.<\/p>\n

Even though it was cut short, it still was Ohtani’s longest outing of his pitching comeback.<\/p>\n

He threw 51 pitches, 32 for strikes, and allowed two runs on five hits in three-plus innings. He struck out four and walked two.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good thing about today\u2019s outing is my pitch count was where I wanted it to be. I think this is a step forward in a sense,” said Ohtani, who has a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel great to be honest physically the past couple days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani has allowed four runs, three in the first inning. He has faced 63 batters, striking out 17 and walking five.<\/p>\n

Ohtani’s most-used pitch in his first six outings was the fastball (49%), followed by the sweeper (25%). Against the Reds, he threw only 14 fastballs and 29 sweepers. All eight of the Reds’ swing-and-misses came on the sweeper.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than pitch type it was manipulating the way I was throwing. Just not trying to get too deep on my delivery. Just trying to focus on mechanics,\u201d Ohtani said.<\/p>\n

Noelvi Marte led off the Reds\u2019 fourth with a single and advanced to third on Ohtani\u2019s two wild pitches to Tyler Stephenson, who then walked.<\/p>\n

Ohtani threw two balls to Steer and was replaced by Anthony Banda, who walked Steer and gave up Will Benson\u2019s sacrifice fly that tied the game at 2-all.<\/p>\n

As long as everything checks out, Ohtani’s next start would be Aug. 6 against St. Louis at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’ll have a week and it will be at home, so there won\u2019t be humidity to deal with,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

Ohtani might start having second thoughts though about facing the Reds on the mound. Prior to Wednesday, his last\u00a0pitching appearance against Cincinnati was Aug. 23, 2023,\u00a0for the Los Angeles Angels. He left in the second inning with a torn ligament in his elbow, an injury that led to his second Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani is hopeful that he will be able to make his next…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2442,2961,224,2502,5337,4712],"class_list":{"0":"post-107991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-dodgers","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-shohei-ohtani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}