{"id":911363,"date":"2026-07-04T05:25:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T05:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/911363\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T05:25:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T05:25:25","slug":"dodgers-shohei-ohtani-wont-play-saturday-after-precautionary-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/911363\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani won’t play Saturday after precautionary move"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing<\/a> tapped Shohei Ohtani<\/a> from behind with his glove, as he passed the two-way superstar putting on his hitting guards at the entrance to the dugout.<\/p>\n

By the time of that brief exchange in the fourth inning, the battery was already looking, if not completely dominant, at least more in sync Friday, setting up their team for a 4-3 win<\/a> against the Padres highlighted by Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>\u2018s grand slam in the seventh.<\/p>\n

As Ohtani held the Padres to three runs through six innings, the battery had a much smoother ride than the previous week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez hits a grand slam for the Dodgers against the San Diego Padres on Friday.<\/p>\n

Ohtani took his at-bat in the sixth but was replaced by pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas in the seventh after feeling something in his right biceps during his final at-bat. He told reporters the move was \u201cprecautionary\u201d and that he felt something in the same spot a couple months ago that cleared up relatively quickly.<\/p>\n

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said postgame that Ohtani won\u2019t be the designated hitter on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The last time Rushing caught Ohtani, the pitcher took over pitch-calling after a disastrous second inning against the Twins last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just overthought last time,\u201d Rushing said in a conversation with The Times on Thursday night. \u201cI was trying to be perfect, and with a guy like that, you don\u2019t have to be perfect. You just need to call the right pitches at the right time and allow his stuff to just beat them naturally. And that\u2019s the plan [Friday]. Whether I call the pitch, he calls the pitch. I want to make sure we\u2019re both convicted in what we\u2019re throwing, and we can execute it to the best of our ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, Ohtani handed back over pitch-calling duties, communicating with head shakes and nods instead of the PitchCom buttons on his arm.<\/p>\n

Ohtani walked the first two batters he faced. But then he struck out three of the next four, escaping the jam down just 1-0, courtesy of an RBI single from Gavin Sheets.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

That started a streak of 10 batters who Ohtani retired in order, fanning six of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way that I can describe it is, if it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it,\u201d Rushing said when asked what he\u2019d learned from following along last week. \u201cThat\u2019s the way he pitches. … Trust what you do, trust how good his stuff is, and just go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani\u2019s back-to-back strikeouts to end the second inning were a good example. Against left-handed hitting Sung-Mun Song, he threw mostly four-seam fastballs and splitters, finishing off the six-pitch at-bat with a sweeper, according to Statcast.<\/p>\n

Against right-handed hitting Rodolfo Dur\u00e1n, Ohtani threw mostly sinkers and sweepers, with one four-seamer mixed in out of seven pitches.<\/p>\n

Ohtani eventually relented a second run with two outs in the fourth inning. He fell behind 0-2 in the count to Jackson Merrill, who flipped a strike call with an ABS challenge. Then Merrill hammered a fastball over the plate for a solo homer.<\/p>\n

Ohtani successfully navigated traffic to throw a scoreless fifth, but Xander Bogaerts tagged him for an RBI double in the sixth.<\/p>\n

Ohtani gave up seven hits for a quality start that wasn\u2019t his cleanest but was enough for the Dodgers to win after Hern\u00e1ndez\u2019s blast.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers struggled to get anything going against Padres starter Michael King. But he turned the game over to reliever Adrian Morejon with two runners on and no outs in the seventh. Two batters later, Hern\u00e1ndez ambushed a first-pitch slider.<\/p>\n

\"Teoscar <\/p>\n

Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez hits a grand slam in the seventh inning of the Dodgers\u2019 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1ndez drifted up the first-base line as he watched the ball fly. When it landed, he launched his bat back toward the dugout, and it made it halfway there.<\/p>\n

The home run helped dissolve any lingering worries about Rushing and Ohtani\u2019s pairing.<\/p>\n

Rushing has been the Dodgers\u2019 primary catcher since June 6, when a neck injury sidelined Will Smith. The Dodgers initially expected the problem to resolve with a day or two of rest. But after stalled progress and an injection to address it, Smith is not expected to return from the injured list until after the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s at least progressing through baseball activities. Smith has resumed throwing and took swings on Thursday, Roberts said.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers pushed back Ohtani\u2019s start this week from Wednesday against the A\u2019s to Friday against a division rival. The change in schedule likely means he won\u2019t pitch in the All-Star Game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just kind of do the math it would be hard to imagine,\u201d said Roberts, who will also manage the NL All-Star team. \u201cBut I don\u2019t have to make that decision quite yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ohtani is lined up to pitch again next Friday against the Diamondbacks, four days before the All-Star Game. The break from pitching could also benefit his left knee, a problem that seems to have been aggravated by pitching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe knee feels as good as it\u2019s felt in quite some time,\u201d Roberts said before the game Friday, \u201cso that\u2019s encouraging for tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing tapped Shohei Ohtani from behind with his glove, as he passed the two-way superstar…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":911364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[11632,1582,276,35123,2442,293774,5951,5208,1910,2961,224,5337,8037,21700,4712,315292,5957,6620,5956,2030],"class_list":["post-911363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-batter","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-dalton-rushing","tag-dodgers","tag-four-seam-fastball","tag-fourth-inning","tag-friday","tag-game","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-padres","tag-pitch","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-sync","tag-teoscar-hernandez","tag-time","tag-will-smith","tag-win"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116860049698990719","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911363","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=911363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}