NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani was at the top of the Dodgers’ lineup Friday against the New York Yankees, five days after receiving an injection in his left knee. And he’s penciled in to pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
Ohtani received an orthovisc shot in his knee to lubricate the joint and relieve irritation, manager Dave Roberts said, and did not have it drained.
“It gives him some relief in his knee which we were hoping to get,” Roberts said. “Then the four days off with no activity which gives it a chance to settle in.”
Ohtani was expected to be in the lineup for all three games against the Yankees. He planned to play catch and throw off the mound in the coming days, and the team would monitor his response before finalizing pitching plans.
Taking the mound Wednesday would give Ohtani more recovery time heading into the team’s day off. When asked if Ohtani would shoulder two-way duties Wednesday, Roberts said, “We’ll see when we get there.”
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani hits his 300th career home run against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium on July 7.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
When it isn’t possible to have Ohtani pitch before a day off, Roberts would like to rest him the following day.
“It’s all contingent on how his knee is feeling,” Roberts said of Ohtani’s second-half workload. “I think we are certainly more prepared to back off on the workload if it calls for it. But Shohei wants to be out there as much as he possibly can.”
Asked if Ohtani would need offseason surgery, Roberts said: “I would highly doubt that.”
Coming out of the break, the Dodgers shuffled their rotation to have Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan and Yoshinobu Yamamoto face the Yankees in that order.
That leaves left-handed starters Eric Lauer and Justin Wrobleski (not necessarily in that order), to face the Phillies before Ohtani would take the mound.
Smith shut down
The Dodgers are shutting down catcher Will Smith from all baseball activities for a week as he continues to deal with a lingering neck injury. That pushes his return timeline back to at least August, if not later.
“It was flaring up, wasn’t recovering — however you want to word it,” Roberts said. “He didn’t feel like he was making any improvement.”
Smith has been sidelined since early June because of what he described as an inflamed disk. He initially treated it with rest and then an injection. But it still was bothering him during his latest buildup.
“I talked to the trainer, Thomas [Albert], today and he said that Will doesn’t feel any pain,” Roberts said. “Now with that, I think we’re in a much better spot.”
Dodgers utility player Kiké Hernández (strained left oblique) was set to begin a rehab assignment with triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday. And left-hander Blake Snell was scheduled to take the mound for two innings Saturday in his first minor-league rehab start since undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow.
Air quality concerns
The MLB schedule got off to a smoky start out of the All-Star break. With wildfires in Canada raising air-quality concerns in the Northeast and Midwest on Thursday, the New York Mets’ game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia was moved up an hour.
The smoke cleared over Yankee Stadium on Friday afternoon.
“I know that the players got a players’ union text that says it’s a full go,” Roberts said. “They feel good about it. The league feels good. I haven’t heard anything otherwise.”
2027 schedule
With a lockout widely expected to start Dec. 1 and no guarantee of an agreement in time to preserve the 2027 season, take MLB’s schedule announcement Thursday with a grain of salt.
Should collective bargaining negotiations wrap up in time, however, the Dodgers are set to open the season at Dodger Stadium on March 25 against the Atlanta Braves.
They end the season on the road, facing a pair of division rivals in the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks from Sept. 21-26.
