Los Angeles — Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani He partially dislocated his left shoulder during the seventh inning of Game 2 on Saturday World Series Against the New York Yankees when he tried to steal second base.
Ohtani’s status for Monday’s Game 3 in New York remains unclear. Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani “had a slight left shoulder subluxation” and would receive imaging tests Saturday night or Sunday.
After being tagged out by shortstop Anthony Volpe for the final out of the inning on a foot-first slide, Ohtani clutched his left forearm. He lay by the bag for a couple of minutes before leaving the coaches and field.
“We’ll know more in the next couple of days,” Roberts said. “The strength was high. The range of motion is good. So we’re encouraged. But obviously I can’t speculate because we haven’t gotten the scans yet. So once we get the scans, we’ll know more. Again, with the strength, the range of motion is good, so that’s definitely a positive.”
The Dodgers held on A 4-2 win and lead the series 2-0.
The Japanese slugger — and presumptive National League MVP — was 0 for 3 with a walk in the game. He was 1 for 8 in the first two games of the Fall Classic and is batting .260 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in his first season in the majors.
“It was tough. You never want the best player in the game to get hurt,” Yankees superstar Aaron Judge said. “To be out there trying to steal a base like that, something like that happens. But I hope it’s all good news. We’ll see what happens.”
Ohtani is one of the few players on the Dodgers roster to go through the season without a major injury. The pitching staff is beset by injuries, with every member of the starting rotation spending time on the injured list.
Among the position players, Mookie Betts is out for nearly two months with a broken left hand, and Max Muncie is out for nearly half the season with a right oblique strain. Freddie Freeman is playing in the postseason with a badly sprained right ankle.
Betts is confident the Dodgers will persevere if Ohtani is sidelined, especially as the team overcame injuries during the regular season with the most wins in the majors and reaching the World Series for the fourth time in eight seasons.
“We’ve got a great bunch of guys and I’m sure we can take care of business. I’m confident in all of us,” Betts said.
Most of Ohtani’s injuries since arriving in the majors in 2018 have been pitching-related, including major surgeries on his right elbow in 2018 and last year. The two-way phenomenon didn’t start this year, but he became the first player in major league history to hit at least 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a season.
In September 2019, he underwent surgery on his left knee due to a rare condition. This process was in his bilateral patella, or two-part knee cap that was not fused together at birth.
Ohtani missed the 2017 World Baseball Classic after undergoing ankle surgery following an injury sustained during the 2016 Japan Series.
“When you have a team like this, they picked me up when I was down. Let’s try to do the same for him,” Freeman said.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
