Ohtani Exits With Biceps Tightness; Dodgers Weigh Skipping Start
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- Shohei Ohtani threw a season-high 110 pitches in the Dodgers' 4-3 comeback win over the Padres on Friday night, striking out nine across six innings before being pulled in the seventh after his right biceps tightened on a swing in the sixth.
- Dave Roberts said the Dodgers will hold Ohtani out of the lineup Saturday as a precaution and that skipping his next start before the All-Star break "should be on the table," citing the physical toll of being a two-way player.
- Teoscar Hernández delivered the go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning off the bench, erasing a 3-0 deficit before 49,578 fans and handing the Padres their seventh straight loss.
- Ohtani, speaking through an interpreter, said he dealt with a similar biceps issue "a couple months ago" that "went away relatively quickly" and said he expects the same outcome again.
- Roberts noted Ohtani had an ice pack on his left knee afterward — a joint that has required maintenance in recent weeks — but said it "didn't bother him" during his heaviest workload since 2023.
- The Dodgers had already pushed Ohtani's start from Wednesday to Friday to align him against the Padres and Diamondbacks on consecutive Fridays before the break, a move Roberts acknowledged made pitching in the All-Star Game on short rest "highly unlikely."
Why it matters: The Dodgers' Ohtani workload gamble just became a live decision: pushing his start to line up division matchups before the break already made an All-Star Game appearance unlikely on short rest, and the biceps issue now forces Roberts to weigh protecting his franchise two-way player against competitive urgency with the Padres slumping and the Diamondbacks looming.
