PITTSBURGH –– Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani left the team’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday with left knee inflammation, the team announced.
It was not immediately clear when Ohtani got hurt, and how severe his injury was. But, when his spot in the batting order came up in the top of the seventh, it was Santiago Espinal who came to the plate as a pinch-hitter.
Ohtani’s injury was the second one to force a Dodgers player from Thursday’s game, after starting pitcher Justin Wrobleski exited in the fifth following a comebacker that struck him in the leg.
The team announced that Wrobleski, who was charged with four runs in his 4 ⅔-innings start, had suffered a right hamstring contusion.
Prior to Ohtani’s departure, the two-way star was putting together another banner night.
He led off the game with a walk in the first, then lined a solo home run to right field to open the scoring in the third inning –– giving him his 13th home run of the year, and two in as many nights.
Ohtani then got a two-run rally started in the fourth with a two-out single. In that sequence, he raced from first to third on Andy Pages’ base hit the following at-bat, then trotted home on a flared line drive from Freddie Freeman.
Ohtani’s final at-bat came in the fifth, when he drew a two-out walk and was left stranded at first.
Thursday marked the first time in more than a month that Ohtani was playing the day after a pitching start. On Wednesday, he pitched 6 ⅔ innings in a loss to the Pirates, and also had a home run in the ninth inning as a hitter. Unlike his past four trips to the mound, the Dodgers decided not to rest him the day after, a decision manager Dave Roberts said earlier this week was based in part on the team having just recently had a day off on Monday.
Ohtani’s left leg is the one he lands on when he pitches.
Ohtani has had an injury to his left knee before, undergoing surgery in September 2019 to repair a bipartite patella.
There was no obvious indication earlier on Thursday that Ohtani was experiencing any issue with his knee. Outside of his trip around the bases in the fourth, his only other running came when he slid into second on a double-play ball back in the first.
The source of Wrobleski’s injury was much easier to pinpoint, as he took a 96.2 mph comebacker from Bryan Reynolds off his leg in the fifth inning before getting tangled with Reynolds at first while covering the base.
Wrobleski immediately bent down in discomfort, then walked off the field alongside a trainer.
In the at-bat prior to getting hurt, Wrobleski had allowed a three-run home run to Brandon Lowe.
