In retrospect, the secret weapon Dodgers manager Dave Roberts deployed on Wednesday was only surprising because he hadn’t used it before.
The Dodgers were down by a run to the Rays, and Roberts had the best hitter in baseball available to pinch-hit.
So what if he was the starting pitcher? Why wouldn’t Roberts insert him into the game?
Never mind that by the time Shohei Ohtani stepped into the batter’s box in the sixth inning, Freddie Freeman had crushed a two-run homer that gave the Dodgers a 5-4 lead they held for the remainder of the game; or that the at-bat was uneventful, with Ohtani grounding out on the first pitch thrown to him by Rays reliever Kevin Kelly.
The Dodgers have found another way to use Ohtani: On days in which he pitches but isn’t in the offensive lineup, he can pinch-hit.
The more choices a manager has, the better, and Ohtani has presented Roberts with a new option as he tries to balance concerns over his two-way workload and the ramifications of removing his bat from the order.
Baseball’s rules permit a pitcher to pinch-hit for a designated hitter. The main drawback is that by doing so, a team will forfeit the designated hitter for the remainder of the game.
In the case on Wednesday, Ohtani was still in the game in the bottom of the sixth inning, as he’d just pitched the top half of the frame. He batted for Miguel Rojas, who was the designated hitter. That spot in the order never came up again, but if it did, the Dodgers would have to send their pitcher into the batter’s box or use another pinch hitter.
“We were ahead, would I have fired that bullet?” Roberts asked rhetorically. “Probably less likely. But, again, you know, there isn’t much cost if he feels like he can take the at-bat, whether you’re up one or down one or whatever.”
For his part, Ohtani welcomed the assignment.
“I’m ready to go whenever I’m told to,” Ohtani said in Japanese.
Ohtani explained that he hits in the batting cages before games he pitches, regardless of whether he’s hitting.
“I go into the game having done a pretty hard workout,” he said.
He wasn’t able to prepare as much as he usually does for an at-bat, but he said his body was adequately warmed up because he was pitching.
“I thought I was able to take a good approach,” Ohtani said. “I thought it was an at-bat in which I was able to react well.”
The Dodgers are in a difficult position because of their increased dependency on Ohtani. With Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow on the injured list, they need him in their rotation. With Kyle Tucker and Mookie Betts, they need him in their lineup. But what they need more than anything is for him to be healthy.
The pinch-hitting option gives the Dodgers a way to have him remain involved with their offense without overburdening him.
Ohtani’s left knee, in particular, has become a source of apprehension. Ohtani was forced to miss a game because of swelling in the knee, which he blamed on problems with pitching mechanics the previous day.
“I wouldn’t say it’s completely behind us,” Roberts said. “But I feel we can kind of manage it. He’s managing it. The training staff is managing it. But I wouldn’t say [it’s] completely behind us.”
Ohtani is also dealing with a blister on the inside of the middle finger of his pitching hand. The finger was bleeding Wednesday.
“It’s not as if you can always be 100% when you pitch,” Ohtani said. “Things like this happen over the course of a season. I think it was big to be able to win under those conditions.”
As much as Ohtani tried to say his knee and finger didn’t affect him, his numbers suggested otherwise.
His start in Pittsburgh seven days earlier was his worst of the season up to that point, as he gave up three runs and six hits in his team’s 9-8 loss to the Pirates.
His most recent start was even worse, as he was charged with four runs and seven hits in six innings.
Each of the runs he gave up was scored in a five-hit fifth inning for the Rays, which started with Ohtani walking No. 7 hitter Victor Mesa Jr. Ohtani threw 26 pitches in the inning, but Roberts sent him out for another.
By pitching a scoreless sixth inning, Ohtani positioned himself not only to improve his record to 7-2 but also to hit. He might have opened an entirely new realm of possibilities, both for him and the Dodgers.
