The Los Angeles Dodgers have made it clear they will not overextend two-way star Shohei Ohtani on the mound in his comeback from elbow surgery.
Instead, they are slowly stretching his starts, from an inning in his season debut on June 16 to 4 1/3 innings on Aug. 13. Against the Colorado Rockies in Denver, Ohtani (0-0, 3.47 ERA) will make his 10th start of the season on Wednesday night, and will he finally throw enough innings — five — to qualify for a win?
Colorado will counter with fellow right-hander Tanner Gordon (3-5, 7.98), who is making his first career start against the National League West rival.
The Dodgers evened the four-game series with an 11-4 win on Tuesday night. Los Angeles had 18 hits to beat the Rockies for the 11th time in the past 12 games.
Ohtani had a procedure to repair the ulnar collateral ligament on his right elbow in September 2023 and didn’t pitch last season, his first with the Dodgers. He has continued to serve as the designated hitter for Los Angeles as he ramps up his mound activity and is tied with Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber for the National League lead in homers with 44.
Ohtani’s only appearance with the Dodgers as a pitcher came on July 26, 2021, when he was with the Los Angeles Angels. He got the 6-2 win with seven innings of one-run ball.
The Dodgers will look for better defense behind Ohtani. In a 4-3 Los Angles loss on Monday, Teoscar Hernandez couldn’t track down a ninth-inning double by Ezequiel Tovar, and he scored on a walk-off single.
Manager Dave Roberts called out Hernandez after Monday night’s game. When asked Tuesday about his team’s fielding, Roberts said he has at times used a lineup that is better offensively than defensively.
“Well, you still got to score,” Roberts told reporters. “So are we playing our best defensive lineup? No, but I would say that there are very few teams in the big leagues playing their best defensive lineup every night.”
It has been the offense that has carried the Rockies to a 14-16 mark since the All-Star break. The Rockies tied a season high with four straight wins before dropping Tuesday’s game.
The turnaround has put Colorado on pace to avoid setting a modern era record for losses, which is held by the 2024 Chicago White Sox, who finished 41-121.
And they have been helped by their rookies, two of whom figured into the Monday win: Ryan Ritter, who had a two-run single early in the game, and Warming Bernabel, who delivered the game-winning hit.
Interim manager Warren Schaeffer said players have improved their approach at the plate.
“You have Kyle Karros at third and Bernabel at first, and both of them, their biggest strength is putting the ball in play,” Schaeffer said. “But there are other guys, too. I think the approach has gotten better consistently and our batting average has gone up every month of the year.”
Karros, the son of 1992 National League Rookie of the Year Eric Karros, hit his first major league homer on Tuesday. Karros made his debut Aug. 8 at Arizona and is batting .270 in his first 12 games.
–Field Level Media
