Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani partially dislocated his left shoulder during the seventh inning of Saturday’s Game 2 of the World Series against the New York Yankees while trying to steal second base.
Ohtani’s status for Monday’s Game 3 in New York is uncertain. Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani “had a little left shoulder subluxation” and would undergo imaging tests either Saturday night or Sunday.
Ohtani grabbed his left forearm after being tagged by shortstop Anthony Volpe for the final out of the inning during a feet-first slide. He stayed near the bag for a couple of minutes before trainers came to help him and he left the field.
“We’ll know more in the next couple days,” Roberts said. “The strength was great. The range of motion good. So we’re encouraged. But obviously I can’t speculate because we don’t get the scans yet. So once we get the scans, we’ll know more. Again, with the strength, the range of motion good, that’s certainly a positive.”
The Dodgers managed to secure a 4-2 victory and now lead the Series 2-0.
The Japanese slugger — who is likely to be the National League MVP — went 0 for 3 with a walk in the game. He is 1 for 8 in the first two games of the Fall Classic and has a batting average of .260 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in his first postseason in the majors.
“That was tough. You never like seeing the best player in the game get injured like that,” Yankees superstar Aaron Judge said. “Trying to steal a base like that there, and something like that happens. But hopefully it’s all good news. We’ll see what happens.”
Ohtani had been one of the few players on the Dodgers roster who got through the season without a major injury. The pitching staff has faced many injuries, with almost every starter spending time on the injured list.
Among the position players, Mookie Betts was out for nearly two months because of a broken left hand, and Max Muncy missed nearly half the season due to a right oblique strain. Freddie Freeman is playing in the postseason with a badly sprained right ankle.
Betts is hopeful about the Dodgers’ chances if Ohtani is out, especially after the team managed to overcome its injuries to earn the most wins in the majors during the regular season and reach the World Series for the fourth time in eight seasons.
“We’ve got a great group of guys in here and I believe we can take care of business for sure. I believe in us all,” Betts said.
Most of Ohtani’s injuries since joining the majors in 2018 have been related to pitching, including major surgeries on his right elbow in 2018 and last year. The two-way star has not pitched this year but made history as the first player in the majors with at least 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a season.
In September 2019, he had surgery on his left kneecap due to a rare condition. The surgery was for his bipartite patella, which is a two-part kneecap that didn’t fuse together at birth.
Ohtani missed the 2017 World Baseball Classic after having ankle surgery because of an injury he got during the 2016 Japan Series.
“When you have a group like this, they picked me up when I have been down. We’ll try to do the same for him,” Freeman said.
