Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani plays in World Series Game 3 despite being hampered by shoulder injury
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, right, is greeted by manager Dave Roberts during team introductions before Game 3 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium on Monday. Credit: AP/Seth Wenig
Clearly hampered by a partially dislocated left shoulder, Shohei Ohtani played anyway Monday night, contributing marginally to the Dodgers’ 4-2 win over the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series.
Ohtani wore a heating pad during pregame introductions and whenever it was not his turn to bat. On the bases, he kept his left arm immobilized — arm up, fingers grabbing the neckline of his jersey, as if he were wearing a sling — making for an awkward, half-pump running motion. The Dodgers told him he was not allowed to try to steal and ideally was not supposed to slide at all.
Still, Ohtani gritted it out, as he intends to for however long the Fall Classic lasts. With a 3-0 series lead, Los Angeles is a win away from a championship. It can end it in Game 4 on Tuesday night, also at Yankee Stadium.
Count Ohtani in.
“The pain has subsided, so I felt pretty good about it,” he said through an interpreter.
Manager Dave Roberts said: “I don’t think that it got any worse.”
The degree of Ohtani’s pain is unclear. He downplayed that aspect, as ugly as the visual on the field was. Roberts called it “discomfort.” An MRI on Sunday showed no structural damage to his shoulder, just the subluxation, a technical term for a partial dislocation. He received “constant treatment,” Roberts said, between getting hurt in Game 2 on Saturday and taking the field in this contest.
“I don’t know how much [discomfort], but yeah, balls that were away that he chased a little bit, I saw a couple winces,” Roberts said. “I think it’s sort of pointless for me to even consider it because he’s going to be in there tomorrow.”
Might he need surgery after the season?
“I haven’t had further conversations about the future plan,” Ohtani said. “I think it’s something that’s going to happen after the season is over, do additional testing. But in terms of how I feel now, I don’t think so.”
His status loomed over this star-studded World Series between two iconic franchises from the moment he was caught stealing second base Saturday. He landed awkwardly on his left wrist, sending a jolt up his arm and injuring his shoulder. He walked off the field in obvious pain.
As his teammates, manager and the baseball-watching world wondered, Ohtani apparently had no doubt: He was going to play.
He was so certain, in fact, that late Saturday night — after team medical personnel popped his shoulder back into its socket but before an MRI confirmed the diagnosis — Ohtani texted the rest of the Dodgers to let them know it would all be OK.
“He was going to be fine, and that’s it,” infielder Max Muncy revealed Monday afternoon. “He said he was going to play, so we all put it to the side at that moment.”
Roberts, not on the players-only group text, said: “It would have been helpful if I saw that thread. I would have slept better Saturday night. I wasn’t privy to that until [Monday], so that would have been helpful.”
When the Dodgers put out their Game 3 lineup, there he was in his usual spot, batting first and serving as the designated hitter.
He finished 0-for-3 but reached base twice, on a walk in the first inning and when he was hit in the foot by a pitch in the ninth. After the former, he scored on Freddie Freeman’s home run, arm tight against his body as he rounded the bases.
“The reason why I was holding on to myself when I was running is to make sure that I wouldn’t use that same shoulder arm if I were to slide,” he said.
Even if he is something less than the player who compiled baseball’s first 50-homer, 50-steal season, Ohtani’s swings looked normal. His bat speed — as measured by MLB’s movement-tracking technology — registered in at least a couple of cases as better than his already-above-average norm, which suggests his strength was very much there. And Yankees pitchers might even have been a tad afraid to face him; the first six pitches he saw were outside the strike zone.
At the loaded top of the Dodgers’ lineup — featuring a trio of MVPs in Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman — the mere presence of Ohtani has an impact.
“It’s just really focusing on winning the game tomorrow as a team,” Ohtani said, “and there’s nothing better than to be able to have the opportunity to do so.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
