los angeles — Dodgers Superstar Shuhei Otani He partially dislocated his left shoulder during the seventh inning of Game 2 on Saturday World Series against the New York Yankees when he attempted to steal second base.
Ohtani’s status for Game 3 on Monday in New York is unclear. Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani “had a subluxation of his left shoulder” and will undergo an image test either Saturday night or Sunday.
Ohtani grabbed his left forearm after being tagged by shortstop Anthony Volpe for the final out of the inning on a first-foot slide. He lay near the bag for a few minutes before trainers attended to him and left the field.
“We’ll know more in the next couple of days,” Roberts said. “The strength was great. The range of motion is good. So we’re encouraged. But obviously I can’t speculate because we haven’t got the scan results yet. So once we get the scans, we’ll know more. Again, with strength, good range of motion, this is Definitely a positive thing.
The Dodgers held on for a while Win 4-2 He leads the series 2-0.
The Japanese outfielder — and presumptive National League MVP — was 0-for-3 with a walk in the game. He is 1-for-8 in the first two games of the Fall Classic and is batting .260 with three home runs and 10 RBIs in his first season in the major leagues.
“That was tough. You never like to see the best player in the game get hurt like that,” Yankees star Aaron Judge said. “Trying to steal a base like that, and something like that happens. But hopefully this is all good news. We’ll see what happens.”
Ohtani was one of the few players on the Dodgers roster to get through the season without a major injury. The pitching staff has been plagued by injuries, with nearly every member of the starting rotation spending time on the injured list.
Among position players, Mookie Betts was out for nearly two months with a fracture in his left hand, and Max Muncy was out for nearly half the season with a right oblique strain. Freddie Freeman is in the postseason with a severely sprained right ankle.
Betts is optimistic the Dodgers will persevere if Ohtani is sidelined, especially after the team overcame injuries and had the most wins in the majors during the regular season and reached the World Series for the fourth time in eight seasons.
“We have a great group of guys here and I think we can definitely take care of business. I believe in all of us,” Betts said.
Most of Ohtani’s injuries since coming to the majors in 2018 have been pitching-related, including major operations on his right elbow in 2018 and last year. The two-way phenom did not appear this year but became the first player in major league history with at least 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a single season.
In September 2019, he underwent surgery on his left knee due to a rare condition. The procedure was performed on a bilateral patella, or two-part kneecap that was not fused together at birth.
Ohtani missed the 2017 World Baseball Classic after undergoing ankle surgery due to an injury he suffered during the 2016 Japan Series.
“When you have a group like this, they picked me up when I was down. We’ll try to do the same for him,” Freeman said.
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