SAN FRANCISCO – Shohei Ohtani will make his next pitching start on Tuesday against the Philadelphia Phillies and will make one more start after that before the end of the regular season.
There are no plans for Ohtani to pitch out of the bullpen during the regular season as preparation for a relief role in the postseason and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the plan is to use Ohtani as one of the Dodgers’ starting pitchers during the postseason.
“Yeah, we do,” Roberts said Sunday. “Could it change down the road in the postseason? Possibly. But right now we see him as a starter.”
The fact that the Dodgers do not plan to give Ohtani a look out of the bullpen does not preclude that from happening at some point in the postseason, Roberts said.
“I don’t think it has to,” Roberts said. “I think ideally, how we run things, we like to give a run of show for certain things, roles, before you do it in the postseason. But he has done it before in the (World Baseball) Classic.
“In the postseason, there’s a lot of things that happen that are unforeseen.”
The Dodgers are currently using a six-man starting rotation but will only need four starters during postseason rounds. Emmet Sheehan is the most obvious candidate to move to the bullpen. The Dodgers could also create a ‘piggyback’ situation with one starter following another in certain games. But Roberts said his expectation is that the Dodgers will lean on their starters to go deeper in the postseason and not be shortened up intentionally.
Whenever he takes the mound in October, Ohtani will be pitching for the first time in a postseason game. How he handles postseason pressure as a pitcher is “another question” for Ohtani to answer. His first postseason experience last season was a learning experience, Roberts said.
“Last year, I think there were times where he was sort of even manic, swinging the bat, trying to get hits, chase hits, when guys were clearly trying to pitch around him,” Roberts said. “Where I think now, in this kind of moment in time where it’s a playoff race, a pennant race for us, I think that he is locked in his plate discipline. And that’s how a superstar manages the postseason, the pitching. And so I’ve seen that two grades better than it was last year.”
Going into Sunday’s game, Ohtani had already drawn a career-high 103 walks. Roberts said he expects teams to work around Ohtani at every opportunity during the postseason – putting the onus on Mookie Betts to capitalize.
“Teams are gonna make Mookie beat them going forward, versus letting Shohei,” Roberts said. “And he’s just got to have that discipline to stay in his zone and not expand. That’s just the way it has to be. That gives us the best chance to win. And if they make a mistake, then be ready to go like he did last night (with his 49th home run).”
SEEDING SHOWDOWN
The Philadelphia Phillies will be at Dodger Stadium for a three-game series beginning Monday.
Going into Sunday’s games, the Phillies held a 5 ½-game lead over the Dodgers for the second seed in the National League playoffs. The difference between being the second or third seed is substantial – a first-round bye and five-day break following the regular season or hosting a best-of-three wild-card series with one day off and potentially moving on without homefield advantage in subsequent rounds.
The Dodgers have had a mixed history with the five-day break but would rather have it than not. At this point, though, Roberts acknowledges that catching the Phillies is a long shot.
“We’ve put ourselves in a tough spot,” he said. “I still think, honestly, we just have to win games. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, great. We’ve got to just play good baseball.”
MUNCY STATUS
After leaving back-to-back games early after being hit by pitches – in the right arm Friday and the head on Saturday – Max Muncy was not in the lineup Sunday. It was a planned day off with the Giants starting left-hander Robbie Ray.
Muncy said he felt no ill effects from being hit in the head but still had some soreness in his right arm from Friday’s hit by pitch.
ALSO
Roberts said right-hander Brock Stewart has been throwing to hitters in Los Angeles this weekend and will go out on a “quick” rehab assignment this week, just one or two appearances. Stewart has been out since August 9 with a shoulder injury that finally responded to a platelet-rich plasma injection and two cortisone shots.
UP NEXT
Phillies (LHP Ranger Suarez, 12-6, 2.77 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP Emmet Sheehan, 6-3, 3.32 ERA), Monday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, MLB Network, 570 AM
