The last time Shohei Ohtani took the mound against the Philadelphia Phillies, it was the first time all year he looked like a true starting pitcher again.
Ohtani, of course, had pitched plenty before that Sept. 16 game at Dodger Stadium, when he spun five no-hit innings against a Phillies team on the verge of a National League East division title. Up to that point, the two-way star had been making starts for the previous three months in his return from a second career Tommy John surgery.
During that stretch, however, Ohtani was under strict limitations. He pitched only one inning in his first two outings, two innings in the pair after that, and continued a slow, gradual buildup over the ensuing weeks. For many of those early starts, the right-hander didn’t even use his full arsenal of pitches, restricting himself to mostly fastballs and sweepers as he tried to hone in on his velocity and sharpen his rusty command.
That was in Ohtani in “rehab mode,” as the Dodgers described it.
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The priority remained on protecting his surgically-repaired elbow.
But then came the meeting with the Phillies, in which Ohtani finally looked ready to turn the page.
He completed five innings for only the second all season. He did so with spectacularly dominant ease over just 68 pitches. He used his full mix, from a fastball that topped at 101.7 mph to a slider that induced a 50% whiff rate to a sinker/cutter/splitter combination that had the ball darting different directions to all quadrants of the plate. He collected five strikeouts and walked only one.
“He was phenomenal,” Phillies manager Rob Thompson recalled. “It was the combination of power, control, command, stuff.”
Three weeks later, Ohtani is set to square off against the Phillies again, in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday night.
And this time, he won’t be subjected to the workload restrictions that forced him to make an early exit from that previous no-hit bid.
The plan, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Friday, is to “just treat him like a regular pitcher.”
“This is something we’ve been waiting for all year,” Roberts added, while opening the door for Ohtani to go as many as six or seven innings in what will be his MLB postseason pitching debut. “He’s ready for this moment. So, for me, I’m just going to sit back and watch closely.”
“I’m sure I’ll be nervous at times,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “But more than that, I’m just really grateful that I get to play baseball at this time of the year.”
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If it hadn’t been for that September start against the Phillies, it’s unclear if Ohtani would be pitching with such freedom now.
That night, Roberts removed Ohtani from his no-hit bid because, as he put it after the game, he didn’t feel comfortable deviating from the superstar’s prescripted pitching plan.
What Roberts did do in that game, however, was ask Ohtani how he felt after the fifth inning to gather information the Dodgers could use going forward. Ohtani told Roberts he still felt strong. Thus, in his final regular season start a week later in Arizona, the team allowed him for the first time to pitch into the sixth.
The Dodgers are still trying to be mindful of Ohtani’s two-way burden. He is starting Game 1 of this series (which will be followed by an off day Sunday) because they didn’t want to pitch him early in the wild-card round and then have him hit in subsequent days.
But going forward, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, the club plans to use Ohtani like “a normal starting pitcher now.” No more pre-determined restrictions. No more overbearing health considerations.
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“I’m very glad that I was able to end the rehab progression at that moment,” Ohtani said while reflecting back on the September start that signaled he was ready. “Just being healthy is really important to me, so I’m just grateful for that.”
Roster and rotation notes
Roberts said, after Ohtani, Blake Snell would likely start Game 2, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow lined up for Games 3 and 4, respectively. Glasnow will be available out of the bullpen for Game 1 as well.
Clayton Kershaw will be on the team’s NLDS roster, after being left off for the wild-card round. Roberts said he will pitch in a relief role.
Catcher Will Smith is expected to once again be on the roster as one of three catchers, Roberts said, but his availability to start games remains in question. Though Smith’s fractured right hand has healed, he is still in the process of rebuilding strength and stamina after missing the last few weeks. He was scheduled to take live batting practice during the team’s Monday workout.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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