Shohei Ohtani thinks flawed pitching mechanics led to recent knee swelling

CHICAGO –– Turns out Shohei Ohtani actually does have a theory about what caused his recent left knee inflammation, after all.

After returning to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ lineup on Saturday –– and promptly hitting a leadoff home run before later drawing three walks –– Ohtani spoke to reporters for the first time since Thursday, when he left the team’s game in Pittsburgh early with swelling in his knee that would keep him sidelined on Friday, as well.

Previously, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had said the cause of Ohtani’s injury was unknown, speculating only that it might have occurred while he was running the bases Thursday night.

But on Saturday, the two-way star offered a different explanation, pointing back to his six-and-two-thirds-innings pitching start on Wednesday as the potential source of the issue. 

“There wasn’t one incident in which it suddenly happened,” he said in Japanese. “I think it’s because in my last start [pitching], the way I threw wasn’t very good.

In that start against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Ohtani gave up a season-high four runs (three earned) while throwing 102 pitches. Results aside, however, he indicated it was flaws in his mechanics that led his knee to swell up the next day –– when he remained in the Dodgers’ lineup as designated hitter instead of getting an off day as he had following his previous four pitching starts.

The good news for the Dodgers is that Ohtani’s knee problem appears to be behind him, at least for right now.

Medical imaging he got on his knee Friday came back clean, according to Roberts. And on Saturday, Ohtani said he “felt good” when he woke up and is “pretty confident that I’ll be able to stay healthy,” with the swelling he was experiencing in the back of his knee having finally dissipated.

The slugger certainly didn’t seem hampered at the plate on Saturday, when he led off with his 14th home run of the year.

And as things stand, he is still on track to make his next scheduled pitching start on Wednesday, after testing out his knee in some flat-ground catch play on Saturday morning.

“It wasn’t 100% today,” Ohtani acknowledged. “But with the next three, four days, I feel pretty confident, with enough recovery, that I should be able to make the next start.”

The only concern moving forward is whether Ohtani’s pitching could continue to aggravate his knee.

The last time he had knee troubles was in 2019, when a rare congenital condition in his kneecap –– called bipartite patella, where the bones of the kneecap don’t fuse together at birth –– flared up on him as he went through a pitching progression during his return from Tommy John surgery, ultimately requiring an operation to address the problem that September.

The Dodgers don’t believe this situation is related, and Roberts said the club wasn’t planning to change its usage plan with the two-way star.

Still, it will be something for the Dodgers and Ohtani himself to monitor, starting with the next time he takes the mound for his scheduled outing on Wednesday.

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