At some point on Sunday night, Shohei Ohtani strapped on his elbow guard, slipped on his batting gloves and grabbed his bat.
He was going to pinch-hit, according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
If either of the first two hitters in the eighth inning had reached base, Ohtani would have replaced Alex Call. The game was the fourth in a row that Ohtani didn’t start because of problems with his knee, biceps and neck.
But Alex Freeland popped out, Max Muncy flied out to left field, and Roberts elected to keep right-handed Call in the game to face Nationals lefty Will Dion with the Dodgers down by a run.
“To be quite honest, versus lefty right there, I just felt Call had a good chance to get on base,” Roberts said. “And nothing against Shohei, but he hadn’t played in four days and lefty’s on the mound, so I figured we’ll just try to keep the line moving and get Tommy (Edman) up there.”
Not making the substitution won the Dodgers the game.
Call singled.
Edman followed with a walk.
And with two batters on, Mookie Betts crushed a down-the-middle fastball over the left-field wall to send the Dodgers on their way to a 7-5 victory.
With Ohtani able to prepare himself to pinch-hit, Roberts said, “My expectation is he’ll be in the lineup tomorrow.”
Asked if he would consider batting Edman leadoff instead of Ohtani, Roberts said he wouldn’t. The plan, Roberts said, is for Ohtani to continue batting first.
