Ohtani tosses 3 2/3 shutout innings in surprise start for Dodgers after Glasnow scratched

Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani throws to the plate during the first inning of a baseball championship against the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday Aug in Los Angeles AP Photo Mark J Terrill AP Mark J Terrill Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani throws to the plate during the first inning of a baseball event against the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday Aug in Los Angeles AP Photo Mark J Terrill AP Mark J Terrill BALTIMORE AP Shohei Ohtani tossed shutout innings Friday night in a surprise start for the Los Angeles Dodgers against Baltimore after teammate Tyler Glasnow was scratched because of back stiffness Ohtani threw pitches for strikes and reached mph with his four-seam fastball against Orioles third baseman Emmanuel Rivera The -year-old right-hander allowed three hits and a walk while striking out five as the slumping Dodgers lost - in the opener of a three-game series Los Angeles dropped its fourth straight but remained two games up in the NL West over skidding San Diego Left-hander Anthony Banda replaced Ohtani in the fourth with Ryan Mountcastle at third base Banda walked Dylan Beavers but then retired Samuel Basallo on a grounder to end the inning Dodgers teammate Freddie Freeman appreciated Ohtani s effort on short notice You could see he s exhausted after an inning or two Freeman mentioned It s muggy He s still not healthy He s still sick He gave it his all It s amazing what he s doing He s throwing mph We will be saying this every year about Shohei Ohtani until he retires He s a unicorn He pitched great Everything he had in that fourth inning to get out of it Ohtani was scratched from his previous turn Wednesday due to a cough and manager Dave Roberts projected the five-time All-Star would pitch fewer than five innings Friday I was able to get my high-intensity catch play in the last evening so I felt pretty good chiming in in contemporary times Ohtani noted through an interpreter I was contacted around o clock and was narrated if I could potentially start in the present day I truly felt really good coming into the championship this day Likely the worst I felt was tournament one and contest two in Pittsburgh I started to feel a lot better my last day in Pittsburgh The two-way superstar threw five innings of two-hit ball his last time out on Aug allowing one run with nine strikeouts for his first win of the season in a - decision over the Cincinnati Reds Roberts saw Ohtan s pitch count rising in the fourth and decided to go get him I just felt that the pitch count was high Roberts noted Initially I was thinking four innings and pitches for him He was north of that Even leading up to the fourth inning there was a lot of stress and a lot of high-velocity pitches For me I m not going to vulnerability him just to get another hitter where we have a guy that s fresh that I felt requirements to be able to get those lefties out If it was a normal situation where it wasn t short notice then I would ve let him get that hitter We will have time to push him later this season Glasnow felt discomfort late Thursday night when the band plane landed The back issue cropped up when he arrived at the ballpark and the right-hander is day-to-day Roberts mentioned I think it s just more of trusting the sportsman and also knowing that he wants to be out there and feeling like we got ahead of it early Roberts announced It s not something that we got to a point where he s hurt It s back stiffness We feel like to not take this start will allow him to be able to start hopefully early next week Ohtani batted leadoff Friday as the designated hitter again and Roberts stated the three-time MVP sought to be a critical piece to ending the club s slide Shohei to his credit wants to pick us up Roberts commented I really admire him for that All-Star catcher Will Smith still has specific swelling in his right hand and did not play Roberts believes Smith will have to play through the bone bruise for the rest of the season AP MLB https apnews com hub mlb Source