Shohei Ohtani’s sudden knee swelling on Thursday gave the Dodgers fans a scare. It brought back bad memories from 2019. The last time Ohtani had a major problem with his left knee, he had to stop playing for the season to get surgery. Luckily, this new injury is not as bad. It is just normal soreness. Still, it shows how hard it is to both pitch and hit at the same time. The Dodgers are in first place with a 45-27 record. Their main goal is to keep Ohtani healthy. Without him, they could lose their chance to win the World Series.

Ohtani had to leave the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the seventh inning. Many fans thought he hurt his knee while running the bases. However, Ohtani said the real problem was how he pitched the night before.

“There wasn’t one incident in which it suddenly happened,” the 2x World Series champion said in Japanese. “I think it’s because in my last start [pitching], the way I threw wasn’t very good.”

For the first time in this season, Shohei Ohtani went above a 1.00 ERA as he allowed six hits, four runs, including one homer, over 6.2 innings last Wednesday. It was his worst outing, and the Pirates won 9-8. But the discomfort appeared the next day. After recording a home run, two runs, and two walks, Ohtani left in the seventh inning with knee and hamstring pain. While everyone assumed it was the running, the two-way star pointed toward the 102 pitches from the previous night as the potential source. 

Doing both jobs puts a lot of stress on his legs. He has to push hard off the mound when he pitches, and he twists his knees fast when he swings the bat. This heavy workload is why he needs regular rest days to stay safe.

His return to the field the next day probably made it worse. The Dodgers fans gasped seeing Ohtani grab his knee. And many panic-stricken fans immediately started questioning his schedule. They wondered why he wasn’t given a rest day after his pitching start. 

Notably, Shohei Ohtani pulled a hamstring muscle just by running to first base in 2017. Back then, he was playing for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. Then he underwent a season-ending surgery to remove his bipartite patella in his left knee in 2019 while he was with the Los Angeles Angels. These histories made the fans hit the panic button fast after he was pulled in the middle of the Pirates game. 

However, the imaging came back clean, and Ohtani is pretty confident that he’ll “be able to stay healthy” as the swelling has dissipated. It didn’t even look like he was suffering from anything when he hit his 14th HR of the season against the Chicago White Sox this Saturday. 

He is scheduled to make his next pitching start this Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays. And the club found more confidence when Ohtani said, “With enough recovery, I should be able to make the next start.”

Although some loyal fans remain doubtful, the Dodgers stick to their plan. 

Dodgers remain confident despite renewed concern

Ohtani was born with a rare knee condition called a bipartite patella. This means his left kneecap never fully fused. The Angels discovered this condition in 2019. Later that year, as Ohtani recovered from elbow surgery and started pitching harder, his knee began hurting. This forced him to have knee surgery.

That’s why fans are worried about his two-way role. But the Dodgers and manager Dave Roberts made sure to take precautionary measures. And more importantly, the club doesn’t believe that the current issue is related to his 2019 injury. That’s why they didn’t change his schedule when the imaging came clean. And Roberts mentioned that they “tried to be smart about it.”

He is one of the best starting pitchers and best hitters in MLB right now. That’s why Dylan Hernandez from the NY Post stated that “Shohei Ohtani has earned the right to finish the greatest season in MLB history.” 

And it’s hard to argue with that for a player with a 1.06 ERA and a .979 OPS. The Dodgers are at the top of the NL West (45-27) and are expected to reach the playoffs. And they wouldn’t risk losing him in October.