Time for Dodgers to load manage Shohei Ohtani

In case you were wondering, no, Shohei Ohtani didn’t kill Dalton Rushing on Friday night.

Didn’t scold him on the mound. Didn’t make any faces when the catcher’s pitch calls backfired.

The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani hasn’t been as sharp on the mound as he was earlier in the season. Getty Images

Which isn’t to say the Dodgers’ 4-3 victory over the Padres passed without incident.

With Ohtani feeling his right biceps tighten in a sixth-inning at-bat, manager Dave Roberts had Miguel Rojas pinch-hit for the two-way player the following inning.

Ohtani was originally scheduled to pitch two days earlier. Delaying his start almost certainly decreased the physical burden on him — but by only so much.

Ohtani looked gassed.

He said he experienced a similar biceps flare-up a month or two ago, and that he was able to play through it then. He said it only bothers him when he hits. Roberts described his removal as “precautionary” but wasn’t about to gamble with his health. 

Ohtani won’t be the Dodgers’ designated hitter Saturday, and Roberts said he is unlikely to pitch in the All-Star Game.

At this point, Roberts might as well take it a step further. He might as well skip Ohtani’s last turn in the pitching rotation before the All-Star break.

Ohtani wanted to pursue a Cy Young Award, but he won’t pitch enough to be seriously considered for the prize. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

Roberts said he would consider it.

“I think it should be on the table,” Roberts said.

The time has come for the Dodgers to load manage Ohtani, however modestly.

Ohtani wanted to pursue a Cy Young Award, and the Dodgers have let him. But it’s becoming evident that Ohtani won’t pitch enough to be seriously considered for the prize. As a member of a six-man rotation, he’s on pace to throw fewer than 160 innings. His only pathway to the award is to be almost perfect, and he’s been nowhere near that standard in recent weeks, as he was charged with 12 earned runs in his last four starts, including three in a no-decision Friday.

He has a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand and swelling in his left knee, but the Dodgers have won seven of the last eight games he’s pitched. That has helped the Dodgers extend their lead over the Padres and Diamondbacks in the National League West to 14 games. They can now afford to replace him on the mound for a game with a minor leaguer or an assembly line of relievers.

The decision has to be taken out of the hands of Ohtani, who wants to pitch if he can.

“We’ll see how it is,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “The games in the second half [of the season] are important, but if you can create distance [in the standings] when you have the chance to do so, the reality is that it will be easier later.”

However, Ohtani sounded as if he would accept Roberts’ decision if he was told by the manager to not make his next start.

“I think following that is an option,” he said.

Ohtani turns 32 on Sunday, and he acknowledged that he feels the wear and tear of starting the season as a two-way player for the first time in three years.

“I don’t feel it [has] been a season in which I’ve been able to sprint through at 100%,” he said.

That being said, Ohtani said he was proud of how much he’s been able to play — he’s appeared in 82 games as a designated hitter and made 14 starts as a pitcher.

His start Friday was particularly laborious.

He walked the first two batters of the game, which led to Gavin Sheets driving in a run with a single later in the first inning.

Ohtani served up a solo home run to Jackson Merrill in the fourth inning and a run-scoring double to Xander Bogaerts in the sixth. He departed the game with the Dodgers down, 3-0.

He kept the Dodgers close enough to come back, which they did on a grand slam by Teoscar Hernandez in the seventh inning. But in his last four starts, he hasn’t looked as sharp as he did when he had a sub-1 ERA a month ago.

“Shohei hasn’t had his best stuff recently, and that’s the truth,” Roberts said. 

Ohtani said one of his short-term goals was to return from the All-Star break in better health, which would set him up heading into the postseason in “perfect condition.”

The Dodgers can assist him, even if he might resist it at first.

They’re positioned to do something about it.

And need to do it ASAP.