LOS ANGELES — Coming off a sore knee and dealing with a minor recurring blister, Shohei Ohtani raised some mild concern about whether he would take the mound on Wednesday. The Dodgers could have postponed his start as a way of addressing the knee inflammation that cropped up in his previous outing.Instead, they trusted their two-way star when he said he felt fine to pitch — though Ohtani did not serve as a two-way player. Given Ohtani’s minor injuries and the Dodgers’ rare midweek game, Roberts chose to sit Ohtani as a hitter on a pitching day for the first time since May 13. Ohtani’s stuff didn’t have its usual sharpness, but when you enter play in mid-June with a 1.06 ERA, some runs are bound to score eventually.Such was the case Wednesday afternoon, when the Tampa Bay Rays tagged Ohtani for a four-run fifth inning, representing the first time he’s given up multiple runs in back-to-back starts this season. Still, he gutted through six innings for the fourth straight start, and the Dodgers rallied back behind a go-ahead two-run homer from Freddie Freeman to cap a three-game sweep with a 5-4 victory.“I felt good overall,” Ohtani said through team interpreter Will Ireton. “It’s just really that inning, that fifth inning, that I wasn’t really too pleased. But aside from that, the stuff was good and felt pretty good overall.”
Shohei Ohtani wins despite knee issue and bleeding blister, should make next start
Cameras caught blood dripping from Ohtani's right hand, but the pitcher and manager Dave Roberts downplayed the severity.














