Suddenly, the Los Angeles Dodgers need Shohei Ohtani not only to pitch, but to pitch as much as he can.
It's been almost 21 months since Ohtani graced the mound in a regular-season game. Since then, he's had elbow surgery, changed teams, won two Most Valuable Player Awards, married, and had his first child.
With the Dodgers' rotation ailing, Ohtani now looks to be one of the closest arms to returning. Because he's a full-time designated hitter, he's unable to go on a traditional rehab assignment. He threw another live batting practice at Petco Park on Tuesday and got up to 44 pitches.
However, the signs coming out of the live BP he threw Tuesday were so good that a timeline is beginning to take shape, and Dodgers fans and baseball enthusiasts alike will be excited to hear that Ohtani could be back on the mound within a month or so.
According to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, both manager Dave Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior were thoroughly impressed with Ohtani's outing on Tuesday. Roberts even said there was a chance Ohtani could return before the Dodgers' final game of the first half on Jul. 13.
"Dave Roberts said the chances are 'north of zero' that Shohei Ohtani could be back sooner than the post-All-Star break timeline originally anticipated. Both Roberts and Mark Prior noted how good Ohtani looked over his three simulated innings today," Ardaya wrote.
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The Dodgers have a litany of starting pitching injuries to worry about, with Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, and Tony Gonsolin hitting the injured list since the season started. They've been forced to get creative, deploying an opener strategy on Tuesday that saw bulk reliever Matt Sauer get rocked in an 11-1 loss to the San Diego Padres.
The loss brought the Dodgers within half a game of second place and one game out of third place.
If Ohtani is indeed back on the mound within the next four weeks, the Dodgers could finally start building some momentum. But it's been so long since we've seen him pitch that it's hard to know what to expect.
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