Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani was scratched from his scheduled pitching start on Friday with left knee “irritation” and won’t play in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the club said.
“Shohei Ohtani will not make his scheduled start on the mound this evening against the (Arizona) D-backs due to continued irritation in his left knee,” the Dodgers said in a statement. “He will serve as the designated hitter the rest of the weekend, but following the series against the D-backs he will have some interventions on his knee to put him in the best position for the second half of the season.”
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Unfortunately, due to these events, he will not be able to travel to Philadelphia and participate in the 2026 All-Star Game,” the Dodgers concluded.
Ohtani exited a June 11 game with discomfort in his left knee and was out of the team’s hitting lineup the following day. Since then, he has been managing the problem, which is in the same knee upon which he had surgery in 2019 to address a congenital condition in which the kneecap never fully fuses into a single bone.
Ohtani, a four-time Most Valuable Player, has shone in both his roles for the Dodgers this season, despite coping with a few minor injuries, including a blister on his pitching hand and a biceps issue as well as the knee discomfort.
At the plate, he is batting .290 with 20 home runs and 56 runs-batted-in while on the mound he has an earned run average of 1.79 with 95 strikeouts, building an 8-2 record. Ohtani hit his 300th career homer on Tuesday, becoming the first Japanese-born player to reach the milestone in MLB.
He had been slated for a designated hitter role in the All-Star Game, which will be played in the Philadelphia Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park next Tuesday.
© 2024 AFP
