Out of the blue, the occasion stopped.
Shohei Ohtani was on the bottom, writhing in ache after he was caught stealing second base within the seventh inning.
Dodger Stadium was silent.
When Dodgers coach Yosuke Nakajima reported to the scene, the Fox broadcast picked up their dialog in Japanese.
“It’s the shoulder,” Ohtani mentioned.
“What?” Nakajima requested.
“Shoulder.”
“Which shoulder?”
“Left.”
“Did it come off?” Nakajima requested.
“Probably,” Ohtani mentioned.
The preliminary prognosis offered by supervisor Dave Roberts: a subluxation, or partial dislocation, of the left shoulder.
Contemplating they prolonged their lead within the World Sequence to 2 video games to none, the Dodgers had been comparatively somber within the wake of their 4-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Saturday evening.
As inspired as Roberts claimed to be about Ohtani’s situation, there was a really actual risk the Dodgers must play the rest of the Sequence with out the perfect participant in baseball.
“When you see him come off the field with a trainer holding his arm, obviously a level of concern,” first baseman Freddie Freeman mentioned.
Roberts acknowledged he would stay unsure till Ohtani underwent an MRI examination. The perfect-of-seven collection resumes Monday at Yankee Stadium.
No matter what the take a look at reveals, the Dodgers ought to win this World Sequence.
Their beginning pitching is comparable. Their bullpen is a lot better. Their lineup can be a lot better, even with out Ohtani.
The Yankees’ reply to Ohtani, Aaron Choose, may as effectively not be enjoying, as he’s hitting simply .150 on this postseason. Within the first two video games of the World Sequence, Choose is one for 9 with six strikeouts.
There’s extra at stake than this Sequence, nonetheless.
“Personally,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández mentioned in Spanish, “I don’t want him to miss the final games of the season.”
That is the 12 months of Ohtani. He has been the game’s most necessary story at each stage of the season, from the Dodgers’ season-opening collection in South Korea to when he turned the primary participant in historical past to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in a season.
Ohtani is greater than the face of baseball. He’s baseball.
How a lot of a downer would it not be if he’s decreased to being a spectator when the Dodgers win the World Sequence?
Hernández and the opposite Dodgers know higher than anybody what he has invested on this season, how he concurrently rehabilitated his surgically repaired pitching elbow whereas making ready himself to place up the sorts of offensive numbers that ought to win him his third most beneficial participant award. After all they don’t need him to overlook these video games.
“Hopefully, he can play,” Hernández mentioned.
Roberts wasn’t able to acknowledge Ohtani won’t play once more this postseason.
“I’m expecting him to be in the lineup,” Roberts mentioned.
But when Ohtani shouldn’t be, the Dodgers ought to have the required firepower to proceed dominating the Yankees.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani walks off the sector after sustaining a left shoulder harm in Recreation 2 of the World Sequence on Saturday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
“We can take care of business for sure,” outfielder Mookie Betts mentioned.
They survived an prolonged stretch with out Betts. They survived a number of stretches with out Freeman. They’ll survive just a few video games with out Ohtani.
“They’ve picked me up when I was down and we’ll try to do the same for him,” Freeman mentioned.
They have already got. Within the first two video games of this World Sequence, Ohtani was one for eight. The Dodgers gained each video games.
Two minutes after their victory Saturday evening, Ohtani departed the clubhouse. By his aspect had been a safety guard, Nakajima and interpreter Will Ireton. Ohtani held his belongings in his proper hand and nothing in his left.
“Would you be able to hold these?” he requested Ireton.
Ohtani went into an elevator, his function over the rest of this Sequence nonetheless undetermined.
He ought to win the World Sequence he imagined successful from the time he was a highschool celebrity within the Japanese countryside. He ought to obtain the championship ring that may bolster his Corridor of Fame credentials.
However this won’t occur how he, or anybody else, dreamed it up.
