Disaster Avoided - Dave Roberts And The Dodgers Are "Banking On" Shohei Ohtani Being In The Lineup For Game 3 After Injuring His Shoulder In Game 2
It appears for the moment that the Dodgers (and every other fanbase outside of the Yankees) have avoided disaster when it comes to Shohei Ohtani and his injured shoulder. After attempting to steal late in game 2 we all saw him lying in pain in the dirt no one knew if it was his wrist or shoulder that was bothering him but you knew it was bad when the trainer walked him off holding his left arm. Nightmare situation for the Dodgers as everyone waited with bated breath for an update. The MRI results came back and you could sense the relief coming out of Los Angeles after it was announced from Dave Roberts that Ohtani should be in the lineup on Monday night in the Bronx.
“He still has to go through the workout and swing the bat,” Roberts said before the Dodgers’ workout on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. “But today feels better than yesterday, and our assumption is tomorrow’s going to feel better than today. So with that, that’s what I’m banking on.”
Shohei apparently suffered a subluxation, which is a partial dislocation, of his left shoulder and Dave Roberts said he should be all good to play in game 3 on Monday. It's not a full on dislocation but a minor one so all things considered that was good news considering how bad it looked.
You saw all the injury experts on Twitter saying it was a broken wrist, broken shoulder, dislocated wrist, dislocated shoulder, they said it all. They compared it to the 2020 injury when Cody Bellinger dislocated his shoulder while celebrating in the NLCS, not great but you are able to play through it. Some guys can pop their shoulders out pretty easily, possibly Shohei is one of them, which makes sense as he is a freak of nature.
Either way it being his left shoulder is much better than if it was his right shoulder, the back shoulder when he swings so as long as there is no structural damage as reported, it's just a pain tolerance thing. If he can swing he'll be in there, it's the World Series for crying out loud. It sounds like they're in a good spot with him and this injury, the exact news they wanted to hear as they look to close this thing out. The Dodgers can win 2 of the next 5 without Shohei if needed, but having him in there would make it a lot cooler.
Just a complete 180 from how everyone rooting for the Dodgers was feeling after Saturday night, it looked like he was done for. You were trying to figure out how they'd replace him in the lineup and now it sounds like all systems are go for Ohtani. The only people who hate to see this are those douchebags at Billys who were cheering on the injury. Imagine he jumps all over a Clarke Schmidt fastball in the first inning too, would be an awesome way to show everyone how healthy he is.