Ohtani Won't Pitch Sunday vs Tigers

Shohei Ohtani will not pitch Sunday against the Detroit Tigers after a setback in his return to the mound, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said following Saturday's 2-1 loss at Comerica Park. Tyler Glasnow will start the series finale. Roberts also ruled Ohtani out for Tuesday's series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals in Los Angeles. The two-way star has not pitched since July 3, when he threw six innings in a 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres.

Ohtani went 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 14 starts before the Dodgers shut down his pitching, primarily because of left-knee soreness, MLB.com's Sonja Chen wrote. He threw an abbreviated 20-pitch bullpen on Friday, 10 to 15 throws shorter than a normal between-starts session. Roberts said Saturday that the left knee, the right biceps, and "the overall body" were not 100 percent. "If any pitcher was feeling like this," Roberts said, "we wouldn't run him out there."

Why isn't Shohei Ohtani pitching Sunday?

The knee never fully cleared, and the bullpen made that obvious. The Associated Press reported Roberts said before the 2-1 loss that Ohtani's knee still was not pain-free and that a biceps issue from earlier in the year had flared again. After the game he made the Sunday call official. "I think that just in total, Shohei hasn't come out of [the bullpen] well. The arm, the knee," Roberts said, per Sports Illustrated's Noah Camras. There is no new target date.

Ohtani resumed throwing on Aug. 8. The original Sunday plan was an inning or two in front of Glasnow, using the extra roster spot as a major-league rehab. That is off. AP had him batting .274 with 12 home runs in 45 games since his last pitching outing. MLB.com noted a colder stretch of 18-for-82 (.220) with 26 strikeouts and eight walks in his last 20 games. Roberts said he does not think the throwing program caused the slump. He blamed pitch selection.

What Shohei Ohtani's pitching delay means

Los Angeles is protecting the hitter. The rotation already has Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell, and Glasnow. "If throwing potentially cuts into that, that's not worth the squeeze," Roberts said of Ohtani's offense, per MLB.com. "Very, very bullish on making sure we don't compromise the hitting." He also said, "To be quite frank, I just don't see everything getting to 100% by the end of the season," while still framing a mound return as when, not if.

Search Shohei Ohtani injury or Ohtani won't pitch Sunday and the answer is the same: no Detroit, no Tuesday, Glasnow starts, timeline TBD. Smacktok already had the Dodgers' weekend pitching board with Chris Sale's shutout against Los Angeles. This is the other mound story in that clubhouse. The bat stays in the three-hole. The arm waits.

Shohei Ohtani pitching FAQ

Will Shohei Ohtani pitch Sunday vs the Tigers? No. Roberts confirmed after Saturday's 2-1 loss that Ohtani is out Sunday and Tuesday, with Glasnow starting the finale.

When did Shohei Ohtani last pitch? July 3 against the Padres, six innings in a 4-3 win. He was 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 14 starts before the knee shutdown.

What is wrong with Shohei Ohtani? Recurring left-knee soreness, right-biceps discomfort, and overall-body stiffness after a 20-pitch Friday bullpen, Roberts said.