Even after the Los Angeles Dodgers total domination, it was Shohei Ohtani‘s absence that captured the most attention. Though the superstar had 3 at-bats but his failure to come for 4th left many questions. “Why did it happen?” asked many fans. However the answers came only after the game when the skipper decided to explain the entire situation.

The 2x MVP was 0-for-3 with 1 walk during the game. However, heading into the final innings he felt some uneasiness in his back. As Doc revealed in his postgame interview, Ohtani’s back “tightened up” and that led to the Dodgers staff deciding to give him some rest. With the Blue Crew already having a huge lead, it became quite easy to give rest to the $700 million superstar. Is it serious? Not according to Roberts.

“I got a word before his 4th at-bat that his back tightened up,” Dave Roberts said. “So being up 5-0, we didn’t want to push it. We’ll see how he comes in tomorrow.” Though the skipper said that it was just a precautionary action, Shohei Ohtani isn’t expected to start on Sunday. “We’re planning on giving him the day (off),” Roberts revealed. 

“I haven’t talked to Shohei myself yet. But right now it’s (worry for long-term injury) minimal,” Roberts said. So Ohtani might be back soon. Still for him this is a dual shock. The two-way phenom is already healing from his elbow surgery that has disallowed him from pitching, now this latest injury could have further derailed his momentum but luckily as of now its quite benign.

Ohtani’s been one of the best players for the Dodgers this season. With the superstar leading in multiple categories, he’s been called a frontrunner for the MVP race. But can he do that without pitching?

Can Shohei Ohtani be an MVP without pitching?

It’s quite amazing how no DH has ever won a League MVP award in baseball. Yes, it’s not surprising,  after all a DH plays a rather limited role in the field. Though Shohei Ohtani did win two MVPs while he was a DH, it was more due to his two-way unicorn status. However, this season the superstar isn’t pitching and that did put a damper on his MVP dreams. But then the Dodgers star completely changed his batting style. Suddenly Ohtani was hitting so consistently that experts wondered whether his pitching was reducing his hitting potential. So despite being a DH Ohtani currently has a 2.6 WAR in 40 games.!(per Baseball Reference)

If he carries on this form for the rest of the season, he’d finish with over 10 WAR. That’s quite absurd for a normal positional player let alone a DH. Also just to understand the depth of his achievement it’d be his career’s best numbers. All of that without pitching. Naturally if that happens, one can imagine that Ohtani will have a huge chance of making history. Ironically his only competition could be his teammate Mookie Betts, who too is looking at similar (if not slightly higher) WAR numbers. So with competition raging on, Ohtani can’t afford to miss too many games due to injury. Neither can the Los Angeles Dodgers.