Shohei Ohtani set to start Game 1 of NLDS, with no set restrictions
Philadelphia – The last time Shohei Ohtani took the mound against the phillies of Philadelphia, it was the first time that all year round, he looked like a real starting launcher.
Ohtani, of course, had launched a lot before this game of September 16 at the Dodger Stadium, when he shot five rounds without a safe blow against a team of Phillies at the edge of the title of the division of the east of the National League. Until then, the double-meaning star had left departures in the last three months in his return from a second surgery of Tommy John in career.
During this section, however, Ohtani was subject to strict limitations. He only launched only a round during his first two outings, two rounds in the couple after that, and continued a slow and progressive accumulation in the weeks that followed. For many of these first departures, the right -hander did not even use its complete arsenal of throws, restricting itself on the balls and the sweepers, while it was trying to focus on its speed and sharpen its rusty command.
It was in Ohtani in “rehabilitation mode”, as Dodgers described.
Priority has remained on the protection of its elbow to surgically.
But then came the meeting with the Phillies, in which Ohtani had finally seemed ready to turn the page.
He finished five rounds for only the second all season. He did it with spectacularly dominant ease on only 68 locations. He used his complete mixture, with a quick bullet which exceeded 101.7 MPH to a cursor which induced a suffocation rate of 50% to a lead / knife / separator combination which made the ball damaging different directions to all the quadrants of the plate. He recovered five sticks to the stick and only walked.
“It was phenomenal,” recalls the manager of Phillies Rob Thompson. “It was the combination of power, control, order, stuff.”
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Three weeks later, Ohtani should again compete against the Phillies, in match 1 of the national league division series at the Citizens Bank Park on Saturday evening.
And this time, it will not be subject to the restrictions of the workload which forced him to make an early outing of this previous offer.
The plan, said the Dodgers plan, Dave Roberts, is to “treat it as an ordinary launcher”.
“This is something we expect all year round,” added Roberts, while opening the door of Ohtani to go up to six or seven heats in what will be its debut in the MLB qualifiers. “He is ready for this moment. So, for me, I’m just going to sit down and watch carefully. ”
“I am sure that I will sometimes be nervous,” said Ohtani through the interpreter Ireton. “But more than that, I am really grateful to play baseball at that time of the year.”
If this was not the case for this beginning of September against the phillies, it is not clear if Ohtani would to this freedom now.
That night, Roberts withdrew Ohtani from his offer without cuts because, as he said after the match, he did not feel comfortable to deviate from the prescribed pitching plan of the superstar.
What Roberts did in this match, however, was to ask Ohtani what he felt after the fifth round to collect information that Dodgers could use in the future. Ohtani told Roberts that he always felt hard. Thus, during his last regular season a week later in Arizona, the team allowed him for the first time to embark on the sixth.
Dodgers are still trying to be aware of the two -way burden of Ohtani. He starts match 1 of this series (which will be followed by a day off on Sunday) because they did not want to launch it early in the Channel of the Joker and have it hit in the following days.
But in the future, the president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said that the club plans to use Ohtani as “a normal launcher now”. More predetermined restrictions. More authoritarian health considerations.
“I am very happy to have ended the progress of rehabilitation at that time,” said Ohtani, reflecting the departure of September which reported that he was ready. “The simple fact of being healthy is really important for me, so I’m just grateful for that.”
Rotation and rotation notes
Roberts said, after Ohtani, Blake Snell would probably start match 2, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow aligned for matches 3 and 4, respectively. Glasnow will also be available on the enclosure of the readers for match 1.
Clayton Kershaw will be on the team’s list of the team, after being left out for Joker’s turn. Roberts said he would play in a rescue role.
The receiver Will Smith should be on the list again as one of the three receivers, said Roberts, but his availability to start the matches remains in question. Although Smith’s fractured right hand has healed, he is still rebuilding strength and endurance after missing the last weeks. He had to take direct stick training during the training of the team on Monday.
