ANAHEIM — Shohei Ohtani was held out of the lineup for a second straight sport on Tuesday, as he’s nonetheless coping with proper indirect tightness after injuring himself on a swing throughout batting follow earlier than Monday’s sport.
Ohtani, who was initially within the lineup on Monday earlier than being scratched, underwent additional testing on Tuesday, however supervisor Phil Nevin didn’t have an replace on the severity of the harm earlier than the sport. He did say Ohtani was feeling higher and wished to be within the lineup earlier than Nevin overruled him.
Ohtani, the overwhelming favourite to win the AL MVP Award for a second time in three seasons, wasn’t positioned on the injured listing on Tuesday, however that hasn’t totally been dominated out simply but.
“He woke up today feeling a lot better than last night when he left, but we’re still going through some evaluation stuff with him,” Nevin stated. “We’re just evaluating him. That’s all I can say.”
Ohtani, 29, has slashed .304/.412/.654 with 44 homers, eight triples, 26 doubles, 20 stolen bases, 95 RBIs and 102 runs scored in 135 video games. He’s tied for the MLB lead together with his 44 blasts, which can be three off the membership report of 47 homers set by Troy Glaus in 2000.
Ohtani has remained the membership’s common designated hitter even after being recognized with a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his proper throwing elbow on Aug. 23. He gained’t pitch once more this season and is at present searching for a number of opinions on his elbow, as he’s set without cost company and nonetheless figuring out his subsequent plan of action.
His agent, Nez Balelo, spoke to the media on Monday and indicated that surgical procedure is probably going, however that it may not be a second Tommy John surgical procedure. He added that Ohtani will probably be able to hit initially of subsequent season, even when he does bear an operation on his elbow.
Nevin stated Ohtani has requested to be within the lineup in each sport since his elbow harm. But it’s unclear if this indirect harm will drive him to overlook a while.
“I think it just says a lot about who he is,” Nevin stated. “And just for the record, he really wants to play right now. He’s upset about it. He wants to play. It’s just a credit to who he is. If he starts something, he wants to finish it. He wants to be out there, but these things can be finicky sometimes, so we’re getting more tests.”
Ohtani has been a continuing fixture within the lineup this season regardless of the pains of being a two-way participant. He’s solely been held out of the lineup solely 4 occasions this season regardless of making 23 begins as a pitcher and going 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts in 132 innings.
Before Monday, the final time Ohtani wasn’t the membership’s beginning designated hitter was on May 2 towards the Cardinals. The solely different time was April 12 towards the Nationals. Mike Trout served as designated hitter in each of these video games, whereas Brandon Drury began there on Monday and Mike Moustakas was DH on Tuesday. The Angels gained each video games with Trout as DH however misplaced Monday, with Drury going 1-for-4 with a solo homer in a 6-3 defeat.
Nevin stated that he has conversations with Ohtani via his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara earlier than every sport to see how Ohtani is feeling, however it’s finally Nevin’s alternative if Ohtani is within the lineup.
“First off, I make the lineup,” Nevin stated. “If I wanted him to have a day off, I would tell him to have it. There’s times where it’s happened. Obviously, it hasn’t happened in a long time. I feel like our conversations have always been good like that. Today may or may not have been one of those days. I just felt like he probably needed another one or two days, but we are still evaluating him. He feels a lot better today. He mentioned wanting to play, but I wasn’t going to let him.”
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