Dodgers 'banking on' Shohei Ohtani playing in Game 3 of the World Series vs. Yankees

The Dodgers breathed a collective sigh of relief on Sunday.

After Shohei Ohtani left Game 2 of the World Series with a partially dislocated left shoulder, the team is optimistic that he’ll be back in the lineup for Game 3 on Monday, manager Dave Roberts said.

“He's got to still go through the workout [today] and swing the bat,” Roberts said Sunday, ahead of the Dodgers’ off-day workout 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.”

Ohtani got hurt in the seventh inning of the Dodgers’ Game 2 win on Saturday at Dodger Stadium, when he jammed his left arm while sliding into second base on an unsuccessful stolen base attempt.

Read more: Complete coverage: Dodgers defeat New York Yankees in 2024 World Series

While the rest of the team flew to New York immediately after the victory, which gave the Dodgers a two-games-to-none lead over the Yankees in the World Series, Ohtani stayed back in Los Angeles to get an MRI exam. He flew to New York on Sunday morning and joined the team at the ballpark for their workout.

Roberts didn’t have — or at least didn’t offer — specifics on what the MRI of Ohtani’s shoulder revealed.

But based on his conversations with the club’s training staff, Roberts said that he expected Ohtani would be able to play in Game 3.

“He's obviously very well aware of himself and his body,” Roberts said. “So if he feels good enough to go, then I see no reason why he wouldn't be in there.”

The final decision on Ohtani’s availability for Game 3 will likely depend on his pain tolerance swinging the bat.

“Guys have had this before and played,” Roberts said, comparing it to the dislocated shoulder former Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger played through in the 2020 World Series. “But again, it's just everyone's tolerance.”

According to another person with knowledge of the situation who wasn't authorized to speak publicly, Ohtani was doing “shockingly well” on Sunday, raising hopes that the team won’t have to try and close out its first championship since 2020 — and first in a full season since 1988 — without him.

“If it's a per-tolerance situation," Roberts added, "I just don't see him not playing Game 3."

Beyond just taking the field, the Dodgers are hopeful that Ohtani won’t be compromised at the plate, either. Roberts noted that the injury is to the back shoulder in Ohtani’s swing, which should cause him fewer problems than if it had been his lead right shoulder.

“I don't see how that affects his hitting, if he's able to go,” Roberts said. “I would argue that the right shoulder is more compromising to the swing for a left-handed hitter than the left shoulder."

And even if Ohtani isn’t 100%, his presence in the leadoff spot alone should benefit the Dodgers, Roberts argued.

“[Yankees Game 3 starter Clarke] Schmidt will know that Shohei's in the box,” Roberts said. “So that means everything.”

Sunday’s development lined up with the positive prognosis Roberts offered on Ohtani in the wake of Saturday’s game.

Though the team was still awaiting MRI results at that point, Roberts said postgame strength and range-of-motion tests on Ohtani’s shoulder were good, and that the team was “encouraged” about his status even after the concerning way he exited the field in Game 2 — holding his arm suspended as broadcast cameras caught him telling a trainer that he believed his shoulder had popped out.

“The scene [was] very concerning,” Roberts said Saturday night. “But after the range-of-motion, the strength test, I felt much better about it.”

Roberts also said that, if Ohtani does play in Game 3, he does not believe the 30-year-old slugger, who has also been rehabbing his right pitching arm this year after undergoing a Tommy John revision last season, would be risking further injury.

Read more: Shaikin: Yoshinobu Yamamoto proves there is still strength in Dodgers' starting pitching

“I think that once we make the decision that he can play, I would assume that there isn't a possibility of that,” Roberts said.

Ohtani was only one-for-eight in the first two games of the World Series, though his lone hit was a big one: An eighth-inning double in Game 1 that helped the Dodgers tie the score and force extra innings, when Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam.

And after his historic 54-home run, 59-stolen base regular season, Ohtani has remained one of the most dangerous presences in the Dodgers lineup this October, batting .260 in his first career postseason with three home runs, 10 RBIs and 12 walks (tied for the most of any player in the playoffs this year).

“He's been awesome for the clubhouse and awesome for our team,” said pitcher Walker Buehler, who will start Game 3 for the Dodgers. “So it's been a cool year watching him with the 50-50, just kind of the day to day, and the kind of human he is as well.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.