DENVER — The Dodgers lost a game Wednesday. But it could have been worse.
They could have lost Shohei Ohtani.
The final score was 8-3 in favor of the Colorado Rockies, although the game was far more one-sided than that. And the result, combined with San Diego’s win over the Giants, cut the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West to just a game.
Yet the word the team used most often to describe the night was lucky because two hours after Ohtani took a line drive off his right leg, the reigning National League MVP said he had dodged serious injury when the ball missed his knee and struck him in the thigh.
“I think we avoided the worst-case scenario,” he said through an interpreter. “So I’m going to focus on the treatment.”
“It was in the thigh, fortunately, and not off the knee,” added manager Dave Roberts. “But it got him square.
“We’ll see how it comes out. But I’m hopeful, confident.”
Ohtani was struggling through his worst pitching performance in nearly five years, one that would see him give up a season-high five runs and a career-high nine hits, when Colorado’s Orlando Arcia added injury to insult by lining a two-strike shot back up the middle.
The ball came off the bat at 93 miles per hour and struck the pitcher just above the right knee before caroming across the first-base line for an RBI single. Ohtani winced in pain and took a practice throw from the mound before being allowed to continue.
He limped off the mound three batters later with the Dodgers trailing 5-0 and after drawing a walk as the designated hitter in the top of the fifth, Roberts pulled him from the game.
“I took him out a little bit because of the score [and] because it was getting stiff and there was some swelling there,” the manager said. “I felt as the game was going to go on, it was going to stiffen.”
With the Dodgers in the midst of a stretch that will see them play a season-high 19 games without a break, Roberts had already planned to give Ohtani a day off Thursday before the opener of a three-game series Friday in San Diego. That plan, obviously, won’t change.
“Right now it feels pretty good,” Ohtani said. “I’m going to do everything in my ability to make sure that it doesn’t affect me moving forward.”
If Ohtani’s health was the Dodgers’ primary concern Wednesday, worries over his last two pitching performances — in which he gave up nine runs and 14 hits in 8 1/3 innings, nearly doubling his season ERA from 2.37 to 4.61 — probably aren’t far behind.
The game against Colorado, his first regular-season start at Coors Field, was his 10th start as a Dodger and it didn’t go well from the start, with the weak-hitting Rockies bunching three hits to score two runs in the second.
Colorado, which finished with 16 hits, made it 5-0 in the fourth, with the first five batters reaching base, the last of those coming on Arcia’s line drive.
“I put the team in a bad spot,” Ohtani said. “It was just a very regrettable outing that I wish I could have done better.
“The ball doesn’t move quite as much as it does in normal sea level, but that’s not an excuse.”
Speaking of not making excuses, Roberts promised earlier in the week that the Dodgers would not experience a letdown against the last-place Rockies even through the four-game series comes between six crucial games with the Padres. Now the Dodgers need a win Thursday to earn a split and guarantee they’ll land in San Diego this weekend with the division lead.
“You know, the results are the results. The performance is the performance,” Roberts said. “I’d like to think it’s not a letdown, but yeah, I don’t know.
“There’s nothing I can do to change it. It certainly leaves a sour taste in your mouth. But we’ve got to win tomorrow.”
Etc …
Utility player Kiké Hernández made a rehab appearance as the designated hitter for triple-A Oklahoma City on Wednesday, going two for three with a double and an RBI before leaving for a pinch-hitter in the seventh. Hernández has been on the injured list since July 7 with left elbow inflammation, but he could return to the Dodgers early next week. … Relievers Kirby Yates and Tanner Scott both threw hitless innings in rehab appearances for Oklahoma City on Tuesday and could rejoin the team in San Diego this weekend. … Before Wednesday’s game, the Dodgers recalled right-hander Paul Gervase from triple A and optioned right-hander Alexis Diaz. Gervase, 25, acquired from Tampa Bay at the trade deadline, appeared in five games with the Rays this season, striking out six batters in 6 1/3 innings. He made his Dodgers debut against the Rockies, giving up a run and two hits in two innings.
