Dodgers’ Dave Roberts Reveals Pitching Plan for Shohei Ohtani in World Series Game 7

After carefully guarding Shohei Ohtani's workload throughout the 2025 regular season — his first season on a mound since he underwent major surgery on his elbow in September 2023 — the kid gloves are off.

Ohtani is starting Game 7 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays on short rest, four days after he tossed 6+ innings in Game 4.

Before Game 7, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts discussed the pitching plan for Ohtani.

"As far as innings, not sure," Roberts said. "It depends how he comes out, how he looks, how he’s throwing, how he’s feeling. So I just kind of want to withhold kind of expectation and kind of read and react.

"As far as pitching plan, everyone’s available, and so how the game plays out, I just can’t predict. I don’t think anyone can. So we’ll see how it goes. But it starts, obviously, with the way Shohei’s throwing the baseball. And, yeah, last night we talked to him, and he said he was on board for starting. To be able to start him, it allows for us to kind of let him run as long as we can versus having him on the back end of the game."

Roberts also suggested that Ohtani's performance would be the final determinant of how long he remains on the mound.

"I expect him to show well," Roberts said of Ohtani. "I just don’t know how long, but we got to wait and see how it looks, and then if he’s rolling, he’s going to keep pitching."

Ohtani limited the Blue Jays to two runs in six innings in Game 4 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium. But the first two batters reached base against him in the seventh inning, and both came around to score against the Dodgers' bullpen. Ohtani was the losing pitcher in Toronto's 6-2 victory.

Ohtani has made three starts this postseason, none on fewer than 10 days' rest. He's allowed seven runs in 18 inning (3.50 ERA) while striking out 25 batters and allowing only 11 hits and five walks.

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