The Los Angeles Dodgers may be back in “uh-oh” territory with Shohei Ohtani.
While serving as the starting pitcher on Wednesday against the Cincinnati Reds, Ohtani had to exit the game in the middle of an-bat. During the fourth inning at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohtani fired six straight balls that weren’t even close to the strike zone (including two wild pitches). Dodgers personnel then huddled around Ohtani, and the decision was made to pull him from the game.
Here is the video, in which Ohtani looked visibly frustrated as he walked off the mound.
Shohei Ohtani has left his start in the middle of an at-bat after throwing six consecutive balls, two of which were yanked fastballs that were wild pitches. pic.twitter.com/2sR6Tt3W0Y
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 31, 2025
Ohtani was at 51 pitches thrown through 3+ innings at the time that he exited as a pitcher. Notably however, Ohtani remained in the game for the Dodgers as a hitter. He took his very next at-bat in the top of the sixth inning against Cincinnati’s Nick Martinez and ended up striking out on seven pitches.
Meanwhile, the concerning sequence of the six straight balls thrown by Ohtani right before he left the game as a pitcher can be seen below.
These were Shohei Ohtani's last six pitches before he came out of the game with a trainer pic.twitter.com/yp38l0dnDy
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 31, 2025
Though Ohtani was at 96-99 mph on all of the pitches in that sequence, it certainly didn’t look good that he was missing by that much. Wednesday also marked just Ohtani’s seventh total start of the season ever since his 2023 UCL surgery (he didn’t pitch at all for the Dodgers in 2024). He was ramping up from one inning pitched per start in his first handful of appearances, got up to two innings per start by July, went up to three in his most recent starts, and made it into the fourth inning during Wednesday’s game against Cincinnati.
The Dodgers were extremely cautious throughout Ohtani’s lengthy rehab process, and Ohtani certainly looked to be almost all the way recovered, recently having even thrown the fastest pitch of his MLB career. But now the Dodgers appear to have a new injury concern with Ohtani that is threatening to derail their plan for him to be at full strength as a pitcher by the 2025 postseason.
