rotation

NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani’s throwing program has stalled, with the Dodgers star canceling a bullpen session the team had tentatively scheduled for Saturday.

“Just doesn’t feel 100%,” manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani’s left knee. “And because I think that the last ‘pen that he had, there was a little bit of regression. So we want to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”

It was going to be Ohtani’s second bullpen since receiving an orthovisc injection in his knee on July 12. He threw a roughly 30-pitch side session on Wednesday.

It’s unclear when he’ll throw off the mound next. But Roberts said he’s still optimistic that Ohtani will return to the rotation sometime in August.

“It was obviously not ideal, him throwing his last bullpen and going backwards, essentially,” Roberts said. “So obviously that’s disappointing because you throw a bullpen to continue to build up. So that was disappointing. But as far as worry, concern, we don’t have any of that.”

Roberts described a “fluid” process, with plenty of input from Ohtani, as he and Dodgers continue to navigate the knee issue. Because only pitching seems to be aggravating the injury, Ohtani will continue to play at designated hitter.

“From his words, the hitting, the running, as he has done the last couple nights, doesn’t affect him,” Roberts said. “So I can only go by what he and the training staff are telling me. So, unless I hear otherwise, that hitting compromises his health, then I’m going to keep putting him in the lineup.”

The Dodgers had initially hoped the injection and time off leading up to the All-Star break would allow him to get past the discomfort in his knee and not have to worry about managing it for the rest of the season.

Though Ohtani feels better than he did before the break, according to Roberts, the team wasn’t envisioning this kind of start-and-stop buildup.

The schedule does the Dodgers some favors. The off day Monday allows them to get through this coming week without filling Ohtani’s spot in the rotation. But in order to keep all their starters on a six- to seven-day rotation, they’ll have to find a replacement — whether that be a bullpen day or another starter — by the first week of August.

Starting pitcher Blake Snell (arthroscopic elbow surgery) is on track to be close to a return from the injured list by then. In his second rehab start this month, he threw 2⅔ innings (49 pitches) for triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday.

He’ll be targeting four innings in his next start, according to Roberts. When asked if he’d need another rehab outing after that, Roberts said: “Let’s just get through that next one. Get through four innings and kind of read and react from there.”

Injury updates

Dodgers teammates Kiké Hernández, left, and Shohei Ohtani laugh after a win over the Philadelphia Phillies at Dodger Stadium on May 29.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

The Dodgers are set to welcome back utility player Kiké Hernández (strained left oblique) and closer Edwin Díaz (arthroscopic elbow surgery) from the injured list early in next week’s homestand.

Hernández is set to be activated Tuesday, as the Dodgers open a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners, Roberts said. And Díaz likely will return Wednesday, sliding back into the closer role that Tanner Scott has held in his absence.

Tyler Glasnow (back spasms) threw about 25 pitches in a one-inning live batting practice session Friday, Roberts said. He’s scheduled to throw to batters again next week.

The Dodgers have the best record in baseball, the highest run differential in baseball, the biggest lead in baseball.

And a pitching staff that recently required seven arms to get through a six-run loss in a game started by Kyle Hurt.

The Dodgers have the best player in baseball, the best manager in baseball, the best lineup in baseball.

And a starting rotation containing two cornerstones who have shown up for a total of eight games.

You know where we’re headed with this, right?

C’mon Dodgers, would you look in the mirror and ignore the noise and make the trade already?

Detroit Tigers’ Tarik Skubal pitches against the Athletics on July 7 in Detroit.

(Duane Burleson / Associated Press)

Go get Tarik Skubal.

Go get the two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner and cement your October. Go get the marvelous Detroit Tigers left-hander and claim your three-peat.

Everyone will say you are ruining baseball, but you know what really would ruin baseball? If its reigning dynasty is wrecked by loose bodies or back spasms or a needle stuck in a left knee.

Everyone will say you don’t really need him, but unless you have some sort of time machine that can restore vitality to some of the veterans showing serious wear, you need him.

The 29-year-old Skubal is a pending free agent, so the Tigers have to trade him or lose him to a $400-million contract elsewhere. The Tigers could keep him for a possible pennant run, but Skubal is a pitcher, not a miracle worker, and his 44-52 team has to leapfrog six others to sneak into a wild-card spot.

He’s there for the taking and, more than any other team, the asset-rich Dodgers are in the best position to take him. They have the best minor leaguers. They have the best fringe major leaguers. Give the Tigers whatever anonymous talents they desire because, as Dodgers fans have learned, nobody will be lamenting the lost kids when the big leaguers are parading down Figueroa.

Yes, agreed, this is an insane column to write … if it hadn’t already been written.

In June 2023, this space begged the Dodgers to bolster their weak starting rotation at the trade deadline.

“They need to surrender prospects and take on debt and do whatever it takes to trade for an ace starting pitcher or they have zero shot at a championship,” I wrote at the time. “They need to find somebody who can take the ball in one of the first two games of what could be a three-game wild-card playoff series or they have zero shot at surviving that series.”

One month later, failing to improve the team for one of the rare times in his brilliant career, Andrew Friedman struck out.

Three months later, they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round of the playoffs while rolling out a rotation of noodle-armed Clayton Kershaw, massively disappointing Bobby Miller and a human dinger machine named Lance Lynn.

Three years later it feels like it’s happening all over again, the Dodgers once again faced with a nightmare they’d rather ignore.

Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani puts on his batting gloves after pitching against the Padres at Dodger Stadium on July 3.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The team with four aces needs an ace. The team that began the season with two Cy Young candidates needs a third. The supernatural pitching staff needs help.

Start with Shohei Ohtani. They’re understandably acting like the knee-draining procedure he underwent last weekend was no big deal, but it pulled him off the mound and there has been no definitive word when he’ll return.

“We all know with where we’re at, who he is as a player, if there’s opportunities to be extra cautious and mindful, it’s just prudent,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the media.

In less than three months, will “cautious and mindful” become “ready to roll?” Who knows? Ohtani is 32 with slowly diminishing tread on those overworked wheels. Then there are Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, the injured starters who everyone thinks will just magically appear at full strength in the playoffs.

Believe that, and I’ve got some loose bodies to sell you.

Snell, 33, hasn’t lasted a full season in three years, and even though he’ll be pitching again soon, any season that includes even the most minor of elbow surgeries can have a problematic ending.

Glasnow, who turns 33 next month, has made but 25 starts in the last two seasons and missed the playoffs completely two years ago, and by now it feels like back spasms are the least of his problems.

The surprise bright spot of the rotation has been Justin Wrobleski, and last season he didn’t give up a run in four World Series relief appearances, but can he be trusted with the start? In Tuesday’s All-Star Game, deep-bombing Miguel Vargas reminded him how the heat increases when the expectations are higher.

The starting pitcher fears are heightened by the vulnerability of the man who is catching them. Will Smith will be back from his neck injury, but he’s lately shown some of the strain of his record-setting postseason workload. And do you really want Dalton Rushing talking trash behind the plate for pressure playoff battles?

To all these worries, add the bullpen, which has fallen back to earth after its club-record 38-inning scoreless streak. Edwin Díaz can’t come back soon enough and, oh wait, does that 10.50 ERA really belong to him?

Into this tightrope-walking atmosphere would step Skubal, who underwent a minimally invasive elbow procedure in May but came back stronger than ever. He has gone 36-15 over the last three seasons with two full years of sub-3.00 ERAs while being generally regarded as the best pitcher in baseball.

He might be a rental. So what? A third consecutive championship would be forever. The rest of the baseball world would cry foul. Who cares? The only sound that matters around here is the cheers accompanying one more title before the game goes dark.

The Dodgers’ rotation is hurting. The Dodgers’ window is closing. The Dodgers are on the verge of a three-peat, yet still one player away.

Go get Tarik Skubal.

Dodgers left-hander Justin Wrobleski could have been content with his performance the first couple of months this season. After all, he’d come into the year fighting for a rotation spot, and he’d shown in that time that he was ready to be a full-time major-league starter.

That wasn’t enough.

While still holding on to his identity as a pitcher who goes right at hitters, Wrobleski tallied 20 strikeouts over his last two starts of the first half.

“We’re just doing a good job with the plan,” Wrobleski said last week, days before he was named a first-time All-Star. “I feel like I’m continuing to get better at knowing where to go with two strikes, knowing where to go versus a certain hitter with two strikes and just kind of reading the game.”

Wrobleski is the only Dodgers pitcher set to appear in Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani pitched too close to the game, and Ohtani eventually pulled out of All-Star activities altogether in order to have his left knee drained on Sunday.

The story of how Wrobleski got there, in his first full season in the rotation after debuting two years ago, includes plenty of twists and turns.

“It’s a chronicle story in his young career, the down to up, but at the end of the day, he’s been a rock for us these first three months,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said in a conversation with The Times. “Was hoping he got in on the first set of announcements, but at the end of the day, he’s an All-Star, and he’s earned every bit of it.”

When Wrobleski wasn’t included on the initial National League All-Star roster, the Dodgers coaching staff went to work lobbying for him to be a replacement player. Manager Dave Roberts publicly made the case for Wrobleski and closer Tanner Scott whenever he had the chance.

Then, a week later, Wrobleski (10-2, 2.69 ERA) got the call after Cincinnati Reds right-hander Chase Burns bowed out because of tightness in his groin.

“He’s done so many intangible things that I think get lost in the shuffle of numbers and metrics,” Prior said of Wrobleski. “But he’s eaten innings, he’s provided length for us when we needed length. He went toe-to-toe with [Phillies three-time All-Star Zack] Wheeler. He went toe-to-toe with [José] Soriano when he was dealing with the Angels, kept us in ballgames.”

Admittedly, a year and a half ago, Prior wouldn’t have imagined Wrobleski would be an obvious All-Star pick this quickly.

The tipping point came when Wrobleski surrendered eight runs to the Washington Nationals in his first start last season. And it didn’t help that his last start of the previous season was a 10-run slog against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“It was a long, raw, emotional sit-down with him,” Prior said. He said after the conversation with Roberts, assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness and the rest of the staff, “we left with like, ‘Which way is this going to go?’”

But persistence has been a hallmark of Wrobleski’s career, dating to his college years, when he infamously bounced back from a car hitting him on a scooter and a baseball breaking his jaw. He also underwent Tommy John surgery two months before the Dodgers selected him in the 11th round of the 2021 MLB draft.

So, committing to a delivery change last season wasn’t all that intimidating.

Wrobleski returned to the majors in mostly a bullpen role. And his steadiness in those shorter outings culminated in a strong postseason run that included four scoreless appearances in the World Series.

“We talk about, who can you depend on to not let the moment get too big?” Prior said. “And I think Wrobo had proved that all the way through September, but clearly proved that the moment is not too big for him to continue to make pitches. And that was exciting to see too as a staff.”

Still, Wrobleski wasn’t guaranteed a rotation role this season. And Prior was frank about that over the offseason.

Wrobleski’s first outing of the season was in relief, but the Dodgers had earmarked him as their sixth starter for the second turn in the rotation.

In his first five starts, Wrobleski posted an eye-popping 0.56 earned-run average.

His swing-and-miss rate and strikeouts were down, but pitching to soft contact was getting him positive results. The most glaring example came against the St. Louis Cardinals in early May, when he threw six shutout innings without recording a punchout.

Dodgers left-hander Justin Wrobleski recorded 20 strikeouts in his last two starts before the All-Star Game.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Wrobleski wasn’t going to coast on that early success, however. He kept fine-tuning his delivery and adjusting his pitch mix, right through a rough patch in late May and into a consistent June.

“He went from paring down his arsenal to kind of two pitches, to regrow his arsenal while he’s learning how to pitch at this level,” Prior said. “I think the big thing is now these guys have different looks.”

Wrobleski’s four-seam fastball and slider have done the heavy lifting. The rest of his secondary pitch mix has been a moving target.

He and the pitching coaches have talked through the most effective use of his curveball. He started integrating his sinker more consistently in late April, especially against left-handed hitters. He’s tinkered with different grips for his change-up, a pitch he started using more in mid-May. Three weeks ago, he introduced a sweeper. And in his last two starts, he threw that pitch 19 times.

“At the heart of it, though, is he never lets off the gas pedal,” Prior said. “He just gets the ball, he’s on the rubber, he puts the hitter on defense from the get-go before they’ve even seen a pitch. And that’s something that not everybody can do.”

So, despite the journey, when Wrobleski looks back at the pitcher he was a year and a half ago, he doesn’t see a complete overhaul.

“Same guy but different, I guess,” he said. “It’s crazy. I’ve had to go through a lot of small tweaks and changes. And it’s just all been about just having belief that I could continue to do it. And I knew that there were a lot of things that I could do just to get better, and I wasn’t as far away as maybe it seemed on the outside — or, as people thought it was.

“I felt like I was close that whole time, even though the results weren’t really there. It’s been cool to see the results come.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is waiting for clarity from the Pentagon following President Trump’s back-and-forth on troop levels in Europe, upending the lives of military personnel and potentially costing taxpayers millions of dollars, two U.S. defense officials told the Associated Press.

NATO allies were bewildered in May when Trump said he would send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number pulled from Europe, following a spat with Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war. The Trump administration says troop reductions in Europe have long been planned and coordinated with allies.

The Republican president announced on social media two weeks ago that he was sending troops to Poland — the same day the Pentagon had officially ordered the cancellation of a rotation of soldiers heading there, one of the defense officials said.

The unit’s equipment was already on the way. Sending it cost the military $32 million, said U.S. Transportation Command, the military agency largely responsible for moving troops and gear across the globe.

The abrupt changes are forcing the military to “retroactively engineer” a policy in line with the president’s latest pronouncement, the official said. Both officials were briefed on the decisions and, along with others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.

The uncertainty is not only rattling European allies worried about the message being sent to Russia, but it also risks hurting morale among American troops — some of whom had their rotations canceled shortly before departure — and comes as the Army budget is already strained.

Changes to troop deployments to Poland add up

The rotational deployment to Poland of 4,000 troops from the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based in Fort Hood, Texas, was canceled in a memo sent to the military at the beginning of May. European allies found out mid-month.

Some of those troops were told shortly before traveling not to get on a flight to Poland, while those who had been sent ahead — initially around 1,000 troops — are still waiting for confirmation they are being sent back, a U.S. military official said.

The military also is still waiting for details from the Pentagon on how to satisfy Trump’s order to send 5,000 troops to Poland, that official said. The working assumption is that they will come from units already in Europe, rather than an additional deployment from the U.S., the official said.

U.S. Transportation Command had chartered a ship to take the team’s equipment from Texas to Poland and transport a departing unit’s gear back to America. The incoming team’s portion of the cost was $32 million, including chartering the ship and loading and unloading the gear.

Because the ship was chartered to take one unit to Europe and bring another back, it is hard to say if that amount would have been saved had the decision to halt the deployment been made before the new team had already begun moving overseas.

However, the military official said the unscheduled move of personnel and equipment back from Europe is most likely not a cost the Pentagon budgeted for and would be an additional expense.

Total costs of canceling the rotation are hard to quantify because of many factors, said Joe Costa, a former senior Pentagon official who now focuses on challenges faced by the U.S. military as director of the Atlantic Council’s Forward Defense program.

They most likely stem from returning equipment and troops sent ahead of the deployment and would probably be on the low end of the rotation’s overall cost, Costa said. The greater impact is on the readiness of troops who were trained for one mission and may be deployed on another, he said.

U.S. military contracts with private companies to transport troops and equipment contain cancellation clauses that often add extra fees if a deployment is called off, said John Deni, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council who has studied such costs.

“The question is what additional costs were incurred by deciding to send them back prematurely, changing the arrangements, changing the plan?” said Deni, a former U.S. military advisor and planner who focused on forces in Europe.

It is not clear if the Pentagon can recoup those costs or those associated with moving the unit to Europe. The Defense Department did not answer questions about the costs of changing the deployment plans, and the White House referred a request for comment to the department.

Pentagon officials have repeatedly said they planned to lower troop levels to have Europe shoulder more of its own defense and that the decision was part of a “comprehensive, multilayered process.”

Last month’s memo also led to the cancellation of a deployment to Germany of a battalion trained in firing long-range rockets and missiles.

Pulling troops stationed in Germany would be more expensive

When Trump first threatened to remove 5,000 troops from Europe, Pentagon officials initially suggested pulling back the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which is based permanently in Germany, the defense official said.

Instead, officials decided to cancel the rotation of the other unit to Poland. Then Trump threw that plan into confusion as well.

Pulling the troops stationed in Germany could cost in the low billions because there is no dedicated space and infrastructure in the U.S. to accommodate them and their families, Costa said.

“The other option is basically breaking up the unit,” Costa said. “They move the equipment in different places. They move the people to different places. That carries significant readiness costs because now you’re artificially jamming pieces of units into places where they don’t necessarily belong.”

Pulling or pausing deployments also can hurt morale among soldiers and families because they plan for them months and years in advance, Deni said. The uncertainty can be disruptive.

“That’s often the last thing you want to do to military families,” Deni said.

It is still unclear what will happen to U.S. troops stationed in Europe, the two officials said. Options include moving military units assigned to Germany to Poland, but that could take several years and cost more, the military official said.

Troop changes happen during an Army budget shortfall

The moves come as the Army is facing a budget shortfall, which the service’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, recently acknowledged to Congress.

Estimates put the deficit somewhere between $2 billion and $6 billion, according to an Army official who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive defense matters. One impact has been cutting training courses for soldiers nationwide, which ABC News earlier reported.

In a statement, the Army said it has issued guidance to its commands to “make tough and sound resource decisions that optimize and prioritize resources toward their most critical requirements, to include major training and readiness events.”

The Army official also noted that the service has been tasked with missions like the National Guard deployment in Washington, a bolstered presence along the U.S.-Mexico border and its part in the Iran war — all of which have strained its budget.

The Department of Homeland Security expects to reimburse the Army for its role in the border mission.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told lawmakers at a May 15 hearing that he was “optimistic” there would progress on those payments “within a week or two.” But to date, the Army has not been reimbursed.

“We want those backfilled payments,” Driscoll said then.

The U.S. military in Europe also is scaling back support for non-combat related training and ruthlessly prioritizing critical functions, the military official said.

Burrows, Finley and Toropin write for the Associated Press. Burrows reported from London.

PHOENIX — The “Beat L.A.” chants at Chase Field rose and fell for the final four innings, sometimes spurred organically, at other times prompted by the immense videoboard looming above center field.

And as the Dodgers’ offense continued to sputter, the Diamondbacks surged with a trio of home runs, giving the fans exactly what they asked for Monday night.

“Overall, I thought we had some good at-bats and barreled up some balls,” Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker said after the 4-1 loss. “But they made some nice plays and we just weren’t able to get the runs across, so just kind of how it goes sometimes.”

Tucker was one of five Dodgers in the starting lineup who went hitless. Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani was the only Dodger with multiple hits (three). And a quiet offensive night for the Dodgers wasted a quality start from starter Emmett Sheehan.

Sheehan held the Diamondbacks (32-27) to two runs and three hits in 6⅓ innings, carrying forward a recent trend for the Dodgers’ rotation, which entered Monday with a National League-best 3.05 ERA.

“I think it’s probably the back half of the rotation,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “To see what [Justin Wrobleski’s] done, to see what Roki [Sasaki] has done, to see what Emmet’s done — I think for me we’ve raised the floor of the starting rotation. The top end guys are kind of who they are, which is great. But every night we have a really good chance to win because of the starting pitcher.”

Monday was another one of those nights. But the Dodgers’ offense didn’t hold up its half of the bargain.

Sheehan — like Wrobleski and Sasaki this week — benefited from an uptick in velocity. His fastball averaged 95.9 mph on Monday, a season high and 1.7 mph above his average.

“I think it’s honestly just trying to relax early, and throw harder later in my delivery,” Sheehan said. “Before I was getting a little too tense, and that’s something the coaches mentioned to me. And it’s a bunch of other things too, but we’ve been working hard on it.”

Sheehan’s velocity has fluctuated all season, which he and the team attributed to inconsistent mechanics.

Dodgers starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan delivers during the first inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday.

(Rick Scuteri / Associated Press)

“It’s definitely been a process,” pitching coach Mark Prior said last month about syncing Sheehan’s delivery. “And it’s been a grind for him. Because he feels like some days he has it, some innings he has it; and other innings he doesn’t. It’s been kind of a roller coaster for him. It’s just part of the game.”

At times, his lower half was opening too quickly, throwing off the way his legs worked with his upper half. But on the days his timing was in sync, his velocity would often tick up, and everything would fall into place.

On Monday he was nearly perfect through the first 5⅓ innings, with the exception of Corbin Carroll’s first-inning double. He’d induced plenty of soft contact, plus three strikeouts, all in the first two innings. All three were put away with sliders.

“I thought he was really good — certainly deserved better,” Roberts said. “The fastball was good, slider was good, used the curveball, minimized hits.”

Then with one out in the sixth, Sheehan tried to work back from a first-pitch ball with a fastball up to Diamondbacks rookie Tommy Troy. The No. 9 hitter roped it beyond left field for his first major league home run.

After the Arizona lineup turned over and Sheehan retired Ketel Marte and Carroll to get out of the inning, Roberts stuck with the right-hander against switch-hitting Geraldo Perdomo and right-handed Nolan Arenado in the seventh.

With one out, Sheehan hung a slider to Arenado, who put the Diamondbacks up with a solo blast. And that would spell the end of Sheehan’s strong outing.

Reliever Jack Dreyer, making his first appearance since being activated off the 15-day injured list (left shoulder discomfort), gave up a two-run homer to Marte in the eighth inning to round out the Diamondbacks’ scoring.

The Dodgers’ offense managed just five hits against Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez, and were robbed of two by center fielder Jorge Barrosa, who made diving catches on line drives hit by Will Smith and Andy Pages.

“He made some nice plays out there for them,” Tucker said. “We did all we could really do. Once the ball leaves the bat, it’s out of our hands. So we had some good swings, good at-bats, it just didn’t go our way sometimes.”

The Dodgers eked across a run in the third on a Freddie Freeman groundout with runners on second and third. And the Arizona bullpen faced the minimum over the final three innings.

The Dodgers’ recent string of injuries continued Wednesday when left fielder Teoscar Hernández pulled up limping after trying to beat out a grounder to shortstop.

Once he was thrown out in the second inning of the Dodgers’ 4-1 win against the Rockies, Hernández took his time walking across the field back to the dugout.

The Dodgers announced that he sustained a left hamstring strain. Utility player Hyeseong Kim replaced Hernández in left field.

This series, as results went, was a success for the Dodgers. They swept the Rockies, outscoring Colorado 24-10 over the course of three games. But the injury losses dealt a blow.

Earlier this month, the Dodgers’ rotation bore the brunt of the injury bug. But recently, it has spread to the position players. Over the last week, three Dodgers position players have left games with injuries.

Last Friday in Milwaukee, third baseman Max Muncy was hit in the wrist by a pitch and sidelined for three games.

Utility player Kiké Hernández made his season debut Monday, after starting the season on the injured list while recovering from offseason surgery on his left elbow, and helped fill in for Muncy’s temporary absence. But Hernández logged just four at-bats before landing on the IL again, lifted from Tuesday’s game with a strained left oblique.

Even after tweaking his oblique in batting practice Monday, Kiké Hernández went four for four with two doubles and a home run as he played through the injury.

Teoscar Hernández’s hamstring strain came in the midst of a hot offensive stretch. Entering Wednesday, he had a 1.072 OPS in his last 13 games.

Manager Dave Roberts also pulled Shohei Ohtani from the Dodgers’ blowout win Tuesday, after he was hit on the right hand by a changeup. But that had more to do with the score, an opportunity to get Dalton Rushing more at-bats, and getting Ohtani ready for his start on the mound Wednesday.

For the second week in a row, Ohtani was in the batting order while also pitching. And for the second pitching start in a row, he gave himself run support with a leadoff home run.

This jumped off his bat at an exit velocity of 111.3 mph, according to Statcast, landing on the netting beyond the center field wall.

Shohei Ohtani runs the bases after leading off Wednesday’s game with a home run.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

His pitching performance was less straightforward. He held the Rockies hitless through six innings. But he still gave up a run, thanks to a total of five free passes (four walks and a hit batter).

Two of them set up the Rockies’ scoring opportunity. With runners on first and third in the fourth inning, the Rockies’ Willi Castro hit a grounder to the right side of the infield, pulling first baseman Freddie Freeman away from the base.

But second baseman Alex Freeeland, recalled Wednesday as the corresponding move as Kiké Hernández went on the IL, ranged to his left and dove to first base with the ball, beating Castro to the bag for the second out of the inning. Ohtani acknowledged Freeland with a point.

A run scored, but Freeland’s hustle set up Ohtani to get out of the inning without further damage.

The Dodgers held the Rockies hitless until the eighth inning, when Tyler Freeman hit a ground-ball single through the right side of the field off reliever Tanner Scott, in the midst of a scoreless inning.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers scored almost all their runs on homers, with Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages adding their own solo blasts after Ohtani, and Alex Call contributing an RBI single.

SAN DIEGO — Andrew Friedman got the last laugh last year, and another ring. At the trade deadline, you screamed he had to do SOMETHING BIG to get a left fielder and a closer. He did neither. The Dodgers rode a parade of starters to win Game 7 in Toronto, before they rode in a parade in L.A.

There are few things Friedman despises more than a deadline trade. The price in prospects is too high, the guarantees are too few.

Friedman might well face that same dilemma this year. We are two months from the trade deadline, and he just might need to trade for a starting pitcher by then.

Blake Snell undergoes elbow surgery Tuesday. Tyler Glasnow is back to square one in his recovery from back spasms. The Dodgers believe both will be back by the trade deadline, but you never really know for sure when an injured pitcher will return, and whether he will need some time thereafter to regain his sharpness.

There is something else Friedman despises: finishing second. It is not just about getting into the playoffs. It is about winning the National League West, with one of the two best records in the league, thus ensuring a first-round bye.

However, in a division race that was projected to be a runaway, the Dodgers find themselves in second place. With a 1-0 loss in San Diego Monday, the Padres leapfrogged the Dodgers for the lead in the NL West.

The Dodgers also figure to have a short time frame to determine whether they might need bullpen help at the trade deadline. The Dodgers have said closer Edwin Díaz is expected to return from elbow surgery sometime after the All-Star break, which would confine that time frame to two weeks, if that.

On Monday, Friedman said he was confident that the three key pitching injuries would not push him toward the July trade market.

“It’s more that the timing of the injuries would be way easier if they were spaced out,” Friedman said in a text message. “Obviously, injuries are part of the game and we can’t be shocked when it happens.

“It’s the overlapping nature that is tough in the moment, but that doesn’t really change July thoughts (at this point) or October outlook.”

In the third week of May, nothing is urgent.

The Dodgers are supplementing where they can, picking up three pitchers cut by their former clubs. The only one with name recognition: Eric Lauer, who posted a 6.69 earned-run average for the Toronto Blue Jays and complained about the team using an opener ahead of him.

The Dodgers can mix and match for awhile, but a team that prides itself on positioning its starters best for October success finds itself in an awkward position.

With Snell and Glasnow out, the Dodgers have little choice but to ask Shohei Ohtani, Justin Wrobleski, Emmet Sheehan and Roki Sasaki to take regular turns. No one but Yoshinobu Yamamoto has done that recently.

“You have to deal with the circumstances that are presented to you,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’re not pushing any of these guys right now. It could be a different conversation in September.

“Right now, they’ve got to take the baseball. In May, I don’t think it’s much cause for concern.”

Before the season, Fangraphs projected the Dodgers to win the NL West by 15 games, and to finish 17 games ahead of the fourth-place Padres. However, if what we see in the NL West right now is close to what we get all summer, that “different conversation in September” could involve not how to put a starter on a glide path toward October but whether that starter has exhausted himself to the point where he could not be counted on in an unexpected pennant race.

Ohtani is on pace to pitch 149 innings, a figure he last reached in 2022. He pitched 47 last year, none the year before.

Wrobleski is on pace to pitch 171 innings, 39 more than the professional high he set last season. He pitched 117 innings last year.

Sheehan is on pace to pitch 141 innings, 18 more than his professional high. He pitched 93 innings last season, none the year before.

Sasaki is on pace to pitch 137 innings, eight more than his professional high. He pitched 57 innings last season.

Maybe Lauer turns from a Dodger killer into a Dodger asset. Perhaps prospect River Ryan gets promoted into the starting rotation next month and sticks.

But July trades for starting pitchers need not be such a scary proposition. Friedman acquired Yu Darvish at the trade deadline in 2017 and Jack Flaherty at the trade deadline in 2024, and no one in Dodger Land is bemoaning the loss of Willie Calhoun, Trey Sweeney and Thayron Liranzo.

ST. LOUIS — Time is running out for the pitchers at the back end of the Dodgers’ rotation to prove that they should stay once left-hander Blake Snell returns from the injured list.

Right-hander Roki Sasaki strengthened his case Saturday with a quality start, despite some hiccups, as the Dodgers fell 3-2 to the Cardinals, extending their losing streak to four games.

Sasaki not only recorded an out in the sixth inning for the first season, but finished the inning to tie the deepest start of his MLB career, as he limited the Cardinals to three runs and five hits.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing. Sasaki labored early. But despite issuing two walks and hitting a batter in the first two innings, he escaped both unscathed.

No such luck in the third. Sasaki gave up back-to-back doubles to Iván Herrera and Alec Burleson, and a home run to Jordan Walker — who’s been swinging the hottest bat of any hitter this series — for a quick three runs.

Sasaki rebounded to throw three perfect innings to finish his outing.

The Dodgers’ offense, however, didn’t score until the ninth inning. Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández hit back-to-back infield singles, testing Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn’s range to both sides.

Then Max Muncy shot an RBI single over the head of second baseman JJ Wetherholt. And Andy Pages drove in another run with a ground ball just past the glove of diving third baseman Ramón Urías. but their late rally stalled there.

The star-studded Dodgers lineup hasn’t scored more than two runs in a game since Monday.

Sasaki is one of three young pitchers at the back end of the rotation, along with right-hander Emmet Sheehan and left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who are competing for two spots once Snell returns.

Snell (left shoulder fatigue) is scheduled to make his third minor-league rehab start on Sunday for triple-A Oklahoma City. He’ll likely need at least a fourth before returning, manager Dave Roberts said Friday.

Sheehan gave up four runs in 4 2/3 innings Friday, his velocity wavering as his delivery fell out of sync.

Wrobleski is scheduled to start Sunday, as the Dodgers try to avoid a three-game sweep. He’s pitched the best out of all three pitchers, but his proven ability as a long reliever as well could actually work against him as the Dodgers decide how to free up a spot in the rotation.