Shohei Ohtani out of Dodgers lineup for second straight game with physical concerns

Shohei Ohtani is out of the Dodgers' starting lineup for a second consecutive game due to nagging physical concerns, MLB.com reported Friday.

What happened

The Dodgers held Ohtani out of their lineup against the Washington Nationals on Friday, September 4, extending his run of missed starts to two games in a row. MLB.com described the reason as nagging physical concerns without specifying a diagnosis or a timetable for his return.

The absence lands against a backdrop of multiple physical issues that have piled up over the back half of the season. Per earlier reporting, Ohtani has not taken the mound since July 3 due to a right knee issue, and he missed Thursday's game with neck and right biceps problems. Friday's lineup card adds another scratch to that ledger.

It is also worth noting that Thursday's absence came a day after Ohtani went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. MLB.com's reporting attributes the lineup scratch to physical concerns rather than to that performance, and the material does not suggest the two share a cause — they simply share a timestamp.

Why it matters

Ohtani's availability is the kind of variable that reshapes a roster's calculus in the final weeks of a pennant race. The Dodgers sit at 84-57 (.596), first in the NL West with a division magic number of 12, and are riding a two-game winning streak — so the standings picture is comfortable. Comfortable standings and a healthy Ohtani are two different things, however, and the club will want both heading into October.

The physical concerns are layered in a way the available reporting does not fully untangle. The right knee issue that has kept Ohtani off the mound since July 3 is one thread; the neck and right biceps problems that surfaced around Thursday's absence are another. Whether those are connected, compounding, or simply the accumulated wear of a long season is not something the reporting addresses. What it does establish is that Ohtani has now missed consecutive games and the club has not offered a return date.

Under general league rules, September rosters expand to 28 players, giving the Dodgers additional flexibility to manage their active group through the final stretch. That flexibility does not change what the lineup looks like when Ohtani's name is absent from it, but it does give the club more bodies to work with as they navigate the calendar toward October.

Where the club stands

Los Angeles is 84-57 (.596), first in the NL West, and has won its last two games. The division magic number sits at 12, meaning the Dodgers can clinch with some combination of their own wins and second-place losses that totals that figure. With the calendar turning toward mid-September, the arithmetic is working in their favor regardless of who is penciled into the lineup on a given Friday.

Friday's game at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium features Blake Snell on the mound for Los Angeles against Washington's Jackson Kent. Saturday brings Tyler Glasnow against Cade Cavalli, and Sunday's starter for the Dodgers is listed as TBD opposite Andrew Alvarez. A three-game home series against the Nationals is the kind of schedule that allows a contender to manage its roster carefully — which may be precisely what the Dodgers are doing.

Elsewhere in the clubhouse, manager Dave Roberts opted this week to keep Teoscar Hernández in the lineup full-time at left field rather than deploy a platoon, citing recent signs of improvement after a stretch of struggles. And catcher Ben Rortvedt was outrighted to Triple-A Oklahoma City after being designated for assignment earlier in the week — the quiet roster housekeeping every contender navigates once September arrives and the shuffle accelerates. The Dodgers, in other words, are making decisions on multiple fronts at once, and Ohtani's status is the loudest of them.

What we don't know yet

MLB.com's report does not specify which physical concern is driving Friday's absence — the right knee, the neck, the right biceps, or some combination thereof. It does not address whether the club is considering an injured list placement, and it offers no indication of whether Ohtani could be available at any point this weekend. The reporting establishes the fact of the absence and the phrase "nagging physical concerns." Everything beyond that remains unaddressed in the available material.

The pitching situation carries its own open questions. Ohtani has not taken the mound since July 3 due to the right knee issue, and nothing in the current reporting suggests that changes in the near term. Whether the neck and biceps concerns that surfaced this week are related to that longer absence is not something the available material addresses.

What to watch

### Is Ohtani in the lineup this weekend?

His availability for Saturday and Sunday against Washington is unaddressed in the reporting. The next update from the club or from MLB.com will be the first signal of whether this is a brief maintenance absence or something that carries deeper into the series — and potentially beyond it.

Beyond the lineup card, the broader question is how the Dodgers manage Ohtani's workload and his health as the division magic number ticks toward zero. At 84-57 with a cushion in the NL West, Los Angeles has the standing to be cautious. Whether they exercise that caution, and for how long, is the thread worth following as September deepens and the stakes attached to every lineup card quietly rise. The Dodgers have the record to absorb a few absences. Whether they have the depth to absorb an extended one is a different question — and one the available reporting has not yet been asked to answer.