Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani Provides Injury Update on Himself After Hurting Knee

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani returned to the lineup for the team's second and third games of their series against the Chicago White Sox following a knee injury that forced him to miss one contest.

Ohtani left the Dodgers' game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday early with knee infammation, and he underwent imaging to determine the severity. Luckily for Los Angeles, the issue wasn't serious, and Ohtani was able to bounce right back.

But even though Ohtani did suit up on Saturday (and then Sunday), the superstar said he wasn't 100% healthy. Ohtani provided an update on his ongoing knee injury after Saturday's contest.

“It wasn’t 100% today,” Ohtani said. “But with the next three, four days, I feel pretty confident, with enough recovery, that I should be able to make the next start.”

Even not at full strength, Ohtani was still able to make a major impact for the Dodgers, hitting a home run to open the game. This helped Los Angeles cruise to a 7-1 win behind a very solid pitching effort from starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

SHOHEI OHTANI LEADOFF HOME RUN! pic.twitter.com/2DPm0BzPsF
— MLB (@MLB) June 13, 2026

Ohtani also drew three walks in the Dodgers' win, showing that his presence in the lineup was needed. The knee injury should keep getting better as time goes on, and Ohtani will manage it all day-by-day.

Ohtani went 0-for-2 on Sunday with two walks.

“I felt good waking up in the morning,” Ohtani said. “I feel good now. So I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to stay healthy, and should be good to go tomorrow as well.”

To this point, nobody on the Dodgers knows when the issue occurred, including Ohtani.

"It’s actually hard to pinpoint at what moment this happened," Ohtani said. "All I can really know for sure is that I think my mechanics weren't quite great in terms of my pitching side, so I believe that had something to do with this.”

The Dodgers superstar has started to get hot at the plate following an early-season offensive slump. Ohtani hit a home run in three straight games before Sunday's series finale, a 6-4 loss to the White Sox.

Overall, Ohtani has hit .302 with 14 home runs and 41 runs batted in, while posting an OPS of .975. Once again, Ohtani is in line to win the National League MVP honor, which would be his fourth straight year winning the award if it happened.

The Dodgers will hope that Ohtani can keep up this level of dominance at the plate, matching his pitching performance this season. The two-way superstar could potentially win both the MVP and Cy Young awards if he were to continue his great play.

But for now, getting him fully healthy is the key, and the Dodgers will navigate the injury with Ohtani on a game-by-game basis. The last thing anyone wants is for him to deal with a lingering injury, so certain levels of precaution will be taken, like they were when he missed Friday's game.

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