Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani Scratched From Scheduled Pitching Start on Wednesday

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani won't be pitching in Wednesday's series finale against the Athletics, the team announced on Tuesday.

While Ohtani was initially scheduled to start on Wednesday, the team will now use a bullpen game instead, per Katie Woo of The Athletic.

Ohtani's next pitching start has been pushed back to Friday against the San Diego Padres. That is the second game of a four-game set with the Padres at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium.

Shohei Ohtani will not start tomorrow against the A’s and will pitch Friday against the Padres.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 30, 2026

Why Isn't Shohei Ohtani Starting on Wednesday vs Athletics?

It's currently unclear why Ohtani isn't making his start on Wednesday, and is instead pitching Friday.

Manager Dave Roberts recently said Ohtani still isn't 100 percent in his recovery from a knee injury. However, that hasn't stopped him from pitching the last couple of weeks.

Ohtani has been on a once-a-week pitching schedule, starting every Wednesday for LA. It remains to be seen how this change shakes up his schedule moving forward.

It's possible that the Dodgers wanted Ohtani to get some extra rest because of his knee. It's also possible the team planned on pushing him back at this point in the year with them playing 13 games in 13 days.

Ohtani has only pitched on less than six days' rest once this season. In order to keep that going, he would have had to be pushed back at some point in this stretch.

Shohei Ohtani Struggling After Dominant Start to Season

Ohtani's last three starts have been significantly less sharp than his first 10 this season.

Through 10 starts in 2026, Ohtani had allowed just five earned runs and sported a 0.74 ERA.

In his last three starts, he's allowed nine earned runs, and has seen his ERA rise to 1.58.

Ohtani has not only been pitching with a blister on his hand, but he's also thrown to Dalton Rushing in his last three starts since Will Smith went on the injured list.

Shohei Ohtani with Will Smith as his catcher this year: 10 G, 5 ER, 0.74 ERA

Shohei Ohtani with Dalton Rushing as his catcher this year: 3 G, 9 ER, 4.34 ERA pic.twitter.com/BltB2rBqxF
— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) June 25, 2026

Ohtani and Rushing weren't on the same page in his start last week, leading to some viral disagreements and more publicity than the team would have wanted.

For what it's worth, Rushing took accountability for his actions after the fact, and vowed to be better moving forward.

“Look, he’s the greatest player to play this game,” Rushing said to the California Post. “And he has every right to, one, call whatever he would like, and two, just attack the way that he wants to on the mound. Because no one on this earth can tell him that he doesn’t know what he’s doing out there.

“So we’re gonna move forward from it. I’ve talked to him a lot. Never in a million years could you ever have a bad thing to say about a guy like that. Never in a million years could you ever feel like a player like that is in the wrong. So it’s kind of up to me, as a young guy, to wear the situation, wear it on my chest, get over it, move past it, and make sure that we allow a guy like that to do what he wants to do.”

Roberts said earlier this week he hadn't yet decided if Rushing would catch Ohtani's next start. That decision has now been pushed back a couple days.

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