It's time for high-stakes baseball for Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The reigning World Series champions will begin their 2025 postseason journey this coming Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, where they will face the Cincinnati Reds for the start of a best-of-3 National League Wild Card series.
Will Ohtani see the mound against the Reds?
For now, the expectation is that Ohtani will get the ball if the series against the Reds gets to a third game, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
Nightengale shared via a social media post on X, formerly Twitter, that the Dodgers will go with Blake Snell in Game 1 on Tuesday before turning to Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 on Wednesday. A potential Game 3 is scheduled on Thursday, with Ohtani on standby as Los Angeles' starter.
Furthermore, Nightengale said that Ohtani will start Game 1 of the NL Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies should the Dodgers eliminate the Reds in two games.
Ohtani has enough days of rest to start any game in the Reds series, as his most recent mound appearance was on Sep. 23 versus the Arizona Diamondbacks on the road, in which he tossed six scoreless innings while striking out eight batters and issuing zero walks through 91 total pitches.
Ohtani only made his pitching debut with the Dodgers on June 16 versus the San Diego Padres, as he had a long journey to pitching again in the big leagues after going under the knife for elbow surgery in 2023. He also underwent surgery on his left shoulder in 2024, following Los Angeles' World Series victory.
Yet somehow, Ohtani has found his pitching groove. He was excellent in the final three games that he toed the rubber in the 2025 MLB regular season. Over that stretch, he allowed zero earned runs on eight hits with 18 strikeouts across 14.2 innings of action.
The reigning National League Most Valuable Player went 1-1 with a 2.87 ERA and 1.04 WHIP through 14 starts with the Dodgers in 2025.
