LOS ANGELES — In Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday night, Dodger Stadium only fell quiet twice.
The first lull was rectified quickly, with the Los Angeles Dodgers turning a tied score in the third inning into a comfortable lead with back-to-back home runs from Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman.
The second silence, however, lasted much longer — serving as the only ominous moment at Chavez Ravine in two otherwise rollicking Fall Classic nights.
The Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees 4-2 on Saturday, surviving a frightening ninth inning to take a commanding 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven World Series.
But in the process, superstar designated hitter Shohei Ohtani sustained a shoulder injury after he jammed his left arm on a slide in the bottom of the seventh inning on an unsuccessful stolen-base attempt.
While manager Dave Roberts said the team wouldn’t know the full extent of Ohtani’s injury until he underwent an MRI exam — which was expected to take place either Saturday night or today — the early signs seemed to suggest he had avoided a worst-case scenario.
According to Roberts, Ohtani sustained a shoulder subluxation, essentially a partial dislocation less severe than if his shoulder had fully come out of its socket. In immediate postgame tests, Roberts said Ohtani’s shoulder strength and range of motion were good, leaving the team “encouraged” about his status for the rest of this series.
“Obviously I can’t speculate because we don’t get the scans yet,” Roberts said. “But after the range of motion, the strength test, I felt much better about it.”
When asked later how his team might handle possibly playing without Ohtani when the series resumed on Monday at Yankee Stadium, Roberts declined to even entertain the hypothetical.
“I’m not there,” Roberts said. “I’m expecting him to be there. I’m expecting him to be in the lineup.”
Regardless of Ohtani’s status — he left the stadium shortly after the game without speaking to reporters — the Dodgers’ position in this World Series is nonetheless auspicious.
The team not only holds a 2-0 lead as things shift to New York, but has neutralized all the potential advantages the Yankees appeared to have in this relatively even matchup.
They have negated New York’s expected starting pitching advantage on the mound, battering Carlos Rodón for four early runs Saturday while Yoshinobu Yamamoto worked 61/3 innings of one-run, one-hit ball.
They have limited the superstar bats atop the Yankees lineup, most notably with six strikeouts of Aaron Judge in his nine at-bats.
And they have watched their offense continue a scorching October surge, one that culminated with consecutive blasts from Hernández and Freeman in the third — the Dodgers’ first back-to-back home runs in the World Series since Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager hit pivotal blasts in Game 5 of their 1981 championship.
“It was big,” Roberts said of the third-inning sequence, which followed a solo blast from Juan Soto in the top half of the inning, turning a 1-1 tie into a 4-1 lead. “We needed it clearly.”
Still, the Dodgers’ path to a championship, which now lays two wins away, could get more complicated depending on Ohtani’s status.
The soon-to-be three-time most valuable player was only one for eight over Games 1 and 2, plus a walk that put him on base in the seventh inning Saturday.
But, coming off his historic 54-homer, 59-stolen-base regular season, the Dodgers would have to compensate if they’re forced to play without him.
“It’s not going to be a good feeling,” Hernández said of the thought of an Ohtani-less Dodgers lineup. “But if he can’t go on Monday, we just have to keep doing the thing we’ve been doing for the past couple weeks.”
Ohtani got hurt in the seventh, as he sought his first stolen base of the playoffs with two outs in the frame.
As Ohtani launched into a feet-first slide, his right hand got jammed in the ground. For several moments, Ohtani lay flat near the base, grimacing. As he got back to his feet and was helped off the field by a trainer, he held his left arm suspended in front of him, careful not to jolt it as headed toward the clubhouse.
“The scene (was) very concerning,” Roberts said.
Even more so when television cameras for Japanese broadcaster NHK caught Ohtani saying in Japanese that his shoulder had popped out.
“Obviously, that’s a huge bummer,” said utilityman Tommy Edman, who opened the scoring Saturday with a solo home run in the second. “He’s the best player in the game, and to see him on the ground in pain, it’s not a good feeling for sure … But we’re hopeful he recovers quickly. We’re sending our thoughts and prayers for him.”
Ohtani’s spot in the lineup never came up again, as the Dodgers closed out their Game 2 win in a stressful ninth inning that saw the Yankees load the bases against Blake Treinen before Alex Vesia recorded the final out.
Roberts didn’t say if Ohtani would have been replaced in the DH spot had the game been extended.
“I didn’t even think that far,” he claimed. “I’m just happy we didn’t have to get to that spot.”
But now, in a series that has seen almost everything else break their way, the Dodgers will have to wait and see what an MRI reveals in Ohtani’s shoulder, going to New York with an MVP-sized concern to suddenly worry about.