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    • LA Dodgers ready to win the World Series despite Shohei Ohtani’s injury
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    LA Dodgers ready to win the World Series despite Shohei Ohtani’s injury

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    LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers don’t want a lighthearted sound.

    They know how much Shohei Ohtani means to their team, their franchise and the entire baseball world.

    But if you think Ohtani’s left shoulder injury, a partial dislocation, will be a huge hindrance to the Dodgers’ path to a World Series championship, then you simply don’t know the Dodgers.

    The Dodgers won again Saturday, 4-2, to take a 2-0 series lead over the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium, confident that with or without Ohtani they will still win the World Series and make their first parade since 1988 will hold. .

    “We’re really confident,” Dodgers All-Star right fielder Mookie Betts said. “We have a great group of guys here. We can definitely handle things. I believe in this team.”

    Ohtani, baseball’s first 50/50 man — with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases this season — terrified the sellout crowd of 52,725 when he tried to steal second base in the seventh inning. He slid into base, reached back with his left hand and was tagged out.

    Instead of getting back up, he lay on the ground writhing in pain.

    “The whole stadium went quiet,” said Dodgers fielder Teoscar Hernández, who homered in the third inning. “You know how big Shohei is for this team. Hopefully he’ll do well, and the day off will help him get back on the field.”

    Ohtani, who left the Dodgers clubhouse before reporters were allowed in, will be tested Sunday, but the Dodgers remain optimistic he will be back as their DH in the World Series.

    “Obviously, if one of your players goes down,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “that’s concerning. But after the range of motion and the strength test, I felt a lot better about it. That’s going through your mind, but you have to just stay positive.

    “We’ll know more in the coming days, but the strength was great and the range of motion was good. So we are encouraged.”

    When asked if Ohtani will still return without missing the rest of the World Series, Roberts didn’t hesitate.

    “I expect him to be there,” Roberts said. “I expect him to be in the lineup.”

    The Dodgers have had more potholes this season than a highway in winter. The Dodgers had 15 pitchers on the injured list, leaving just three starting pitchers in the postseason. They played without infielder Max Muncy for two months. Betts was out for 45 days. First baseman Freddie Freeman missed 15 games, the most in seven years, and is playing this postseason with a badly sprained ankle.

    Still, they persevered and won the most baseball games during the regular season before speeding past the San Diego Padres and New York Mets in the postseason. Ohtani or not, they are still deep and talented enough to win their first World Series in a full season since 1988.

    “When you have a group like that,” Freeman said, “they picked me up when I got down. That’s what they do. We’ve been doing it all year round.’

    Even as I watched Ohtani leave the game in pain, there was certainly sympathy for the human being, but honestly no genuine concern for the team.

    “That’s obviously a huge bummer,” said Dodgers infielder/outfielder Tommy Edman, who hit one of the Dodgers’ three home runs. We are confident that he will recover quickly.”

    Still, the Dodgers’ mantra all season has always been “next man up,” and that won’t change now just because it’s Ohtani.

    “Obviously it would be a huge hole,” Dodgers infielder/outfielder Enrique Hernández said, “but there’s something about this team that guys are going to show up and do well. We played some (postseason) games without Freddie in the line-up, and we won those games.

    “We hope we don’t have to play games without Sho, but you know, if we do, I’m sure we’ll find someone who can step up.”

    The hyped matchup between Ohtani and Yankees center Aaron Judge was an early dud in these first two games, with Judge producing one hit while striking out six. Judge’s struggles continued throughout the postseason, hitting .150 (6-for-40) with 19 strikeouts and two home runs.

    The Yankees know that if Judge’s struggles continue, the World Series drought will continue. But if Ohtani can’t play in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium on Monday, the Dodgers or the rest of the series are out, the Dodgers’ lineup is so deep that their confidence is undeterred.

    “Oh yeah, 1,000%,” said Teoscar Hernández, who along with Freeman became the second Dodger teammates to hit back-to-back World Series home runs, joining Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager. “We battled with a lot of injuries all year long.

    “First it was the starting pitchers, then Mookie and then Freddie. And hopefully not Ohtani in this case. It won’t be a good feeling, but if he can’t go on Monday, we just have to continue with the things we have been doing over the last few weeks.”

    The Dodgers, despite their injury-plagued rotation, have made it through the entire postseason. They didn’t need a dramatic walk-off grand slam from Freeman this night. They simply relied on the arm of starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who gave up just one hit, a solo homer to Juan Soto, over 6 ⅓ innings, and watched as their bullpen staved off a Yankee rally in the ninth inning.

    The Series now returns to New York, as the Yankees attempt to become the first team to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the World Series since accomplishing the feat against Atlanta in 1996.

    “Nobody said it’s going to be easy,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s a long run, and we have to make it a long run now. We won’t back down.”

    The problem for the Yankees is that neither will the Dodgers, with or without the big guy in the lineup.

    “I know they’re going to come out ready to go,” Betts said. “They have no choice. Neither do we. We must continue. We still have some business to take care of.”

    Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale

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