Suddenly the party stopped.

Shohei Ohtani lay on the ground and writhe in pain after being caught stealing second base in the seventh inning.

Dodger Stadium was quiet.

When Dodgers coach Yosuke Nakajima reported to the scene, the Fox broadcast picked up their conversation in Japanese.

“It’s the shoulder,” Ohtani said.

“What?” Nakajima asked.

“Shoulder.”

“Which shoulder?”

“Left.”

“Did it come off?” Nakajima asked.

“Probably,” Ohtani said.

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Manager Dave Roberts’ initial diagnosis: a subluxation, or partial dislocation, of the left shoulder.

As they extended their World Series lead to two games to none, the Dodgers were relatively somber following their 4-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Saturday night.

As encouraged as Roberts claimed to be about Ohtani’s condition, there was a very real chance that the Dodgers would have to play the remainder of the Series without baseball’s best player.

“If you see him coming off the field with a trainer holding his arm, that’s obviously a concern,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said.

Roberts acknowledged that he would remain unsure until Ohtani underwent an MRI examination. The best-of-seven series resumes Monday at Yankee Stadium.

Regardless of what the test reveals, the Dodgers should win this World Series.

Their starting pitching is similar. Their bullpen is much better. Their lineup is also much better, even without Ohtani.

The Yankees’ answer to Ohtani, Aaron Judge, might as well not play considering he’s hitting just .150 this postseason. In the first two games of the World Series, Judge is one for nine with six strikeouts.

However, there is more at stake than this Series.

“Personally,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said in Spanish, “I don’t want him to miss the last games of the season.”

This is the year of Ohtani. He has been the sport’s biggest story at every stage of the season, from the Dodgers’ season opener in South Korea to when he became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season.

Ohtani is more than the face of baseball. He’s baseball.

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How bad would it be if he is reduced to a spectator if the Dodgers win the World Series?

Hernández and the other Dodgers know better than anyone what he’s invested in this season, how he simultaneously rehabilitated his surgically repaired throwing elbow and prepared himself to put up the kind of offensive numbers that should earn him the third most valuable player award . Of course they don’t want him to miss these games.

“Hopefully he can play,” Hernández said.

Roberts wasn’t ready to acknowledge that Ohtani might not play again this postseason.

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

But if Ohtani isn’t, the Dodgers should have the necessary firepower to continue dominating the Yankees.

“We can definitely take care of business,” outfielder Mookie Betts said.

They survived a long period without Betts. They survived several stretches without Freeman. Without Ohtani, they can survive a few games.

“They picked me up when I was down and we’ll try to do the same for him,” Freeman said.

They’ve already done that. In the first two games of this World Series, Ohtani was one for eight. The Dodgers won both games.

Two minutes after their victory Saturday night, Ohtani left the clubhouse. At his side were a guard, Nakajima, and interpreter Will Ireton. Ohtani held his belongings in his right hand and nothing in his left.

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“Could you hold this?” he asked Ireton.

Ohtani entered an elevator, his role for the rest of this Series still undetermined.

He would have to win the World Series he had envisioned since the days he was a high school superstar in rural Japan. He should receive the championship ring that will cement his Hall of Fame credentials.

But this might not happen the way he, or anyone else, planned it.

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.