LOS ANGELES – As Shohei Ohtani hustled toward second base, the Dodger Stadium crowd prepared for another exciting moment on a night that already had plenty for home fans to cheer about. Home runs by Tommy Edman, Teoscar Hernández and Freddie Freeman had the ballpark buzzing early in the Dodgers’ 4-2 win in Game 2, and the Dodgers ran out with a three-run lead and a locked-down Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound.

But the run production had stopped in the middle innings. So after Ohtani walked Clay Holmes in the bottom of the seventh, he decided to put his game-changing speed to work to try to create an insurance run with the dangerous Hernández at the plate with two outs. On Holmes’ first pitch to Hernández – a slider for a strike – Ohtani took off. A perfect throw from Yankees catcher Austin Wells was snared by second baseman Gleyber Torres and landed on Ohtani’s leg just before he reached base. A clear one caught for theft.

And for a moment, that was all. When the third out was recorded, Torres trotted off the field, and the crowd breathed a sigh of disappointment that Ohtani’s attempt to spark something had failed. It was also a strange sight, something Dodgers fans are not used to; Ohtani’s rampant base stealing, which became such a fixture of his historic 2024 campaign, seemingly disappeared in October, as he has yet to successfully steal a bag this month while being caught twice. This, after stealing 36 consecutive bases without being hampered to end the regular season, was a special development in itself.

But as the crowd settled into the pitter-patter between innings: silence. Ohtani remained face down on the ground before rolling onto his back while holding his left arm. A replay of his feet-first slide showed that Ohtani had tried to brace himself by planting his left hand in the ground as he arrived at the base, and that his arm had struck the ground in an awkward – and apparently painful – corner. Manager Dave Roberts rushed to second with a member of the training staff and Ohtani’s interpreter, Will Ireton. The superstar eventually stood up and walked off the field, apparently holding his left arm subtly in place as he descended into the dugout and through the tunnel.

Audio was picked up on the Japanese broadcast of Ohtani saying his shoulder had popped out, and Fox’s Ken Rosenthal confirmed shortly afterwards that it was a shoulder injury of some sort, and not something involving Ohtani’s wrist as some based on his initial reaction suspected. Because he had just batted and the Dodgers went into the eighth with a lead, Ohtani was unlikely to get another at-bat in the game, and because he was the designated hitter, he did not have to be officially removed from the game. As such, the remainder of the match was played with an air of uncertainty about the severity of Ohtani’s injury. The world would have to wait until after the finale for further information on the superstar’s status – ideally from the man himself.

But Ohtani never spoke. Within minutes of the finale, he quickly left Dodger Stadium and walked right past the long line of media members waiting to enter the Dodgers clubhouse in search of answers. He had already showered and was wearing street clothes with no visible wraps or ice on his left shoulder when he walked by, smiling with some Dodgers staff and security and reached the elevator without answering any questions about what happened or how his arm felt. .

Instead, it was up to Roberts to provide some clarity during his postgame presser, and the update he shared was certainly on the optimistic side.

“He had a minor subluxation of the left shoulder,” Roberts said. “So we’re going to do some tests tonight (or) tomorrow, and then we’ll know more in the coming days. But the power was great. The range of motion (was) good.”

Roberts said Ohtani would most likely get an MRI of the shoulder on Sunday.

Asked to explain the moment, Roberts acknowledged the initial panic shared among the 52,725 at Dodger Stadium. Yet he remained positive.

“The scene is very concerning,” he said. “Obviously it’s worrying when one of your players goes down. But after the freedom of movement, the strength test, I felt much better about it.”

When asked about the possibility of continuing in this World Series without the superstar, Roberts didn’t hesitate for a moment.

“I expect he’ll be there,” he said. “I expect him to be in the lineup.”

Once the Dodgers clubhouse opened and Ohtani had already left, a standard postgame session ensued, with the media descending on a select number of lockers looking for player reaction — primarily to the team’s huge Game 2 victory , but also on how they felt about watching Ohtani leave the match prematurely under worrying circumstances. Teammates responded to questions about Ohtani’s injury with variations of the same answer: They don’t have any more information than we do, but they recognize it was a concerning moment and hope for the best, and they too will find out more soon.

“We’ll see how it is in the next few days,” said Freddie Freeman, answering another round of questions about his historic walk-off grand slam 24 hours earlier. “I really don’t have any information, but when you have a group like that… They picked me up when I was down, and we’ll try to do the same (for Ohtani).”

“You know how big Shohei is for this team,” Hernández said. “Hopefully he is doing well and the day off will help him get back on the field on Monday.”

An already packed venue, packed with cameras and microphones, had even less room to stand than usual as the players’ oversized bags of gear were strewn across the floor as they were packed for an upcoming cross-country flight to New York. Zealand. York city. As the unknown of Ohtani’s injury loomed large, confidence in the room barely wavered as the team prepared to head east, with players exchanging words of enthusiastic affirmation as they changed into matching dark blue Dodgers tracksuits before heading to the bus went to the airport.

The Dodgers had played brilliantly over the past two days, taking a 2-0 series lead with standout performances up and down the roster from both stars and supporting cast members. While the exact status of their unique superstar has yet to be fully determined — more clarity could come Sunday night when the Dodgers hold a practice at Yankee Stadium — there’s certainly a lot for Los Angeles to feel good about.

The prospect that Ohtani — the sport’s biggest star, who has been waiting for years to reach this enormous stage — will miss the World Series games is ominous, to say the least. For now, all we can do is rely on Roberts’ optimistic tone and wait for another substantive update.