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    The LA Dodgers were poised to win the World Series despite Shohei Ohtani's injury
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    The LA Dodgers were poised to win the World Series despite Shohei Ohtani's injury

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    LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers don’t want to sound flippant.

    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 major obstacle in the Dodgers' path to a world championship, then you simply don't know the Dodgers.

    The Dodgers won again on Saturday, 4-2, taking a 2-0 lead over the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium. They are confident that with or without Ohtani they will still win the World Series and post their first save since 1988.

    “We’re really confident,” Dodgers All-Star right fielder Mookie Betts said. “We have a great group of people here. We can definitely take care of business. 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 attempted to steal second base in the seventh inning. He slid into the base, reached back with his left hand and was tagged.

    Instead of getting back on his feet, he lay on the ground, contorted in pain.

    “The whole stadium went quiet,” said Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández, who hit a home run in the third inning. “You know how important Shohei is to this team. Hopefully he’ll be fine and the day off will help him get back on the field.”

    Ohtani, who left the Dodgers' clubhouse before reporters were allowed entry, will undergo testing on Sunday, but the Dodgers remain optimistic that he will be back in the World Series as their DH.

    “Obviously it's concerning when one of your players is out,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But after the range of motion and strength test, I felt much better. A lot of things go through your head, but you just have to stay positive.

    “We'll know more in the next few days, but the strength was great, the range of motion was good. So we’re encouraged.”

    When asked if Ohtani would 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 winter highway. The Dodgers had 15 pitchers on the injured list, leaving them with only three starting pitchers available for the postseason. They played without infielder Max Muncy for two months. Betts was gone for 45 days. First baseman Freddie Freeman missed 15 games, the most in seven years, and is playing this postseason with a severely sprained ankle.

    Still, they persevered, winning most of baseball's games in the regular season before sweeping past the San Diego Padres and New York Mets in the postseason. Ohtani or not, they still have depth and talent enough to win their first full-season World Series since 1988.

    “When you have a group like that,” Freeman said, “they picked me up when I was down. That's what they do. We’ve done this all year.”

    Even though you saw Ohtani leaving the game in pain, you certainly felt sympathy for the man, but honestly no real concern for the team.

    “Obviously this is a huge bummer,” said Dodgers infielder/outfielder Tommy Edman, who hit one of the Dodgers’ three homers. “He is the best player in the game and seeing him on the ground in pain is not good. “We are confident that he will recover quickly.

    Still, the Dodgers' mantra all season has been “Next Man Up,” and that won't change now just because Ohtani is here.

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

    “We hope we don't have to play games without Sho, but you know, if we do, we'll definitely find someone to step up for us.”

    The highly touted matchup between Ohtani and Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge was an early dud in those first two games, with Judge picking up one hit and 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 problems continue, their World Series drought will continue. But if Ohtani can't play in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium or the Dodgers on Monday or is out for the rest of the series, the Dodgers' lineup is so strong that their confidence remains undiminished.

    “Oh yeah, 1,000%,” said Teoscar Hernández, who joined Freeman as the second Dodger teammate to hit back-to-back home runs in the World Series, joining Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager. “We battled a lot of injuries throughout the year.

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

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

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

    “Nobody said it was going to be easy,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It's a long series and we have to make it a long series now. We will not shy away.”

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

    “I know they’ll be ready to go,” Betts said. “You have no choice. Neither do we. We have to move on. “We still have some business to take care of.”

    Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale

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