The Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 15-6 in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, but after the game the defending champions were focused on what they lost.
Two days after making his long-awaited season debut, do-it-all utility player Enrique Hernandez left the game and will make a return trip to the injured list.
And one day before he is scheduled to make his next start on the mound, Shohei Ohtani exited the contest after taking a pitch off his right hand while batting.
Hernandez, who missed the season’s first 53 games after undergoing offseason elbow surgery, will go back on the injured list after aggravating a left oblique injury Tuesday.
Hernandez, 34, went 2-for-2 with a double and an RBI in his 2026 debut on Monday, then homered in his first at-bat Tuesday, giving Los Angeles a 3-1 lead in the third. He added a double an inning later before coming out of the game before the top of the fifth.
“I did it during batting practice yesterday,” Hernandez said after the game, adding, “I was pretty embarrassed that I did that and I didn’t really tell anybody about it. …
“I’m hoping it’s best-case scenario, it’s maybe, hopefully it’s just a Grade 1 and just, two or three weeks and I’m back, but who knows.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts added postgame, “Certainly we’re going IL him and give him some time to kind of get back. It’s not a season-ending thing, so that’s something to be hopeful with.”
Hernandez is a career .236 hitter over 12 seasons prior to this season, with 130 career home runs and 471 RBIs with Los Angeles (10 seasons), the Boston Red Sox (three), Houston Astros (one) and Miami Marlins (one). Roberts added that the team would recall Alex Freeland from the minors to replace Hernandez on the active roster.
As for Ohtani, he remained in the game after being plunked by a Kyle Freeland pitch in the fourth, eventually scoring in the inning. When his turn in the batting order came back around with two outs in the fifth, Dalton Rushing pinch-hit for him.
The good news for the four-time Most Valuable Player is that the pitch that him was an 85 mph changeup and most of the contact was made with a heavy pad over Ohtani’s right hand.
“It got him on the pad, but I think it flipped his pinky a little bit,” Roberts said. “But I think we’re in a good spot. … He is gonna start (on the mound Wednesday).”
Ohtani, 31, is squarely in the mix for the National League Cy Young Award so far, sporting a 4-2 record with a 0.73 ERA across 49 innings over eight starts. He has 54 strikeouts against 13 walks and is holding batters to a .163 average and lowly .471 OPS.
–Field Level Media
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