A lot of breath holding for the Los Angeles Dodgers and major league baseball. There’s no question Shohei Ohtani is who the world has come to watch. Plenty of non baseball fans tuning in as well, and now, how serious is the shoulder injury, how long is he gone?
In the bottom of the seventh inning with the Dodgers leading 4-1, Ohtani walked and with one out ended up rolling in pain. His stolen base attempt ending in an out and a shoulder injury. The Japanese broadcast translating Ohtani as saying “I felt it pop out”.
Game one did a big viewing business, drawing an average of 15.2 million viewers between Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox Sports streaming services,the most watched World Series Game 1 since 2017. After the spectacular Freddie Freeman walk off grand slam finish in game one, ratings for game two were expected to rise.
Judge struggle continues
One of the superstars is struggling and the other is hurt. Aaron Judge is now deep in a funk. He has started the series one for nine with a pair of three strikeout games as his career post season numbers continue to underwhelm. He has five consecutive games with multiple k’s.
Reports on shoulder encouraging
There was much hope for Ohtani with first reports being hopeful though there’s no question he did some damage. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said post game:
‘His strength was great, his range of motion was good, we’re encouraged. Obviously I can’t speculate until we get some scans but we’re encouraged.”
Speaking post game on FOX, former Yankee Derek Jeter said he’d had the same injury and unlike ohtani, he had no range of motion. He missed six weeks at the time.
Of course the other killer for viewer ratings is a quick series. With the Dodgers having won the first two games, the hope is a Yankee game three victory. Teams that win games one and two at home in best of sevens, win 84% of the time.
A three games to none series would certainly curtail viewership and potentially cost MLB a few lucrative nights in prime time should the Dodgers steamroll the rest of the way.
Things in baseball do change quickly. One minute Freddie Freeman is deep in a slump and next he’s top early candidate for series MVP. One day Aaron Judge can do no wrong and then no right. And one day Shohei Ohtani is the picture of hitters health.
Breath being held. Fingers being crossed. Get well very soon.
