For the first time of 2026, the Dodgers on Thursday won’t have Shohei Ohtani starting for them in any capacity, a planned rest day during the final game against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium.
The decision to have Ohtani not hit on either Wednesday or Thursday came before Tuesday’s game, when Ohtani hit his first home run in 16 days. He then followed that up with seven scoreless innings on the mound on Wednesday, lowering his MLB-leading ERA to a scant 0.82.
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“It might be a good thing to take a little bit of a load off his plate offensively,” manager Dave Roberts said on Tuesday.
That means no start for Ohtani on Thursday, though Roberts did say Ohtani would be available to pinch-hit later in the game if needed. Roberts also had advice for Ohtani’s first real rest day of the season, which is directly in the middle of a stretch of 13 game days in a row for the Dodgers.
“I would say show up late, start the day much later, build up some R and R,” Roberts said. “But as the game goes on, start reading the scoreboard and seeing if the situation potentially could arise, to then prepare for that spot.”
Teoscar Hernández had his second multi-hit game of the series on Wednesday night as he filled in at designated hitter while Ohtani was focusing only on pitching. Dalton Rushing has the other three non-Ohtani starts at DH this season, collecting a home run and double in his 11 at-bats, with four RBI. Throw in Alex Call’s pinch-hit double on May 5 in Houston, the non-Ohtani designated hitters are hitting .313/.313/.625 (5-for-16) with two doubles, a home run, five runs scored and five RBI in four games, with another coming Thursday night.
Emmet Sheehan gets the start for the Dodgers to close out the homestand, after opening the homestand with seven strikeouts and one run allowed in 4 2/3 innings last Friday against the Atlanta Braves.
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Landen Roupp starts for the Giants. The Dodgers scored only one run against the right-hander on April 21 in San Francisco. Roupp walked five in that win but also allowed just one hit and struck out seven. He leads San Francisco with a 28.8-percent strikeout rate this season.
The Dodgers are 8-5 in the final game of series this season, but just 3-4 in such games at home. Thursday is the end of the fourth homestand of the season, with the Dodgers splitting the final games in each of their first three homestands of 2026.
Thursday game info
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Teams: Dodgers vs. Giants
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Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)
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