The Dodgers won their first game in the second half of the season on Monday night.
They can only hope it wasn’t accompanied by yet another potentially significant loss.
Though the Dodgers powered their way past the Minnesota Twins 5-2 at Dodger Stadium — hitting four home runs on a night Shohei Ohtani pitched three solid innings (while accounting for one of the long balls himself) and Dustin May followed with 4⅔ scoreless innings out of the bullpen — the team was left fretting over a sour final note.
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With one out in the ninth inning, closer Tanner Scott left with a forearm injury, grimacing after spiking a slider in the dirt and flexing his left throwing arm as a trainer accompanied him to the dugout.
Read more: Pitching injuries continue to be an issue in MLB. How it’s impacting pitchers at all levels
Manager Dave Roberts did not have an update on Scott’s injury afterward. He said the $72-million offseason signing would undergo an MRI scan Tuesday.
“Emotionally, [he is] not well, obviously,” Roberts said. “He just felt something in his forearm, as far as like a stinging sensation. We’re gonna get an MRI tomorrow, and we’ll know more after that. Obviously, anytime a pitcher has to come out of the game, then it’s concerning. So we just gotta sit back and wait for the results to further assess.”
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The Dodgers (59-42) weren’t resigned to a worst-case scenario yet with Scott, who followed a trainer out of the clubhouse after the game without talking to reporters.
Dodgers closer Tanner Scott delivers against the Minnesota Twins on Monday night. (Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
Roberts said initial manual tests and an X-ray on Scott’s arm were “positive” and was holding out hope “it’s something that’s more of a scare.”
Still, Roberts expected Scott to likely go on the injured list at a bare minimum, and said when asked of his overall concern level: “I don’t know … But I’m trying not to go down a spiraling thing with where it could be.”
“It certainly takes a little bit of the joy out of what happened tonight,” Roberts added.
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Indeed, for the first eight innings against the Twins (48-52), the Dodgers evaded the pitfalls that contributed to their three-game losing streak coming out of the All-Star break, and their puzzling 2-10 skid overall over the last couple of weeks.
Making his sixth pitching start since returning from Tommy John surgery, Ohtani gave up his first home run of the…