Dodgers lineup for World Series Game 3: Shohei Ohtani starts

Shohei Ohtani remains in the Dodgers lineup, as expected, for Game 3 of the World Series against the Yankees on Monday night at Yankee Stadium, two days after injuring his left shoulder while sliding into second base.

Ohtani suffered a subluxation of his left shoulder in the seventh inning of Game 2 on Saturday, and stayed behind in Los Angeles to get an MRI exam on Sunday morning before joining the team in New York. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reports on Sunday at Yankee Stadium that Ohtani’s availability would depend on his pain tolerance.

“I don’t see him being compromised. It’s the left shoulder, which is the back shoulder,” Roberts said Sunday. “So I don’t see how that affects his hitting, if he’s able to go. I really don’t.”

On Monday, Roberts told reporters at Yankee Stadium that Ohtani’s MRI showed no structural damage to his left shoulder, only the subluxation.

“He was very adamant that he was going to play,” Roberts said Monday.

So far this postseason, his first in Major League Baseball, Ohtani is hitting .260/.403/.460 with three home runs, 10 RBI, 13 runs scored, and 12 walks in 13 games. In the World Series he is 1-for-8 with a double and a walk against the Yankees.

Ohtani has a two-run home run in three at-bats against Game 3 starter Clarke Schmidt, hit at Yankee Stadium on April 18, 2023 when Ohtani was with the Angels.

Schmidt has never faced the Dodgers in his career, and has only faced a trio of players currently active on the team, all from their time in the American League. Kiké Hernández is 1-for-7 against Schmidt, and Teoscar Hernández is 0-for-3.

Similarly, Walker Buehler has never faced the Yankees, and Game 3 will be his first time at Yankee Stadium. Among the current Yankees who have faced Buehler the most were all longtime National Leaguers — Trent Grisham, who is not starting Monday, is 4-for-17 with two home runs off Buehler, Juan Soto is 2-for-10 with two walks and three strikeouts, and Anthony Rizzo has a double and single in nine at-bats.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. is 3-for-5 off Buehler, and is the only current Yankee to face him this year. Chisholm had a double in two at-bats against the right-hander while with the Marlins at Dodger Stadium on May 6, which was Buehler’s first major league game in over 22 months, after returning from Tommy John surgery and flexor tendon repair.

One tweak to the Yankees lineup is that Jose Trevino is behind the plate in place of Austin Wells, the rookie catcher who has four hits in 41 at-bats (.098/.159/.171) with 18 strikeouts this postseason. It’s the second start in New York’s 11 postseason games for Trevino, who flew out with the bases loaded as a pinch-hitter for the final out of Game 2 in Los Angeles.

Trevino rates in the first percentile in catcher pop time and in the eighth percentile in caught stealings above average, per Baseball Savant. Schmidt, however, is one of the best Yankees pitchers in holding runners, allowing just five successful steals in 12 attempts during his 16 starts.