Dalton Rushing will get a chance for a do-over.
When Shohei Ohtani takes the mound for the Dodgers on Friday night, Rushing will be behind the plate.
Manager Dave Roberts confirmed that would be the case on Thursday, in the wake of Rushing and Ohtani’s glaring miscommunications during an outing in Minnesota last week that led to an ugly three-run inning.
Roberts reiterated that he expects the battery to avoid such pitfalls again.
“They don’t think the same, so it takes time [to build chemistry],” Roberts said of Rushing and Ohtani, who have been together during the two-way star’s last three starts amid Will Smith’s battle with a neck injury.
“But again,” Roberts added, “I think Dalton understands that is what he signed up for. The job of a catcher is to be a servant to the pitcher. That’s the bottom line. So it’s Dalton’s job to get on page with whatever pitcher. So I expect that all to be resolved.”
Rushing took ownership of last week’s mishap in an interview with The California Post this week, saying “you never want to have a pitcher feel like you don’t have their back.”
“We’re gonna move forward from it,” Rushing added. “I’ve talked to him a lot. Never in a million years could you ever have a bad thing to say about a guy like that. Never in a million years could you ever feel like a player like that is in the wrong. So it’s kind of up to me, as a young guy, to wear the situation, wear it on my chest, get over it, move past it, and make sure that we allow a guy like that to do what he wants to do.”
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While Ohtani has also been battling knee and blister issues in recent weeks, his numbers as a pitcher have not been as good with Rushing.
In 10 starts with Smith behind the plate this year, Ohtani had an 0.74 ERA with 67 strikeouts in 61 innings.
In three outings with Rushing, he has a 4.34 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings.
While much attention went to Rushing’s demonstrative outburst of frustration last week, the core issue has been a lack of cohesion between him and Ohtani on calling pitches.
That was another area Rushing said he had aimed to improve this week.
Come Friday night, he’ll get the chance to prove it.
