DH

As Dodgers catcher Will Smith explained Saturday to a reporter wondering whether he might spend more time as a DH in the future: “We’ve got a pretty good DH. I think we’re pretty set on that.”

However, if he starts the game as a DH and pitches out of the bullpen, the Dodgers would lose the DH once his relief appearance is over.

“Once you fire him … and you decide to come out of it, you have to take that cost of losing the DH and losing him as a hitter,” Roberts said.

Tuesday was only the seventh pitching start of the season for Ohtani, who was limited to DH duties for the first two and a half months of the season while completing his recovery from a second career Tommy John surgery he had near the end of the 2023 campaign.

Then, in meetings with team officials, he expressed some concern with continuing to build up in more simulated sessions, relaying the toll it took on his body to pitch several innings in an afternoon before ramping up to DH later the same night.