Dave Roberts Reveals Why Shohei Ohtani's Start Was Pushed Back by Dodgers
Dave Roberts Reveals Why Shohei Ohtani's Start Was Pushed Back by Dodgers
The manager has provided an explanation.Noah Camras|
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Los Angeles DodgersThe Los Angeles Dodgers announced that two-way star Shohei Ohtani will not make his scheduled pitching start on Wednesday against the Athletics.
Instead, Ohtani's start has been pushed back to Friday for the team's home game against the San Diego Padres.
Ahead of Tuesday's game against the Athletics, manager Dave Roberts explained the rationale for the decision. He said the team only planned for Ohtani to make two more starts before the All-Star break, and this doesn't change that, but allows him some additional rest.
The Dodgers play 13 games in 13 days, and this allows him two extra days of rest and to pitch against two division rivals in the Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.
Dave Roberts said pushing Ohtani back was about getting him some extra rest during this stretch of 13 games in 13 days. He'll still be able to make two starts before the All-Star break.
Bullpen game tomorrow. Roki Sasaki starts Thursday. https://t.co/6tVjUYG9Fi— Sonja Chen (@SonjaMChen) June 30, 2026
Ohtani got off to a historically dominant start as a pitcher this season, sporting a 0.74 ERA through his first 10 starts (61 innings).
However, he's hit a bit of a rough patch as of late, allowing nine earned runs over his last three starts (18.2 innings).
His season ERA is up to 1.58 with 86 strikeouts over 79.2 innings of work.
Why is Shohei Ohtani Struggling as a Pitcher Lately?
There are a few factors that could be leading to Ohtani's recent struggles.
Firstly, Ohtani has been dealing with a blister on his pitching hand for the better part of the last month. While both Ohtani and Roberts have said the blister isn't making an impact, the results appear to say otherwise.
In addition to the blister, Ohtani has also been dealing with a knee injury that forced him to exit the team's June 11 game and miss the following contest. Roberts said this week that Ohtani's knee still isn't 100 percent, which could be affecting his performance.
Finally, Ohtani has been pitching to catcher Dalton Rushing over his last three starts after throwing to Will Smith for his first 10.
Ohtani and Rushing haven't been on the same page, and that was evident in Ohtani's most recent start in which he and his catcher had a public disagreement and a cross up in the second inning.
Shohei Ohtani with Will Smith as his catcher this year: 10 G, 5 ER, 0.74 ERA
— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) June 25, 2026
Shohei Ohtani with Dalton Rushing as his catcher this year: 3 G, 9 ER, 4.34 ERA pic.twitter.com/BltB2rBqxF
After that game, Rushing took accountability for his actions, and vowed to be better moving forward. As of this weekend, Roberts hadn't yet decided if Rushing would catch Ohtani's next start, but said he "most likely" would.
Smith is unlikely to return before the All-Star break, meaning the Rushing/Ohtani pairing would have to continue unless LA decided to start Chuckie Robinson behind the plate.
Thus, it's imperative the battery mates get on the same page sooner rather than later — and these extra few days before Ohtani's next start could help them do just that.
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Published 5 minutes ago | Modified 4 minutes ago
NOAH CAMRASNoah Camras graduated from the University of Southern California in 2022 with a B.A. in Journalism and a minor in sports media studies. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and has extensively covered Southern California sports in his career. Noah is the publisher of Dodgers on SI after contributing as a writer and editor over the last three years.
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14 House Republicans vote down procedural rule over 'SAVE America Act,' halting week's legislative calendar
OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
4:00 PM – Tuesday, June 30, 2026
A coalition of fourteen House Republicans paralyzed the legislative floor on Tuesday, tanking a procedural vote and forcing GOP leadership to abruptly scrap the week’s legislative calendar.
The coalition, led by Representatives Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas), choked off legislative business as conservative holdouts dug in on demands for stricter federal voting regulations — specifically targeting the passage of the SAVE America Act.
The full list of the 14 Republicans includes:
- Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) — Coalition co-leader
- Chip Roy (R-Texas) — Coalition co-leader
- Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)
- Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.)
- Eric Burlison (R-Mo.)
- Eli Crane (R-Ariz.)
- Randy Fine (R-Fla.)
- Andy Harris (R-Md. )
- Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)
- Max Miller (R-Ohio)
- Keith Self (R-Texas)
- Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.)
- Mike Turner (R-Ohio)
- Steve Scalise (R-La.) — Voted “no” strictly for procedural routing
The immediate casualty of the intraparty disagreement was a $1.15 trillion defense spending bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had engineered a plan to merge the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with the SAVE America Act, packaging the conservative voting priorities into a must-pass piece of legislation before sending it to the upper chamber.
However, the faction rebelled against this strategy, sinking the routine procedural rule vote 224–198.
Luna described the leadership’s legislative bundling as a “procedural head fake,” arguing that merging the bills would make it far too easy for the Senate to simply strip the election provisions out during conference negotiations.
Instead, Luna and like-minded House members demanded that the voting regulations — including mandatory photo ID and documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections — be written directly into the base text of the NDAA via amendment, thus making it legally harder to unravel.
Analysts say that the legislative standoff represents a massive bottleneck for the thin Republican majority, where Speaker Johnson can only afford to lose three votes on party-line measures.
Notably, this procedural loophole allows Republican leadership to bring the rule back to the floor for reconsideration at a later date without being forced to send the massive defense package back to the House Rules Committee.
Confronted by an unyielding wall of opposition, GOP leadership admitted defeat just hours after the failed vote, canceling all remaining legislative business for Wednesday and Thursday. Lawmakers were sent home for an early Fourth of July holiday recess, postponing any further action on the defense bill or pending appropriations measures until the House reconvenes on July 13th.
A visibly frustrated Speaker Johnson defended the derailed defense package, noting that it contained roughly 65 of the Trump administration’s core priorities and executive orders (EOs). Johnson lamented that a handful of his own members chose to halt very important progress because of their grievances with Senate Democrats.
Meanwhile, thee ultimate destination for the SAVE America Act remains highly contentious.
While the bill represents a core pillar of the Trump administration’s platform, it faces friction in the upper chamber. Even if the House successfully advances the measure, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has struggled to gather the necessary support to cross the 60-vote filibuster threshold, with several Senate Republicans joining Democrats to vote against the measure in a recent 48–50 vote.
As the House enters a multi-week cooling-off period, Johnson indicated he would use the recess to regroup and work on the holdouts, though hardliners have pledged to block all subsequent floor traffic until their strict voting integrity parameters are met.
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