Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani (biceps) exits early, won't play Sat.

LOS ANGELES -- Shohei Ohtani threw a season-high 110 pitches in the Los Angeles Dodgers' come-from-behind victory Friday night against theSan Diego Padres, then exited from the lineup with the score still close in the seventh inning. The reason: a right biceps that tightened up on a swing in the bottom of the sixth.

Ohtani, speaking through an interpreter, said he dealt with a similar ailment "a couple months ago."

"It went away relatively quickly," Ohtani added, "so I expect that to happen again."

The Dodgers will nonetheless keep Ohtani out of the lineup Saturday to afford him some extra recovery time.

Ohtani noticeably struggled with his command while pitching on nine days' rest, throwing his first six pitches for balls and working around nine baserunners across six innings. But he struck out nine, allowed just three runs, threw his fastball in the triple digits deep into his outing and kept the deficit manageable enough for Teoscar Hernández to deliver the game-winning grand slam in the seventh, giving the Dodgers a 4-3 winand handing the Padres their seventh straight loss.

Three batters after Hernández's homer sent 49,578 fans into a frenzy, Miguel Rojas came off the bench to pinch hit for Ohtani, a move Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described as precautionary. After the game, Ohtani had an ice pack on his left knee, which has required maintenance in recent weeks, but Roberts said it "didn't bother him" while throwing his most pitches since 2023.

Roberts also downplayed the severity of the biceps injury, which seemed to bother Ohtani only while swinging.

"He's dealt with it before," Roberts said. "He's a quick healer and finds a way to get back. But I do think that for us to read and react and hear what his body is telling him is really important, given the toll it takes on his body to be a two-way player."

The Dodgers had initially moved Ohtani's pitching start back from Wednesday to Friday, a move the team said was more a function of lining him up against the division rival Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks on back-to-back Fridays before the All-Star break. That decision, Roberts acknowledged, made it highly unlikely Ohtani would pitch in the All-Star Game, given that he would do so on short rest.

Now, though, the Dodgers are wondering whether Ohtani should make any more starts before the break.

"I think it should be on the table," Roberts said when asked about potentially skipping his next start, giving him extra time away from the mound before the second half. "Obviously we're not going to make that decision right now. But anything should be on the table, certainly."