LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani got a second straight day off Friday while the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar deals with assorted injuries.
Ohtani smiled and laughed in the dugout while watching Thursday's game, going on the field with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates to celebrate a walk-off 3-2 win over St. Louis that avoided a series sweep.
“He was pretty jovial yesterday, which was a good sign, more kind of upbeat than I’ve seen him in months,” manager Dave Roberts said before the Dodgers opened a three-game set against Washington.
Ohtani’s symptoms involving his right biceps, neck and left knee haven’t improved in recent weeks, although Roberts remains noncommital about the possibility of a stint on the injured list.
“Hopeful,” the manager said, "but I wouldn’t say confident.”
The injuries were initially delaying Ohtani's return to pitching, but they're now affecting his hitting. He's batting .279 with 30 home runs and 80 RBIs.
Roberts said Ohtani's hasn't admitted that his performance has been impacted by his injuries.
“What we saw a couple nights ago wasn’t him, so clearly he was not feeling well,” Roberts said.
Ohtani has been “very agreeable” about the team's cautious approach with him.
“He wants to be out there, wants to play," Roberts said, “but he’s understanding that whatever decision we make is the best interest for him and the team.”
Ohtani hasn’t spoken to the media in nearly three weeks.
Center fielder Tommy Edman was in Ohtani’s leadoff spot again against Washington, while Alex Call remained the designated hitter, batting seventh. Edman went 4 for 5 with two runs scored on Thursday.
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Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani checks his iPad in the dugout during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani runs after being walked during the first inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)
The closely watched case of the Massachusetts mother who killed her three young children was on the verge of being declared a mistrial Friday — but there was still one more dramatic moment to come.
After weeks of grueling testimony, the jury could not get beyond an impasse on the seventh day of deliberations on murder charges against Lindsay Clancy. An audible gasp was heard in the courtroom as Judge William F. Sullivan said he was going to to end their deliberations without reaching a verdict.
But just as the jurors were about to come back to the courtroom, Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer asked to make a last-minute request for a higher court to stave off the mistrial. That kicked off a tense wait while a judge on the state’s top court considered the ask.
The whiplash moment was one last piece of courtroom drama in a livestreamed trial that captivated and divided many across the nation. And now prosecutors must decide whether to do it all over again with a second trial.
Ultimately on Friday, the high court denied the defense attorney's appeal and the judge formally declared a mistrial later in the afternoon. Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, blamed a lone juror for the impasse. Defense attorneys argued in their written petition that the person had revealed a possible bias against those dealing with mental illness.
Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, never disputed that she killed her children, but her attorney said she was experiencing a rare condition called postpartum psychosis when she strangled her kids, the youngest just 8 months old, and then tried to take her own life in 2023. Prosecutors said Clancy knew what she was doing and should be held criminally responsible.
The jury foreperson had previously told Sullivan that a single juror wouldn’t follow the court’s instruction about reasonable doubt, according to Reddington.
In their last-minute appeal, Clancy’s lawyers had argued the juror should, at minimum, be questioned more thoroughly by the judge, or even dismissed outright before a mistrial was declared. Prosecutors responded that there was nothing in the jury’s notes indicating the juror in question had “a lack of impartiality, bias, extraneous influence, or inability to deliberate.”
Jurors had heard competing expert testimony about Clancy’s mental health.
Massachusetts defense attorney Joseph Perullo, who was not involved in the case, said it was “clear cut” for him, but he acknowledged that jurors could have difficulties.
“It’s clear that Lindsay had a psychotic break, and the psychotic break led her to kill her children,” he said. “But the prosecution can tell you that she sent her husband off for errands and therefore she is criminally responsible.”
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said after the mistrial was declared there would not be an immediate decision on whether to go forward with a second trial.
Perullo said he is hopeful prosecutors will speak to Patrick Clancy, the children's father, and other family.
“It is a tremendous stress on them to do it again, and it's going to be an even bigger circus,” he said.
But Crystal Lyons, a former prosecutor in Massachusetts, believes prosecutors don't have the option not to retry Lindsay Clancy.
“At the end of the day, it was a tragedy where there were three young children who lost their lives,” she said.
Defendant Lindsay Clancy watches jurors enter the courtroom during her murder trial on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Judge William Sullivan addresses the lawyers during jury deliberations in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Lindsay Clancy sits as her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, asks for a one-hour stay to appeal after the jury in Clancy’s murder trial indicated it was unable to reach a verdict Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Lindsay Clancy sits as her lawyer, Kevin Reddington, asks for a one-hour stay to appeal after the jury in Clancy’s murder trial indicated it was unable to reach a verdict Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington and defendant Lindsay Clancy listen to Judge William Sullivan speak with the jury after declaring a mistrial at court in Plymouth, Mass., on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
