Shohei Ohtani will be in Dodgers' Game 3 lineup against Brewers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani will be in the Los Angeles Dodgers' lineup for Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night.

Manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday that Ohtani will bat anywhere from second to sixth with the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers losing the first two games of the best-of-seven series.

“He was very convicted that he is onto something mechanically (with his swing),” Roberts said. “He was adamant that he can help us. He’s well enough to help us win a baseball game, so that’s all I needed to hear.”

Ohtani is hitting .150 (3 for 20) over six postseason games. He has seven strikeouts, three walks and one stolen base with no home runs, no RBIs and an OPS of .411.

He hasn’t homered since Aug. 18 at Colorado.

Ohtani admitted before the NLDS against Atlanta that he’s not 100% healthy from right biceps and left knee issues that bothered him the last the last few months of the regular season. He has appeared visibly uncomfortable at the plate while flailing at pitches.

“The symptoms have subdued a lot,” Ohtani said Tuesday through a translator while making an unscheduled appearance in the off-day interview room. “The symptoms shouldn’t be the reason why I can’t hit, and even if the injuries happen by accident, I take full responsibility.”

Roberts spoke to Ohtani before the team worked out at Dodger Stadium, where Ohtani took on-field batting practice, something he rarely does during the regular season.

Roberts said their conversation wasn’t about benching the Japanese superstar, but rather offering him time off similar to Freddie Freeman during the postseason in 2024. Freeman had a sprained ankle and bone bruise, and took three days off spanning the NL Division Series and NLCS before earning World Series MVP honors.

“Over the course of this long season, there’s only really a short period of time when my mechanics is completely in sync,” Ohtani said. “So it’s just really kind of just going back and forth, finding the right parts of the swing and managing just the different parts of the swing. It’s a constant, ongoing process that’s headed in the right direction.”

Ohtani led the Dodgers to a four-game NLCS sweep of Milwaukee last year, when the Brewers hit a measly .118 against LA's pitching.

He was 5 for 14 (.357) with three home runs, four walks and five strikeouts as NLCS MVP — all three homers came in a memorable Game 4 clinch in which he also struck out 10 as a pitcher. He had a 1.643 OPS and 1.143 slugging percentage.

“We remember vividly at this time last year that he maybe had the best baseball game ever played the day he pitched against us and hit a home run every time up, it seemed like,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “You can’t forget that, his capabilities. But you still have to go at him.”

Ohtani is known for hitting homers but the offensively starved Dodgers would take any kind of production from him at this point.

“In this big moment, we’re listening to Shohei, and we’re going to support the crap out of him and believe in him," Roberts said, "and that’s it.”

Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell starts for Los Angeles against Robert Gasser of the Brewers in a matchup of left-handers on Wednesday.

The Dodgers will be looking to get considerably more innings out of Snell than in his last start on Oct. 4.

He lasted 3 2/3 innings, giving up one run, three hits, walking five and striking out five, in a 3-2 loss in Game 2 of the NLDS against Atlanta. He didn't speak to media afterward and has kept a low profile since then.

“Just a lot of time talking to myself, figuring out where I need to get to, where I’m at,” he said. “Watching two games against Milwaukee, just kind of game planning, seeing what I can expose, what they’re doing really well. Just trying to figure them out.”

Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell grew up in Orange County as a Los Angeles Angels fan. His family had season tickets in left field. He went to high school with the son of Angels star Garret Anderson.

“Got to have some good conversations with him, take some blasts into the past and talk about memories,” Mitchell said. “I was a shortstop when I was a kid, too. So I enjoyed watching David Eckstein and Adam Kennedy, and I also have a personal relationship with Adam Kennedy as well.”

Mitchell said the way the Angels played reminds him of how the Brewers approach games.

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Milwaukee Brewers catcher William Contreras shares a light moment with teammates during a workout ahead of Game 3 of baseball's National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Milwaukee Brewers' Jackson Chourio walks across the field during a workout ahead of Game 3 of baseball's National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell speaks during a news conference ahead of Game 3 of baseball's National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani strikes out during the sixth inning of Game 2 of baseball's National League Championship Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani listens to questions from the media during a news conference ahead of Game 3 of baseball's National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A man charged with rigging college basketball games as part of an elaborate point-fixing scheme that raked in millions was sentenced to six years in federal prison, prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced on Tuesday.

It was the first penalty handed down as part of an investigation that revealed a sprawling network of professional gamblers and college basketball players who, prosecutors say, profited off fixed games.

Prosecutors said Jalen Smith, 30, played a “central role” in helping fix games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 NCAA Division I basketball seasons, placing bets and recruiting players with the promise of a big payment for purposefully underperforming during a game, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said on Tuesday. Bettors would then wager against the players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other gamblers, authorities said. Smith pleaded guilty earlier this year to bribery and wire fraud charges.

The sentencing comes at the start of the 2026-27 NCAA basketball season, when bettors will wager billions of dollars both legally and illegally on games nationwide. In the meantime, law enforcement, regulators and sports leagues have struggled to keep up with gambling's growing popularity in collegiate and professional sports alike.

“Today’s sentencing sends a clear message: Those who exploit professional and collegiate athletes for personal gain will be held accountable,” said Wayne A. Jacobs, special agent in charge of the FBI's Philadelphia office. “This conduct does more than harm individual athletes. It undermines the integrity of sports and the trust placed in fair competition.”

Smith's attorney, Rocco Cipparone, said his client took full responsibility for crimes at the sentencing hearing and apologized to those impacted. Cipparone also noted that the federal judge seemed to take Smith's apology as sincere, sentencing him to less time than what prosecutors recommended.

The point-shaving scheme Smith was involved in is said to have involved nearly 30 NCAA basketball games, and included schools like DePaul University, State University of New York at Buffalo and Tulane University, among others.

Prosecutors accused Smith and at least 26 other named defendants of wagering millions of dollars and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to players in bribes. Payments to players typically ranged from $10,000 to $30,000 per game, according to an indictment.

Smith and others strategically targeted players considered “underdogs” in games, encouraging them to underperform in order to guarantee certain spreads. Those players were prime targets, prosecutors said, because they were offered money that exceeded potential income from legitimate sponsorships.

Smith, of Charlotte, North Carolina, trained and developed local basketball players for professional scouting combines and used those connections with players when he became part of the scheme, according to prosecutors.

The point-shaving scheme resulted in more than $3 million in fraudulent wagers. Smith, who also pleaded guilty to a separate felony gun possession charge, will have to pay $1.1 million in restitution, which prosecutors said is the cost incurred by gambling platforms as a result of the scheme.

Besides the fixers who recruited players and placed bets, the charges targeted over a dozen former college basketball players and four other players who were active with their college teams last season.

FILE - Information is displayed during a news conference to announce charges against several people including former college basketball players, in what prosecutors called a betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games, Jan. 15, 2026 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa, File)

FILE - This photo taken with a fisheye lens shows the NCAA logo displayed at mid-court in Philadelphia, March 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)