After Shohei Ohtani received an unexpected day off, the Los Angeles Dodgers are expected to have their star back at the top of the order to open a three-game series against the visiting Boston Red Sox on Friday.

Ohtani has been dealing with a sore left knee and some right biceps tightness of late, which has forced him out of the rotation since the return from the All-Star break, but not from the designated hitter spot until Thursday.

After a recent run of five hits in seven at-bats, including three extra-base hits, Ohtani went in for treatment on his knee late Wednesday and was given some downtime.

“The last couple days he’s been on base a lot more, so I think that’s been a good thing in one sense whereas the last part of the (recent) road trip he wasn’t,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So there might have been a little something to that.”

Ohtani received an injection in the knee during the All-Star break and had been making progress with the injury, according to Roberts.

With Tommy Edman in the leadoff spot Thursday, and Teoscar Hernandez serving as the designated hitter, the Dodgers earned a 6-2 victory over the Mariners to take two of the three games in the series. Hernandez hit his first home run since July 3, while Dalton Rushing added a three-run shot.

With Ohtani out of the mix in a six-man rotation, Roberts has resorted to bullpen games on occasion, with another one set for Friday. Right-hander Edgardo Henriquez (4-1, 2.79 ERA) is set to pitch the opening inning.

The Red Sox have a trio of left-handers lined up to face the Dodgers over the weekend, with Ranger Suarez (4-3, 3.02) set to take the ball in the series opener.

Suarez returned from the injured list Sunday, after recovering from a left groin strain and an illness, then delivered four scoreless innings in an eventual victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

“The first couple innings, I was kind of nervous, because I didn’t know how I was going to feel,” Suarez said. “After that, I felt pretty good.”

Suarez gave up four hits with six strikeouts and threw 64 pitches.

“(For) three weeks I never stopped throwing,” Suarez said. “I wasn’t surprised I had my command.”

In eight career appearances (five starts) against the Dodgers, Suarez is 3-2 with 3.64 ERA.

Boston arrived at Los Angeles after rallying for a 5-4 road victory over the Athletics on Thursday with back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning from Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras.

The Red Sox improved to 20-3 since July 3 and 25-5 since June 25 when they entered the day with a 32-46 record.

In the midst of his own rough season, Boston’s Jarren Duran appeared to question why Contreras did not tag up from third base on his fly ball in the sixth inning. He gestured back toward the infield as he returned to the dugout. After the game, Duran downplayed the incident.

“That’s nothing. It’s something that, within the team, that we have, that we work on, and it’s nothing,” Duran told reporters. “Like, you guys don’t need to know. Nobody needs to know. That’s something between us and the team that we know (what) it’s about. That doesn’t really matter.”

–Field Level Media

The New York Mets have begun their expected sell-off of veterans before the trade deadline, with the first deal bringing a familiar last name back to Queens.

The last-place Mets traded left-handed reliever A.J. Minter to the Minnesota Twins on Friday in exchange for minor league infielders Bruin Agbayani and Billy Amick.

Agbayani, 19, is the son of former Mets outfielder Benny Agbayani, a fan favorite in his playing days.

Minter, 32, is set to become a free agent after the season. He is 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA and 20 strikeouts and just two walks across 23 innings in 23 appearances this season, his second in New York after eight seasons with Atlanta. He is 25-30 with 36 saves and a 3.18 ERA and 456 strikeouts over 382 2/3 innings in 420 games in his career.

Minter suffered a lat muscle tear last season that delayed his 2026 debut to late May, which could help explain his dip in velocity.

Agbayani was the Twins’ sixth-round draft pick last year out of Saint Louis School in Honolulu. He played 10 games for Class-A Fort Myers this season, batting .268 with no homers and six RBIs, before being sidelined since mid-May due to a right shoulder ailment.

Amick, 23, was Minnesota’s second-round draft choice in 2024 out of the University of Tennessee. He hit .217 with 23 homers and 72 RBIs in 86 games for Double-A Wichita this season.

The Twins enter Friday three games behind the Chicago White Sox for the American League Central lead and one game back of fellow Central foe Cleveland for the final AL wild-card spot.

The Mets, in the cellar in the National League East, hold the second-worst record (47-63) in the NL behind only the Colorado Rockies (42-67).

Among the players they are expected to try to move are relievers Luke Weaver and Brooks Raley as well as starters Freddy Peralta and Clay Holmes.

The trade deadline is 6 p.m. ET on Monday.

–Field Level Media

Longtime anchor and play-by-play announcer Karl Ravech, laid off 10 days ago by ESPN, is not quite finished with the network.

Viewers of ESPN’s coverage of the game between the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals on Thursday night heard Ravech on the call. And The Athletic reported that Ravech still has a few more baseball tasks for the network.

He served as ESPN’s lead MLB announcer and the network’s voice of the College World Series before being laid off.

Per the report, Ravech will be in the booth when the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners meet on Aug. 12. He will follow that by calling some games in the Little League World Series, one of the events closely associated with Ravech through the years.

The LLWS will be held Aug. 19-30 in Williamsport, Pa.

Ravech, 61, began work at ESPN in 1993 and anchored “SportsCenter” and hosted “Baseball Tonight”. He also called college basketball games.

ESPN parted with several employees who work both in front of the camera and behind the scenes in its latest round of layoffs. NFL analyst Ryan Clark and NFL insider Tom Pelissero were among the most prominent cuts.

These layoffs were linked to ESPN’s acquisition of NFL Network, according to an internal memo from ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro that multiple media outlets obtained.

The Athletic said it is expected that Ravech’s time on air at ESPN will conclude with the end of his baseball assignments.

–Field Level Media