Ohtani goes on DL with possible serious injury

Shohei Ohtani was put on the 10-day DL by the Angels with a sprained ligament in his pitching elbow Friday, an ominous injury that will be re-evaluated in three weeks and brought the two-way Japanese sensation’s remarkable rookie season to at least a temporary halt.

The Angels said Ohtani’s right ulnar collateral ligament has a Grade 2 sprain, which typically indicates some degree of damage but not a complete tear. His injury doesn’t always require surgery, while Grade 3 sprains are usually repaired by the Tommy John ligament replacement procedure that takes a year or more to recover from.

The hope is that Ohtani will avoid Tommy John surgery.

“We’re hopeful that he can,” GM Billy Eppler said, “that this is completely treatable with the biologic prescription that the doctors recommend.”

MORE BAD NEWS FOR PITCHERS

>> Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg left Friday’s game against the Giants after two innings with an apparent injury. He allowed three runs and five hits with two strikeouts and did not look comfortable on the mound.

The Mets took two more hits to their already bang-up pitching staff when closer Jeurys Familia was put on the DL with a sore right shoulder and ace Noah Syndergaard was scratched from a weekend start because of a strained ligament in his right index finger.

Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka was removed from Friday’s game in the sixth inning with stiff hamstrings after scoring his first major league run. PADRES’ TORRES ACCEPTS 100GAKE SUSPENSION >> Padres pitcher Jose Torres accepted a suspension without pay for the rest of the year by MLB after his December arrest on domestic violence charges. Commissioner Rob Manfred said the penalty is retroactive to June 5 and covers 100 games. The suspension will cost the reliever $349,052.