CHICAGO — After battling knee inflammation the past couple days, Shohei Ohtani was back in the Dodgers’ lineup Saturday.

With a bang, too.

After being removed early from Thursday’s game in Pittsburgh because of a swollen knee, then sitting out Friday’s series-opener against the White Sox to get treatment on the issue, Ohtani not only returned to his customary spot as DH and leadoff hitter in the Dodgers’ batting order, but needed just two pitches to hit a leadoff home run deep to right field.

The blast was Ohtani’s 14th of the season, his fifth of the leadoff variety, and marked the third-straight game he’s played in which he’s gone deep.

So much for concern over his previously ailing knee.

“Today,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before first pitch, “he feels great.”

From the start, Roberts had insisted Ohtani’s injury was minor. He believed it was unrelated to the knee surgery the two-way star had in 2019 to address a rare congenital condition.

Still, the fact Ohtani had to leave one game, then miss another, raised some concerns about a potentially more severe issue.

“We took him out of the game the other night just for precautionary reasons,” Roberts said. “[But we have] all the confidence that he can go out there and hit, feel good, not regress at all.”

There was no obvious indication on Thursday night that Ohtani was dealing with discomfort, which included some swelling in the back of his knee, not any one incident that Ohtani could pinpoint to the training staff for having caused it.

Roberts said the club decided to be “proactive” by taking Ohtani out of Thursday’s game.

The same calculus applied to his off day on Friday, even though imaging on Ohtani’s knee had come back clean.

After Friday’s loss at Rate Field, Roberts said he was optimistic about having Ohtani back in the lineup Saturday. Earlier in the day, he said he still expects the superstar to make his next scheduled pitching start next Wednesday, as well.

“The swelling [in his knee] is gone,” Roberts said.

Now, the Dodgers will be hoping the issue is in the past.

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