PHOENIX — Shohei Ohtani‘s return to pitching has been a strictly regimented process, so much so that his previous start ended at five innings despite the fact that he had thrown only 68 pitches and not allowed a hit.
That decision did not go down particularly well with Dodgers fans or the baseball world at large, especially because the bullpen immediately coughed up the lead. But it led to manager Dave Roberts and the coaching staff having conversations with Ohtani about pitching deeper into games.
“The end of the rehab progression at the beginning of the year was more about getting to the five-inning mark,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “As the season goes on, and having a conversation with Dave Roberts last night, I stated the desire of wanting to pitch a little longer and to help the team in any way, shape or form.”
The Dodgers, at one point, envisioned capping Ohtani at five innings on the mound for the entire 2025 campaign. But in Tuesday night’s eventual 5-4 loss at Chase Field, they gave the two-way superstar an extended leash. Ohtani struck out eight against zero walks and scattered five hits across six scoreless innings against the D-backs, his longest outing as a pitcher since Aug. 9, 2023, with the Angels.
Once again, when Ohtani was done on the mound, the bullpen let the Dodgers’ lead crumble away. The D-backs struck for three runs off rookies Jack Dreyer and Edgardo Henriquez in the seventh, and Tanner Scott surrendered a walk-off single to Geraldo Perdomo in the ninth.
It marked L.A.’s 11th walk-off loss this season. Each of the Dodgers’ last seven losses has been charged to a reliever: two to Scott and five to Blake Treinen.
“After Shohei pitches the way he did and you have a 4-0 lead,” Roberts said, “thinking that using higher-leverage guys [will] keep those guys at bay. We didn’t have a good night. It turns out that the ninth became a leverage inning. But yeah, it’s hard to absorb those games, especially games that we need to win right now.”
The Dodgers lead the Padres by 1 1/2 games for first place in the NL West. Securing a first-round bye remains in play, but they trail the Phillies by four games for the No. 2 seed in the NL.
Ohtani’s final pitching start this regular season was also the 100th of his career. The next time he takes the mound, it will likely be for his postseason pitching debut, as the Game 1 starter of the National League Wild Card Series.
Reading between the lines, the Dodgers have five games remaining in the regular season and five starters in the rotation in addition to Ohtani. He’ll have a full six days off before the series begins next Tuesday. Everything is lining up for Ohtani to lead the rotation into the best-of-three first round of the postseason.
“I’m sure there’s a strategic thought between which game I’m going to start, so I don’t want to really talk about that,” Ohtani said. “But I’m always happy to just be able to start in any game that the team wishes me to pitch in.”
The deeper Ohtani can go, the better, especially given the state of the bullpen. On Tuesday, Ohtani shook off taking a 105.8 mph liner off his glove hand midway through his outing and delivered another dominant performance.
Roberts saw some signs of Ohtani being taxed in his sixth and final inning, but the two-way star managed to work around a pair of hits to keep the D-backs off the board while he was on the mound.
“I thought he left it all out there tonight, which we certainly needed,” Roberts said. “I feel good about him getting through the sixth inning. That’s something for us to build on.”
The Dodgers have been accustomed to getting impressive performances from their starters lately. As big a strength as the rotation has been, it doesn’t mean as much when the bullpen has repeatedly failed to hold a lead, especially with the postseason looming ahead.
“There’s still time, certainly. But there’s not much time left,” Roberts said. “Our starters can’t go nine every night. We’re looking for some guys to step up. We need it. We need these guys.”
