LOS ANGELES — On Wednesday night, the Dodgers celebrated Shohei Ohtani‘s offensive prowess with a bobblehead commemorating his 2024 50-50 campaign. They also saw their two-way star take a major step forward on the pitching side.
For the first time as a Dodger, Ohtani completed five innings, allowing just one run while setting season highs with nine strikeouts and 87 pitches in L.A.’s 5-1 win over the Reds at Dodger Stadium. Ohtani’s first Dodgers win helped his team become the first to sweep Cincinnati this season.
He provided nearly half of the Dodgers’ 19 total strikeouts, a season high for the club and a franchise record for a nine-inning game since at least 1901.
“That’s a big number,” manager Dave Roberts said of the punchouts. “Speaks to what our guys can do with the talent that we have, the swing-and-miss. Really good performance.”
It began with Ohtani, who had all seven of his pitches going — particularly his curveball, which he threw 23 times, accounting for 26 percent of his pitches; he’d thrown a total of 11 combined through his first 10 starts.
It proved to be an effective putaway pitch, as Ohtani picked up four of his strikeouts with it. His four-seamer, meanwhile, touched 100 mph four times, maxing out at 100.3.
Ohtani confirmed that the goal going in had been to incorporate more of his secondary stuff.
“We’d had a plan of kind of living away from the fastball as much as we had in the past couple starts,” said catcher Dalton Rushing, who hit a two-run single to cap a four-run fourth inning. “That doesn’t mean we weren’t going to throw it tonight, but we were very offspeed-heavy early on. That just opened up doors later with the fastball for the last two innings.”
It could have been a very different night for Ohtani, as things nearly got away from him in a laborious 27-pitch second inning. Ohtani issued two walks and unleashed two wild pitches, but he struck out the side to leave runners stranded at second and third. He gave up a one-out homer to Noelvi Marte in the third, but settled in from there, retiring the final eight batters he faced.
Ohtani, who made his Dodgers pitching debut on June 16 after recovering from a second major elbow surgery, has been working his way back gradually. The Dodgers will remain cautious with him, intending, at least for now, to limit him to five innings per game this season.
“The fact that I was able to reach five innings was really key in terms of moving forward,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “Moving forward, it’s going to be a collaboration between the doctors, the front office and Dave Roberts in terms of how we want to proceed with if we’re going to throw more than five.”
Ohtani played a key role on the offensive side as well. When he stepped to the plate in the bottom of the fourth, Reds starter Nick Lodolo had retired the first nine batters he faced. Ohtani broke through with a single, keying the outburst that ultimately was the difference in the game.
It was Ohtani’s work on the mound, though, that was a sight for sore eyes, a nice bounce-back performance after he had allowed nine earned runs over 8 1/3 innings across his previous two starts. Roberts acknowledged before the game that Ohtani is, perhaps, still trying to find himself a bit following a nearly two-year layoff from pitching.
He sure looked like he’d found something on Wednesday.
“Early on, getting his sea legs back and getting going, it takes a while,” said Roberts. “I thought tonight was one of those nights that he was locked in and worked some things out and really got into a good rhythm.”
With the Padres losing to the Mariners earlier in the day, the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West grew to two games. Additionally, with the Phillies being swept by the Mets and the Cubs losing to the Giants, the Dodgers currently hold the second-best record in the NL. Beyond winning the division, finishing first or second in the league is a major goal for the Dodgers in order to secure a bye for the NL Wild Card Series.
Having Ohtani being productive on both sides of the ball will be a major boon for that quest. It will also quite likely have him headed to a fourth unanimous MVP Award.
“Just looking at our roster, I really like where we’re at in terms of our starting pitchers and bullpen,” said Ohtani. “I just want to make sure that I do my part as a starting pitcher to go deeper into games and help out the bullpen.”
