Shohei Ohtani’s fifth pitching start of the season marked his longest outing of the year as the Los Angeles Dodgers continue with a methodical progression.
Manager Dave Roberts said heading into the game the Dodgers hoped for Ohtani to at least reach the third inning. He wound up setting a season high with four strikeouts and throwing 36 total pitches while holding the San Francisco Giants scoreless over three innings. Ohtani’s velocity topped out at 99.9 mph, which he reached against two separate batters.
Ohtani’s start began with a rare first-pitch ball, but he followed that with eight consecutive strikes. Ohtani wound up striking out the side in the first inning, getting Mike Yastrzemski and Heliot Ramos swinging on elevated fastballs, and Rafael Devers whiffed on a slider.
That gave Ohtani six consecutive strikeouts dating back to his last start. When Ohtani struck out the side last weekend it marked his first time doing so as a Dodgers pitcher.
Matt Chapman ended the string of strikeouts as he grounded out to lead off the second inning. The Giants had their first baserunner reach when Jung Hoo Lee walked on four pitches with two outs.
Even when factoring in the walk, Ohtani didn’t show any signs of being affected by needing to quickly shed his batting gear from the on-deck circle to end the top of the second inning.
He was through two scoreless innings on just 23 pitches, which afforded Ohtani the opportunity to make his longest start of the season by staying in for the third.
Ohtani needed 13 more pitches to get through the inning. Yastrzemski singled with two outs to give the Giants their only hit off Ohtani.
Shohei Ohtani’s Dodgers pitching stats
After throwing 28 pitches in just one inning of his Dodgers pitching debut, Ohtani has been far more efficient in every ensuing start.
He followed that up with 18 pitches in one inning of work against the Washington Nationals. Then when Ohtani stretched out to two innings against the Kansas City Royals, he completed that on just 27 pitches. Ohtani then threw 31 pitches across two innings against the Houston Astros last weekend.
Overall in his five starts for the Dodgers, Ohtani has a 1.00 ERA and has thrown nine innings.
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