PHOENIX — With Cristopher Sanchez and Jacob Misiorowski in the same league, Shohei Ohtani is going to have to do something pretty special to land his targeted Cy Young Award this season.
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Okay – that’s kind of his specialty.
Ohtani didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, pitched six scoreless innings – oh, and reached base five times – as the Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 7-0, Wednesday night for their 16th win in the past 20 games.
Ohtani’s ERA after 10 starts is 0.74, better than Sanchez (1.46) or Misiorowski (1.65). But the Dodgers’ two-way star lags behind in innings pitched – 61 to Sanchez’s 86⅓ and Misiorowski’s 71. Ohtani has allowed just one run in 24 innings over his past four starts.
Since ERA became official in 1913, Ohtani has the lowest ERA after 10 starts behind only Jacob deGrom (0.56 in 2021) and Juan Marichal (0.59 in 1966), according to MLB statistician Sarah Langs.
Coming off six hitless innings in his start against the Colorado Rockies last week, Ohtani retired the first 11 Diamondbacks in order before Gabriel Moreno sliced a ground ball between Freddie Freeman and the first-base bag for a two-out double in the fourth inning.
It was the first hit Ohtani had allowed since back-to-back singles by Bryce Johnson and Nick Castellanos leading off the fifth inning of Ohtani’s start in San Diego on May 20. He recorded 32 outs in between hits allowed.
Even as he set hitters down, Ohtani has been dissatisfied, with his command in particular. He expressed some frustration after the start against the Rockies in which he walked four – and during the game when broadcast microphones picked up that frustration with a capital ‘F.’
He had some of the same issues on Wednesday. In the first two innings, he sent Geraldo Perdomo and Nolan Arenado sprawling with errant fastballs. But he didn’t walk anybody until the sixth inning when he ran into the briefest of trouble.
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After he walked the No. 9 hitter, Tommy Troy, with one out in the sixth, Ohtani gave up his second hit of the night, a single to Geraldo Perdomo, putting two Diamondbacks on base. Corbin Carroll bounced Ohtani’s next pitch to second baseman Alex Freeland, who started a 4-6-3 double play, Mookie Betts’ throw just beating the speedy Carroll to first base.
Ohtani will be able to reflect on his night all day Thursday. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game that Ohtani would get the full day off, saying he hoped Ohtani would just “empty the tank” on Wednesday in advance of a full recovery day.
He did that well enough, reaching base five times in Wednesday’s win. Since the last time the Dodgers gave him a day off after a pitching start (May 14), Ohtani has been on a tear, going 30 for 69 (.435) with seven doubles, two triples and three home runs. He had three singles and two walks Wednesday.
The Dodgers have been waiting for that kind of surge from Kyle Tucker. They have only seen it in fits and starts. Maybe Wednesday will be the real start of something. He had three hits in the win, including a two-run home run in the second inning that snapped a 3-for-26 valley. It was his first home run since May 4 with an even 100 homerless plate appearances in between.
Ohtani’s leadoff walk in the third inning sparked a three-run inning that boosted the Dodgers to a 5-0 getaway. Freeman had a two-run single and Max Muncy another run-scoring single in the inning.
The Dodgers pulled away further on Freeland’s two-run single in the seventh inning and Ohtani’s night on the mound was over after just 89 pitches. He struck out six and once again relied on his four-seam fastball and sweeper for nearly 80% of his pitch mix (76 of the 89).
Only three pitchers over the past 55 years have pitched six or more scoreless innings and reached base four or more times in the same game. Ohtani has done it twice (Game 4 of last year’s NLCS and Wednesday).
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More to come on this story.