SAN DIEGO — The debate about whether pitching takes away from his hitting seemed to annoy Shohei Ohtani last week. So he showed everyone – he hit a home run before he even started pitching on Wednesday night.
Ohtani’s leadoff home run on the first pitch of the game was the opening note in another one-of-a-kind, two-way performance. Ohtani also pitched five scoreless innings and scored another run as the Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 4-0.
The Dodgers took two of three in their first visit to Petco Park this season and left town up 1½ games in the National League West.
“I think that he’s very mindful of everything that’s said about him, and I think that at times he uses that as motivation to prove people wrong, that he can do something,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
There has been more noise than usual this season with Ohtani, on the one hand, making good on his desire to contend for a Cy Young Award but, on the other, getting off to a slow start offensively.
“I don’t really place much importance on that,” Ohtani said through his interpreter when asked about the duality of his existence. “I do compartmentalize the hitting and pitching portions. At least that’s my intention.”
His offensive side announced its presence with authority Wednesday, hitting a 111.3 mph rocket off Padres starter Randy Vasquez’s first-pitch fastball at the top of the zone. Only one player in baseball history has led off a game that he was pitching with a home run — and Ohtani has now done it twice in his unique career.
“The goal as a pitcher is to not give up the first run,” Ohtani said. “So I was able to not do that and happy that we were able to score first.”
When Ohtani went to the mound, he retired the first nine Padres in order (four on strikeouts) but had to work hard to get through five innings – the first time this season he didn’t complete at least six innings. He said his feeling on the mound “wasn’t great.”
“Just overall feel,” he said. “I have a pretty high standard as far as performance. It didn’t really match.”
Ohtani put up zeroes nonetheless.
“I don’t think he has best stuff tonight, but he found a way to get big outs when he needed to,” Roberts said.
“I think today, I don’t know … it just didn’t seem like he had as much reserve or stuff to work with today. I really can’t pinpoint it, but he just wasn’t letting it rip as early for as long and consistently as we’ve seen in other outings. But he still has a way to use other pitches, sequence and still get guys out.”
He had to use those other resources in the fourth and fifth innings.
Ohtani walked Fernando Tatis Jr. to start the fourth. After a forceout at second, he gave up his first hit of the game, a single by Gavin Sheets, to put two runners on. Manny Machado popped out and Xander Bogaerts flew out to center field.
In the fifth, a bloop single by Bryce Johnson was followed by another single to put runners at the corners. Ohtani got one out on a comebacker to the mound but walked No. 9 hitter Freddy Fermin to load the bases.
It took just one pitch to escape. Tatis hit into a 6-4-3 double play.
“I really measure myself when I don’t really feel that great and pitching in crucial games,” Ohtani said. “This was one of those games.”
By the time Ohtani flexed, yelled “Let’s go!!” and strutted off the mound to celebrate the double play, his ERA for the season had shrunk to 0.73 and the Dodgers had built a 3-0 lead.
Max Muncy led off the second inning with a double, moved to third on Will Smith’s single and scored on Teoscar Hernandez’s sacrifice fly.
In the fifth, Ohtani and Mookie Betts drew back-to-back walks to start the inning. Freddie Freeman bounced into a forceout that moved Ohtani to third. He scored on Kyle Tucker’s single.
Ohtani might not have thought he needed a break when the Dodgers decided to have him not hit when he pitched last week and then gave him the entire game off the next day. But it certainly seems to have worked.
Ohtani has looked revitalized at the plate since that break. He has reached base 17 times in 29 plate appearances since his no-Sho day, going 11 for 23 at the plate with four doubles, a triple and Wednesday’s home run, driving in nine runs and scoring six.
“I think that he likes to contribute, and I know that he’s heard about on days that he pitches, or days after he pitches (he doesn’t hit as well),” Roberts said. “So, for him to homer that first at bat, I think he was like, okay, I contributed on the offensive side. Then you look at the following at bats, he took some good at bats tonight.”
For all the talk about the Padres’ bullpen this season, it was the Dodgers’ relief corps that shined in the San Diego series. Over the three games, Dodgers’ relievers pitched 10 scoreless innings (with just four hits allowed), including four in Ohtani’s wake on Wednesday.
Edgardo Henriquez and Blake Treinen retired the side in order in their innings. Kyle Hurt escaped a first-and-third situation with an inning-ending double play of his own in the eighth. Teoscar Hernandez made it a 4-0 lead with a solo home run in the top of the ninth and Will Klein closed it out in the bottom of the inning.
“They stepped up. They came up big,” Roberts said. “Obviously not having (Edwin) Diaz here, guys are kind of in different roles, and they’ve responded really well. I’s a tough place to pitch, as far as this environment, but they all responded well, and they did a great job tonight.”
It was the Dodgers’ sixth shutout of the season (tied for second in MLB) and their third in the past eight games. The Padres won the first game of the series, 1-0, on a solo home run but went hitless with runners in scoring position all series.
